Mike Chalmers, of Shepherdstown, signs a copy of his book, "This is Shepherdstown," for Lucien Lewin, of Martinsburg, at Saturday night's book launch party in Evolve. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — “This literally is Shepherdstown — every part of the book! There’s pictures of German Street covered in snow, there’s pictures of local houses. Mike did a really good job of capturing what it is to be in Shepherdstown and what Shepherdstown is,” said Shepherdstown resident Katelyn Chambers at the book launch party for Michael “Mike” Chalmers’ recently released photography book, “This is Shepherdstown,” in Evolve on Saturday evening.

According to Chalmers, this book would have never come into being, if not for the COVID-19 Pandemic.

“I was looking for a way to do my part, during COVID — to use my skill sets to help. Everyone felt there was a sense of discomfort at that time,” Chalmers said.

“I wanted to do something attainable for the public, that was relatable and didn’t devour my time,” Chalmers said of the project, which started with him posting photographs of Shepherdstown on social media in Aug. 2021. “So I decided that I could take these pictures of Shepherdstown, I could put them up every few days, I could write a little something about them and maybe people would take notice. And so, as often happens with digital endeavors, it took off, to the point that thousands of people are following on Facebook and Instagram. They started really engaging with the ‘This is Shepherdstown’ pages after about a year — talking and sharing. A lot of people then started asking about a book. About six months ago, I seriously started thinking about it.”

Over the summer, Chalmers then proceeded to narrow down his favorite photographs on the “This is Shepherdstown” social media pages, from over a thousand down to 160.

Katelyn Chambers, of Shepherdstown, chats with Shepherd University alumni Patrick Shunney at the "This is Shepherdstown" book launch party in Evolve on Saturday. Tabitha Johnston

“I put it together and shopped it around,” Chalmers, who previously created and published “The Observer” periodical, said. “I had several publishers that wanted to do it, but they were going to take too long [in getting it to print] and were going to wrestle away a decent amount of the creative control, so I said, ‘No thanks! I’ll go ahead and invest in myself and publish it myself.'”

Choosing to go the self-published route has, over the month since it first came out, proven to be the right call for the Shepherd University Class of 1997 graduate.

“There’s a distinct layout to this book that, if you have a familiarity with publishing, you’ll see that a publisher wouldn’t have given all of this attention to one book, because it would cost a lot and you just don’t know if you’re going to get that return [on the cost], as a publisher,” Chalmers, who mainly works in marketing and advertising, said. “I knew that, so I took the pressure off of everybody and decided to take the financial risk of doing this myself. It’s been extremely well-received. Tonight has been a huge success!”

Copies of “This is Shepherdstown” can be purchased at Four Seasons Books or by visiting https://www.thisisshepherdstown.com/. Fifteen percent of the book proceeds will be donated to Shepherdstown Shares, which played a major part in local relief efforts during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Comments from community members of all ages share the things they love about Shepherdstown at the book launch party in Evolve on Saturday night. Tabitha Johnston