How to publish a book

Any idiot can publish a book, I thought, so why not me then.

For ten years now, I’ve been posting language-related observations on my blog, sólo algunas palabras. Then, last summer, I had a brightish idea: to collect all the posts dealing with various aspects of Russian in one document, to add some extras and then publish it as a book. Tamara supported the idea and provided the “extras” in the form of illustrations. The manuscript started to take shape in June 2019. However, with this and that, I returned to editing it only in December.

I like the idea of self-publishing as well as that of print-on-demand. The latter means that only those who want your book will buy it, and the book will never be out of stock. While there is no shortage of e-book self-publishing services, only a few companies will make a physical book for you. And in terms of worldwide reach, it’s hard to beat Amazon. What other company would print your book in demand in the USA, Canada, Europe, Japan, Mexico or Brazil? So we decided to give it a try.

Knit your fears, quarantine knitting project

It is still drying. It has been drying for a day now.

I can’t explain why I made this model of the virus that brought the most of the planet to a standstill. Maybe it is an attempt to domesticate the wild and fearsome, sort of like like what we do with bears, having teddies in our houses. I thought about making at night, and when I woke up, went and checked, and yep, some people thought of it first. Made it anyway, ибодабы.

The pattern is simple and based on usual 6-ray symmetry knitted ball. Ball is knitted first, and then the tentacles are crocheted on. I will record here the process and numbers, so that my next attempt, if any, has better proportions.