When I was younger, and only a little bit more stupid than I am now (trust me, only a little bit….), I once took off to go climb a 14-er on my own.  I took off in the afternoon, not really calculating how long it would take to get there or how dark it would be; I brought a sleeping bag, but didn’t really think through all the other sorts of shelter I should have; I brought water, but not a means to filter or obtain new. In other words, I kinda set out lookin’ for disaster, not having any idea how much I didn’t know.

That’s a little what this week felt like with the self-publishing business.

No, there are not disasters in the offing, and I certainly don’t anticipate being woken up at night by bears because of the book. But the amount of stuff that I’m learning I don’t know is, frankly, disturbing.

For instance, many of my target audience, it turns out, really really like having a hard copy of books. So, publishing strictly e-book format is really limiting my market penetration (yeah, I had to look that term up–another thing I didn’t know!).

Taking a thing from word document or even e-book format to print-ready format is challenging–the two aren’t the same thing, it turns out.

A cover which works well for e-book needs trimming and edging and a variety of other little ‘tweaks’ to become print ready, it turns out.

The back cover, it turns out, needs its own little bit of artwork (not so much artwork, in the sense of an accomplished artist like Michael K. Ikeya, as just something that looks like it belongs and allows me to put out more information about the book . . . but I digress), and that also needs trimming and edging and tweaking.

Oh, and, yeah, if I intend to get serious about marketing and trying to expand my reach beyond a tiny little sliver of my circle of influence, I need marketing materials like business cards and stuff. At least, that’s what my wife tells me, and she’s a lot smarter than I am, it turns out.

So, yeah, the big update for this week is that I’ve been spending WAY more time being a designer this week than a writer. I didn’t know that was going to be a part of this.

The upside, of course, is that soon I will have hard copies of “The Accidental Christmas” available (have to up the price for these, just slightly: $5), and I also have in hand nifty little business cards and advertising leaflets.

It’s almost like I’m getting serious about this whole thing.

So the site has been live for a little over a week, the book has been available on multiple platforms, and the Grand Adventure has begun.

It has been very gratifying to me to get the positive feedback the book has been receiving. Some of the words I was hoping people would get from it have been showing up in quick reviews: “hope,” “redemption,” “moving.” Writing a novel is an intensely personal experience, in that you’re inviting other people to take a glimpse at that part of your soul that you choose to put on paper. So it is with a sense of relief and deep humility that I say “Thank you” to everybody who has taken that leap with me so far.

As far as sales progress, well . . . let’s just say that we’re no threat to “The Shack” just yet. The entire marketing strategy for this venture has been through word of mouth, and the modern, digital equivalent of that: social media. So it’s taking time to develop that “buzz,” as they say in the business–I can live with that. God will do with this what He wants to, in His time, and for His purposes.

In the meantime, if you’ve read it and would like to share with your friends, I would really appreciate it; if you’ve intended to read it, and just haven’t (it is still pretty early for a Christmas story, the Arctic Typhoon notwithstanding), great–it’ll be here when you’re ready.

And if there’s anything I can do to answer your questions about the story, my writing process, your own writing process, or my understanding of God and Faith, just drop me a line–I’d love to talk.

And, once again, a hearty “Thank you” for all the support and encouragement. God Bless!

[friends of musical theater will get the reference . . . maybe]

So, it turns out there were a couple bugs in the system for those buying the book straight off this site. I’ve gone in and altered a couple settings to make it more user-friendly, so that should solve most of those. Just know that, once you complete your purchase, an email will be sent to you giving you the link and instructions for how to download the book to whatever platform you’re trying to load it on.

Hope that helps. If you have any ongoing issues, please contact me ASAP and I will effort to solve them.

And, by the bye, the line is from “City of Angels” (the musical, not the Nicolas Cage/Meg Ryan movie)

Well, here it is. I’ve been threatening for years to write a book, and, finally, I’ve gone and done it.

Just kidding. Actually, this website is going to be home to my new venture as a novelist. I have completed the writing, editing, formatting, re-formatting, covering and finalizing the first one, “The Accidental Christmas.” It is going to be available on Sunday, November 2nd, through this site, with links to other places to get it, depending on the technology at your disposal.

Whew. Very exciting!

Why this way? Why self-publish? I was doing a little research, and it turns out that several pretty significant novels were self-published. Which was encouraging. And then I was reading the website of Windblown Media (publishers of “The Shack”), and their advice was to embrace the opportunities that technology affords us, and get those stories out to the public on your own.

Plus a few other things, but that was the gist of it.

So, here it is. I have no idea how this is going to work, but you can count on me keeping you up to date on the latest development. By the Grace of God, hopefully you’ll be reading soon about novels 2, 3, 4, and beyond.