From Island Words to a Book: The Journey of Island Perspectives & Ponderings...
There is a particular moment in the life of a book when the writing is finished, but the book itself is not.
I have reached that moment with Island Perspectives & Ponderings.
And, rather excitingly, the book has now begun its journey towards becoming a real, physical thing.
From manuscript to ISBN
The first step in that journey is already underway.
My ISBN application is being processed, which makes this feel considerably more official. There is something wonderfully tangible about assigning a number to a book that, until now, has existed primarily as words on a screen and a rather large collection of files.
The ISBN is part of the book's identity, allowing it to be identified and referenced within the book trade and library systems. In Portugal, ISBNs are administered by the National ISBN Agency, APEL.
And then comes the next adventure…
Enter KDP
The next stage is Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing - KDP.
This is where the manuscript has to stop behaving like a manuscript and start behaving like a book.
KDP requires the interior manuscript and cover files to be prepared and uploaded, with the interior including the front matter, main body and back matter.
Which means I now have a list of jobs that sound deceptively simple:
final formatting tweaks
checking page layout
creating the front matter
creating the back matter
checking page numbers
making sure headings and contents pages correspond
checking all those tiny details that nobody notices when they're right—but everybody notices when they're wrong
uploading the manuscript
uploading the cover
and then staring rather nervously at the KDP previewer.
There will almost certainly be some fiddling.
There may be muttering.
There will definitely be tea, probably wine!
And I suspect there will be at least one moment when I wonder why I didn't take up knitting instead.
So, what is Island Perspectives & Ponderings?
At its heart, this book is a love letter to Faial.
It grew from living on this extraordinary volcanic island in the Azores and from paying attention to the small things that can so easily become part of the background of everyday life.
The changing Atlantic.
The wind.
The forests.
The volcanic landscape.
The wildlife.
The villages and viewpoints.
The weather that has its own opinions.
And those little, unexpected moments that make island life both funny and wonderfully strange.
The book brings together poetry, poetic prose, haiku, observations and island humour, creating a collection that can be dipped into rather than necessarily read from beginning to end.
Some pieces invite you to pause.
Some encourage you to look more closely.
Some are quietly contemplative.
Others have a distinctly mischievous island spirit.
And, throughout it all, Faial is the thread that holds everything together.
Why Ponderings?
Because this isn't simply a book about a place.
It is also about noticing.
About the things that happen when we slow down enough to see them.
And it's about my own reflections.
The next chapter
So here I am.
The writing is largely done.
The ISBN application is in progress.
And now the practical side of publishing begins.
I rather like the idea that this is another kind of island journey.
The words began here, on Faial.
They have travelled from notebook to screen, from rough idea to finished manuscript.
Now they have to navigate the slightly less romantic waters of formatting, metadata, files, margins and KDP uploads.
Eventually, if all goes according to plan, Island Perspectives & Ponderings will emerge from the other side as an actual book.
Something that can be held.
Opened.
Read.
Perhaps given as a gift.
Perhaps beside a chair with a cup of tea.
Perhaps picked up on a quiet afternoon when someone wants to spend a little time wandering around Faial without actually putting on their walking boots.
For now, though, there is still work to do!
The island has supplied the inspiration.
I've supplied the words.
Now we have to turn them into a book.
And so the next chapter begins…
☕🌊📖
Sally x
Sally Somerton - Island Writer
©sallysomerton2026
All Rights Reserved
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