I’m having all the feelings over this one! My wonderful client LaTasha Baldwin hosted a book signing party at Barnes & Noble in Kahului, Maui, Hawaii today. LaTasha is a Maui interior designer and the owner of Platinum Estate Management, a property management company specializing in elite property management services for 5million+ homes on Maui.
I had the privilege of helping LaTasha birth this book – acting as her self publishing manager (aka book midwife). I designed the cover for the hardback, paperback, and ebook versions, as well as did the entire book layout. I also managed the self publishing process and assisted with ISBN registration fulfillment for all versions of the book.
LaTasha chose to self publish her first edition memoir at Barnes and Noble Press. I’d previously used Amazon and Lulu to help clients self-publish books, so this was a new platform that I dove into. There were some learning curves, as life provides, however ultimately the self publishing tool accomplished the goal and the books came out beautifully in print. It’s so thrilling to feel the hardback and paperback copies in my hands!
If you’re an aspiring author and you’ve completed your manuscript, please reach out if you’d love the assistance of a patient and dedicated Self Publishing Manager who can support you with every step of self publishing — whether it’s your first book or a new addition to your author collection.
I’ve co-authored four books since 2023. Three non-fiction and one fiction chapter in collection books that I’m proud to be a part of. My history with and love for publishing goes much farther back. I drew my own magazine pages as a child, was Editor-in-Chief in high school, worked at my daily campus newspaper in college and did design, writing, layouts and ad sales for other campus publications.
Then I joined Maui No Kā ‘Oi Magazine in 2014, thinking it would be a temp job until my freelance business was back on its feet. However, fate had other plans. I met the most amazing staff I’ve ever worked with at the magazine, supported by a generous and endearing Publisher / boss, and I stayed for 9 years, until she retired and sold the magazine in the early 2020s. The people I met and the experiences I had contracting as the website manager and email marketing manager for the magazine were deeply impactful on my life. My ohana was wonderfully broadened by the connections I made at the magazine. I will always treasure the role modeling I witnessed, the powerful storytelling and the impact it had, and all the incredible events I attended with the premier Queen of the ‘Aipono Awards – the Maui Restaurant Awards.
Working for the ‘Aipono Awards in my first few years at the magazine led to me cultivating and opening my own small entertainment company on Maui offering event minglers and performers for DMC events, weddings, holiday parties, kids parties, grad parties, and private celebrations of types. And coming full circle — LaTasha was one of my first clients when she booked me for a New Years Eve gig on Maui.
We have a long history wherein I’ve helped her with SEO and website design and management, marketing consulting, Instagram marketing. I have also hired her – Latasha consulted with me when I listed my apartment condo for sale and advised on changes to improve the space for listing photos and market positioning. If I’d had a larger budget for the listing, I would’ve also hired her to do the staging!
