
As I posted last week with great sadness, Ashley L. Peterson, a mental health activist, blogger, author, self-publisher, and genuinely good person, recently passed away.
Her family continues her site: Mental Health @ Home: A safe place to talk openly about mental health & illness. There you’ll read her family’s comments. Moreover, they made this a memorial site to her with photos and facts about Ashley. Fellow blogging health activist Caz also posted about Ashley at her great Invisibly Me site.
Below and in today’s audio/podcast version, are Ashley’s second post for this site, in their original forms…

Self-Publishing: It Gets Easier by Ashley L. Peterson – Happiness Between Tails
Click H-E-R-E for my podcast page at AnchorFM. There you’ll find links to subscribe, hear, and share it via most any platform, from Spotifyand Apple Podcasts, to Google Podcasts and Pocket Casts, along with RadioPublic and Castbox and Stitcher and more, plus an RSS feed. The full list of 50+ places is LinkTree.
From any angle, writing a book is a huge undertaking — and then when it comes to publishing, that’s even huger, whether through the traditional route or by self-publishing. While I struggle to complete my novels while building an author platform, Mental health nurse/blogger/author Ashley L. Peterson of Vancouver, Canada, has put out several books!

“Self-Publishing: It Gets Easier” by Ashley L. Peterson
I remember how overwhelming it was when I published my first book. I felt like I had no idea what I was doing, and I was just flying by the seat of my pants. I had no idea what to expect when the book was released.
My second book was released 7 months later. I felt much more prepared, but then tossed in the new challenge of selling on sites other than Amazon, including my own website. There were also some hiccups; it felt like forever before Amazon accepted the file for my paperback, which turned out to be because there was a special character that it didn’t recognize and therefore didn’t accept. The biggest problem was my paperback cover; it wasn’t showing up on the Amazon listing as the same colour in the cover file I’d uploaded. I spent a whole lot of time trying to get that sorted out,
Now with my third book, I’m a lot more relaxed about the whole process. Sure, formatting and converting file types is still frustrating; I don’t think that would change even if I’d published a whole bookstore. Overall, though, I’m much more at ease. I feel a sense of mastery that I know how to do this – a very different feeling from the first time around.
I’m a huge list person, and my book launch lists are nicely fine-tuned. I’ve got all the steps laid out, so I can just do things without having to think about them.
While the learning curve is steep and self-publishing can be daunting, it gets easier – really. And if you’re thinking about self-publishing, dive right on in; the water’s warm.
Details on my new book Managing the Depression Puzzle can be found here.
I’m very grateful for my loving husband and that my dear mother and K-D doggie live with me. Are you thankful for anyone in your life?