If you?re calling yourself a writer (even if still in a whisper), then you?re concerned with getting your words out there. Certainly, the next step after finding your voice is sharing it. But how do you go about it, given the cumbersome, time-consuming submissions process in today?s publishing world? Creating your own chapbook could be your best alternative.

Chances are, either you?ve never heard of a chapbook (mention one to many people and hear, ?Chat-book? What?s that??), or you assumed they?re purely for poets. While the latter was once true (before desktop publishing software), it is no longer the case. And as for the former?chat-book?well, not a bad name for it, given its power to enable you to share your words; but its not the correct term for this small booklet composed of a few pages of printed material, generally including a cardstock cover.

Chapbooks date back to 16th century France (then called colporteurs) and later found their way to England. The term comes from itinerant agents, called chapmen, who sold the cheap, stitched-together publications. Providing inexpensive reading material for the common people, subject matter included everything from adaptations of fairy tales to religious treatises to travel adventures?and plenty of topics in between (they seemed also to have served as the tabloids of their times).

These little books, originally creaated to educate and entertain common folk, provide today?s writers with the perfect opportunity: to publish their own words.

Here are