During the English for Academic Purposes program, one of the assignments was creating a self-promotion piece. I decided talking about my self-published books, my former company and a few things I learned from those experiences.

1. Self-published books
When I believe in a dream, I fight for it. Self-
publishing is hard everywhere, especially in Brazil,
where 70% of the population reads less than a full
book per year. In spite of these statistics, I planned,
worked diligently and followed a schedule to publish
my own books. Many tasks were required, such as
creating the cover on Adobe Photoshop, designing the
core pages on Adobe Indesign, monitoring the print
process, composing pieces of art to advertise on social
media, hosting events, and, of course, writing. To my
delight, the reward was even greater than my sense of
achievement. Young people came talk to me about
how they developed the habit of reading through my
books, and I knew every effort was worth it.
Visiting schools
When I was a teenager, I had a hard
time overcoming my parents’ divorce.
Books helped me. Through metaphors,
they taught me how to handle difficult
situations and how to comprehend other
people. In fact, they changed my life.
Now, I want to help books make a
difference in other people’s lives. That’s
why, besides working on the production of
new material, I use my free time to get
involved in projects related to reading. I enjoy
visiting schools to talk to students about the
magic that exists in the turn of a page.
“Do or don’t. There is no try.”
(Master Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back)

2. karen.soarele@gmail.com | +1(902)406-2417
Organization prior to Action
During my studio’s existence, I had the opportunity
to manage interesting projects with my small but
skilled team. Most of them were gratifying, but
there was one which I regret. ‘Gazetinha Kids’
was a newspaper aimed at children. It contained
articles, puzzles, and even comic strips, and it
was ad-sponsored. The idea was good, the
content was adequate, the team was enthusiastic,
but the whole project ended up being a failure!
The problem was: the team was experienced at
writing, drawing and designing, but not as good at
selling advertising space and approaching schools,
where the material was going to be distributed.
Above all, I, as the project manager, was unable
to figure out our weaknesses before putting the
plan into practice. Otherwise, I could have
made arrangements to deal with them in
advance, and I would have saved a lot of
frustration and money.
What I learned, unfortunately not in the
easiest way, was the importance of not
being overconfident. Since then, even when
I am very excited about starting work on a
new project, I take my time and put more
effort into properly planning it.