Stranger Paths, The Book

Stranger Paths, The Magic in The Madness Poetry Collection is now available on Amazon

This book contains three chapters, each starts with a short story about the author.

R.J. Zarkani, was born in Iraq and lived through the Iraq war which influenced her writing in unexpected ways. This book brings a unique perspective of the war from a child’s point of view. You can witness what she had witnessed and stand where she stood. Watching the bombs as she now watches fire works on 4th of July and you can know that you are safe.

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Author Interview| By Ruth Anne Garcia

Exciting News!!

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by the one and only Ruth Anne Garcia !

She’s a wonderful book reviewer, beta reader, interviewer, mother, student, wife and best of all friend.

Please feel free to click HERE to be linked to the interview on her website

Here’s a snippet of the interview:

interview

Holiday Reading

Are you looking for a unique and easy read this holiday that all family members can enjoy?

Stranger Paths, The Magic in The Madness Poetry Collection

Is a beautifully written book full of inspiration and hope. The author is an Iraqi woman detailing life in Iraq as the war started and her journey from a war torn world to beautiful America. A truly inspirational story!

Available in paperback and eBook

How to Self Publish, Easy Steps with Images

HELLO!

My name is RJ Zarkani, I recently self published my book on Amazon with zero money down!

Stranger Paths, The Magic in The Madness

Poetry Collection

Hope this post helps you bring your book to life!

If you are wondering “Can I do this?”

Yes you can!

Here’s a list of what you need to get started

  • Book Title, and subtitle (if you wish)
  • Compelling content (longest part!)
  • Book cover design (Get creative)
  • Advertising ideas (can use social media, google, Amazon, Kindle…)
  • Decide on book size and dimensions
  • Get started on publishing !

You can always hire someone on Fiver or other websites like Fiver to help with editing & book cover design

What I did:

  • I compiled my poems and divided them to different chapters using Microsoft Word
  • I edited my own content and got my boyfriend to double check it
  • I used one of my own photographs as a book cover
  • I used Photoshop to edit the cover, using KDP’s book cover template

Now you are ready to PUBLISH!

  • Go to www.kdp.com and set up an account
    • (This is not an ad for KDP, not getting paid for this)

kdp

  • Watch the video, it’s so helpful!
  • Sign in
    • You will see this
      • (without my info, hopefully)

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You can choose to create a Kindle eBook, Paperback, or BOTH! I did both as you can see above

Clicking on on the “+” to the eBook or Paperback you will see a form that you need to fill out

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Description is so important! Having a great book with no or little description is tragic. Readers will never know why they should invest in your book, out of the million books on Amazon. Give them a taste of what they’ll be buying, entice without giving it all away! I suggest looking up other books on Amazon and seeing their description. Mine is seen below:

amazon my book

Keywords!

When choosing keywords, make sure to be specific and to not reuse words that are already in your book title, description, or category (these are already used by Amazon to direct readers to your book). Keywords will help readers find you when they search Amazon. The category selection will help readers find you as well!

Keywords tips: go on Amazon and write what you would lookup to find your book, let’s type “books” and see what pops up, you can get an idea of what is frequently searched on Amazon

Example:

amazon serch

My book is a poetry collection so I also searched “poetry”

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You can also search the category of your book and see what pops up

Use this tip as a general starting point. You can edit your keywords later!

Click save as draft if you need to come back to finish it later!

That’s all for today’s post, stay tuned for the next post!

Best of luck on your new adventure!

Time to make your dreams a reality 🙂

 

 

A Look Inside

My first poetry collection is published and I’m so excited to share it with you all!

Here’s a look inside Stranger Paths, The Magic in The Madness Poetry Collection by me, R.J. Zarkani

Available for sell on Amazon and Kindle

For more information click HERE

Self Publishing

Today marks the first day of my book being LIVE!

 

Stranger Paths, The Magic in The Madness Poetry Collection Paper back can now be ordered on Amazon ! I am beyond excited!!!

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Click Here for to be linked to Amazon

I designed the cover using Photoshop and a photograph I had taken on a beautiful foggy winter day. Used KDP to self publish and here we are!

If you have any questions about self publishing, do not hesitate to ask!

This book is 10 years in the making, maybe longer.

Starting from the Iraq war and my childhood, to moving to America and living the best life I could.

It is a spiritual journey about war, hope, and inspiration.

Reviews so far describe it as:

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13

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To list a few

I am overwhelmed with community support and so grateful to be a part of this world.

A world where an Iraqi woman can have a voice. This is so much bigger than a book being published!