This year I have taken a bit of a hiatus from publishing books at Mango Jane. I did publish the first hardcover this year for GUNS TASTE BAD, which you can buy here. Guns Taste Bad is a book by Landon Chapman. He has also been published by FALL LINES by the JASPER PROJECT in early 2022.
I am currently working on finishing the James Allen public Domain, THE LIFE TRIUMPHANT, MASTERING THE HEART AND MIND and Dr. Joseph Murphy’s book, THE POWER OF THE SUBCONCIOUS MIND.
Instead of loving publishing books this year, I have turned toward my original love for writing. It’s been wonderful to write so much this year. I have written more words (in two manuscripts) than I have ever written in a period of less than two years. It’s been pretty exciting delving back into fiction and essays.
Sometimes to appreciate the current projects, we must remember the steps that lead us there and what inspire us the most. What inspires me the most is reading books and writing. That’s essentially how the Mango Jane concept became a reality. When my son went off to the adult world a few years a go, my soul threw me this idea about publishing public domain books. This idea quickly materialized into this website and publishing the books, a little later. There is a famous book quote that I just love from BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY:
“The old dreams were good dreams. They didn’t all work out, but I am still glad I had them.”
That’s kind of how I feel about this small press. What joy and excitement it has added to my life, yet my dreams are merging back toward my original inspiration, which is writing.
Although yoga has seized my life in the best possible way, writing alone in a coffee shop with a double shot of espresso is one of my great private joys. Which leads to me to examine this small book press. Should I continue? The answer is yes. It just may be more like only three books per year, which as we know if I continued with that adds up in time.
When we take a break from what we love to do for something we love even more, interesting and dynamic energies shift. Our soul feels more settled for finding the courage to work on what it loves best. Our outward energy toward others is more hopeful and sunny. We feel a rise in our mindset because we feel good about ourselves. Why?
Because we are doing what our true heart’s desires are. We are following our heart. We keep plodding. We keep building. We design a small press of public domain books so the heart doesn’t feel the years that now linger behind us. We decide to publish a new author. We work for months with beloveds to create the best book possible. We try our hand in a new territory that is foreign to us and learn so much. Not just about books, but about all of the hard work that goes into the design, the jacket, the cover, the back copy and copy for booksellers, you learn that marketing is everything in the book world, just like everywhere else. We publish JANE EYRE. We publish THE PROPHET. We publish THE GREAT GATSBY several times over in order to achieve the elusive green light, not across a body of water but from KDP publishing.
(Books as famous like THE GREAT GATSBY in the public domain come under harder scrutiny in terms of being UNIQUE enough to publish. I have two different copies of my own edition with different featured illustrations and quotations.)
I have three big MANGO JANE TASKS for the month of OCTOBER, 2022:
Book signing date to set for GUNS TASTE BAD.
Hit the send on the James Allen book ready to be published.
Finish formatting THE POWER OF THE SUBCONCSIOUS MIND.
Wish me luck as I finish this month off by finishing these three big to-do-items.
I must end with an exciting development. The Mango Jane E Book – THE JESUS ROSARY received a five star review from from a reader in the UK:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent! Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 17, 2022
Very good addition to my daily prayer routine.
Thank you!
But it is a shame there is only in Kindle edition…
What a wonderful idea. Thank you for the suggestion. Maybe I can make that my mini-purpose next year. I said I would never publish my own writing again, but this was already written before that, so I can build on that, right.
If you have stumbled onto this blog and are reading this post, I hope that you buy a Mango Jane Book. Check out my little bookstore. Most are on Amazon. However, it’s exciting to have a few of my books picked up by Wal Mart, IndieBound.org,
Target, Trident Booksellers Cafe, and Barnes and Noble.
Wishing you a lovely rest of 2022,
Machel (Ma-shel) Shull
(I know it looks so funny to suggest spelling. Just know, I have lived a lifetime to know it’s needed.)