My book is now available
I've at last reached the point where the book that led me to create this web site has finally been published.
The book itself was quite an endeavour, involving so many re-reads to find any errors, on each occasion tempting me to carry out minor tweaks to the text or layout. Then the publishing process involved me in a lengthy learning curve as I negotiated the idiosyncrasies of Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and the Apple iBooks Store.
I first published a paperback through KDP. To be fair the advice on offer is very comprehensive, although there's quite a lot to absorb. But I got there in the end, publishing on 25 November.
The real problems arose when I tried to produce an eBook. Once again there is copious advice available, but whereas with the paperback all I needed was a carefully checked Word document, in the case of the KDP eBook there was a further process that involved converting the book into the proper format. Then there were compromises because of the limitations of fixed format print replica eBooks, as distinct from the flowing text in Kindle offerings.
And finally I had to work my way through the Apple system to prepare an iBook, which in fact was far easier because of the close integration between the Pages application and the iTunes Producer software. There was an uploading glitch at the final hurdle, but I received very quick replies from Apple to my queries concerning this.
Full details of where you can order the book are on the dedicated My Book page, where there is also some taster content.
The book itself was quite an endeavour, involving so many re-reads to find any errors, on each occasion tempting me to carry out minor tweaks to the text or layout. Then the publishing process involved me in a lengthy learning curve as I negotiated the idiosyncrasies of Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and the Apple iBooks Store.
I first published a paperback through KDP. To be fair the advice on offer is very comprehensive, although there's quite a lot to absorb. But I got there in the end, publishing on 25 November.
The real problems arose when I tried to produce an eBook. Once again there is copious advice available, but whereas with the paperback all I needed was a carefully checked Word document, in the case of the KDP eBook there was a further process that involved converting the book into the proper format. Then there were compromises because of the limitations of fixed format print replica eBooks, as distinct from the flowing text in Kindle offerings.
And finally I had to work my way through the Apple system to prepare an iBook, which in fact was far easier because of the close integration between the Pages application and the iTunes Producer software. There was an uploading glitch at the final hurdle, but I received very quick replies from Apple to my queries concerning this.
Full details of where you can order the book are on the dedicated My Book page, where there is also some taster content.