No need to apologize or explain. At this time of year, I imagine you have plenty of things to do in your garden and around your house, so staying offline and away from screens shouldn’t be too hard. (Right?)
Asking Eric for tips and insights is a good idea.
In talking about wanting to publish these poems in book form, I’ve found myself uncovering preferences that I have and making intuitive decisions.
The biggest question I have for myself now is what I want the final book(s) to look like, and by that I mean how I want to print them. Do I want to outsource the task? Do I want to make limited editions of handmade books? Do I want to order a small batch of hard-cover books and keep them at my house until people want them? Do I want to use a print to order service? Etc.
I’ve decided that I only want to share 20 poems (or so) at a time. I want the reader to read them all and have the feeling of I want more.
Back when I had poetry books, I often found that I never read all the poems, or that it would take me years to finally read them all because I would open the book at random places and start. While I like find something new in a book each time I open it, I want to make short collections of my favorite poems coupled with strong black and white images that you can sit with and finish in ten minutes, or spend an hour slowly looking through and enjoying.