Contrary to popular belief, bananas do not grow on
trees.Banana plants look like small
palm trees, but they are really large herbaceous plants which die back during
the winter.The plant
does not have a trunk made of wood, like a tree, but a stem made of tightly
wrapped leaves bases.
Bananas which have been developed for fruit have no seeds as
such, so they cannot reproduce. (Plantains, which are small bananas, used as
vegetables still produce viable seed).
They have to be propagated from cuttings which are clones of
the parent plant. The seeds of cultivated bananas are minute black specks that
could never germinate, but wild bananas still have hard black seeds the size of
peas.
Many serious writers have a dream of actually writing a bookbut the sheer enormity of it some how stops them trying.
Writing, editing and getting a publisher to accept your bookis difficult, but not impossible. Not all types of books are suitable for main stream publishing which is geared to profit. There is also what used to be called vanity publishing but is now called self-publishing. This used to cost many hundreds of pounds or dollars and was often out of the question for many writers.
Today, there are far more in the way of options. There is POD publishing (print on demand) which is a system where you enter your manuscript and you can publish just one copy if you wish. As you get orders, you can buy more copies. There are also a number of very easy to use on-line publishing sites, including Lulu which allows you to publish your book and sell it from your very own storefront.
Once you have designed and published your book on a site like this, you can start to publicise it. If you sell through Lulu you earn from every copy ordered.
Publicity is the most difficult part of the whole operation because unless you market your book, you won’t sell any copies. There are many ways to do this but emailing details to family and friends is a good start.
Build yourself a website to promote your book, or join up to a book promotion site like New Book Blogger which will give you publicity and allow you to send your friends and colleagues to the page to view your book review. (This is a free site so there are no hidden costs.) You can link from here to your own website,or add an email address to get sales.
Go to forums that are relevant to the topic of your book and promote yourself. But, be prepared for a long battle. It isn’t an easy job, but each time you sell a copy it is very rewarding and you will get a real buzz from it.
Ireland
is a country of myth and legend and the Irish people are well known for their
story telling. One very special Irish fairy keeps coming up in these tales, and
who hasn’t heard of the leprechaun.
These tiny little green men are the cobblers who make the
shoes for the other sprites, but I have often wondered why there are no ‘lady’
leprechauns in the stories.There are
two types of leprechaun and they are completely opposite.
First there’s the type that carries two leather pouches, one
with tools in it and the other with a shiny silver shilling. He knows where the
marauding Danes buried their treasure, in
Ireland, and can lead you to buried
treasure.Then there’s the other kind,
better known as the cluriaun, which has no money and always looks to make
mischief.He never wears an apron
because he never does any work and is always drunk.
If you have leprechauns in your house, or garden, it is
always wise to ascertain which type you have before welcoming them, or trying
to catch them, as the case may be.There
are lots of Irish stories which tell you how to catch a leprechaun and a shoe
full of beer has been suggested as a good trap, but no one ever seems to have
caught one yet.
So, You Want To Be A Paperback Writer?