Friday, December 5, 2014

I WROTE A BOOK, AND YOU CAN BUY IT ON AMAZON!


"Don Quixote in His Library" (woodcut) by Dore

    "Fortunately, following the turbulence of winter comes the season of activity and opportunity called springtime. It is the season for entering the fertile fields of life with seed, knowledge, commitment, and a determined effort. However, the mere arrival of spring is no sign that things are going to look good in the fall. You must do something with the spring."

      — Jim Rohn, 1981

I've always wanted to write a book. Actually, I've written quite a few technical manuals during my career, on a "work for hire" basis, but I wanted to write my own book, under my own name, and sell it to the public. It's finally happened. You can order it here:

If you want to know what it's about, and why you might want to read it, see the web site:

The process has been way more arduous and time-consuming than I ever dreamed, but now that I'm through it, I thought I'd share what I've learned.

What to Write


"The Time Machine"

Since I was a boy I've had a yearning to write science fiction. I've managed to write a few short stories, mostly unpublished, but never a novel. I would love to enter the pantheon of the sci-fi greats, which includes the likes of Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, &etc. Perhaps someday I will.


"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

I was also inspired by Douglas Adams' science fiction satire, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (1979).

Not only would I be delighted to one day be as funny as he is, but his concept of a universal guide book gave me a yearning to write my own guide books someday. As I worked at a variety of "traveling techie" jobs over the decades I began to hatch the idea of a guide book for people like me.

Why to Write


"Multiple Streams of Income"

Since I read it in the late '70s, I was inspired by electronic hobbyist Don Lancaster's book "The Incredible Secret Money Machine" (1978),

which recommends a strategy for creating what he calls "a steady stream of nickels" to achieve greater financial independence. Another book, Robert Allen's "Multiple Streams of Income" (1998),

gave a plan for doing this is well, including the idea of writing specialty books with knowledge that is in demand.


"Lakich: For Light. For Love. For Life."

So I decided to write to make extra money. I was given an additional reason by my friend Lili Lakich, who is a neon artist. She told me a story of how she wrote a book about her work, "Lakich: For Light. For Love. For Life." (2007) and got it into bookstores, only to find that it didn't sell as well as she'd hoped.

But then an art patron in Japan read it and contacted her, and it resulted in the biggest commission of her career. She said it was important to do these kind of things for more intangible reasons, because there would be good unanticipated side-effects.

How to Write


"The Writing Life"

It is important to learn to write well, and the best way I know to do that is get a lot of practice. I once saw Ray Bradbury lecture, and he said to write every day.

But there are a few helpful books. The classic "The Elements of Style" (1920) is irreplaceable, and should be on every writer's shelf.

And Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard's "The Writing Life" (1989)

has some hints on how to work with problems like writer's block.

My own failure mode for years is that I would start writing a short story, then have it turn into a novella, then a novel, then a trilogy, all the while still working on the first chapter. I was lacking convergence in my work. The cure for this, for me, was to write blogs, which forced me to come to an end in order to get them out the door. I worked first on "Cybernetics in the Third Millennium"

and then on this one. It worked. Now I can get projects to converge, and I can finish them.

I still remember when I made the commitment to write my book. I was sitting in a seminar in Orlando, Florida given by Robert Allen on his "multiple streams of income" ideas. I'd used frequent flier miles to get there from my home in the San Diego area, and the seminar was free (because it was mostly up-sells), but I was still spending my time. I realized that at some point you have to stop getting more advice and just start doing stuff. I pulled out a blank piece of paper and began designing the outline. Self-help pioneer Jim Rohn might say I'd moved from a Winter to a Spring of my life, by planting a seed.

How to Self-Publish


"Dan Poynter's Self-Publishing Manual"

It took me two years to write the book, and ten years to publish it. I had to keep going back and rewriting parts as they got stale. I couldn't say "recently" and mean 8 years ago. I had to change advice about using a Dictaphone to using Siri. The delaying problems were:

  • I was working day jobs, often with intensive business travel

  • I had no idea how to do what I was doing and had to learn as I went along.

I got a lot of help from two self-publishing authors. Dan Poynter started out writing books about parachute jumping as a hobby and self-publishing them, and as he learned the process he began writing books about how to self-publish. They turned out to be much wider in appeal (though he still calls his company Para Publishing). I first found his "Self-Publishing Manual: How to Write, Print and Sell Your Own Book" in its 14th edition in 1979; now it is called "Dan Poynter's Self-Publishing Manual" (2007).

The other author, Aaron Shepard, started out writing children's books and self-publishing them, and followed a similar trajectory. A friend of mine gave me a digital copy of a pre-release version of his book "Aiming at Amazon" (2007),

which explained how the rules of publishing have changed in the digital era. (I bought a paper copy when it came out.) He also did two more books I found very useful, about "Print On Demand" (POD) publishing::

  • "Perfect Pages" (2006)

  • "POD for Profit" (2010)

    He says both of these are obsolete, and now recommends Kindle publishing. He has several new books (on Kindle only, naturally) about how to do this. But he gives away the older books as PDF files on his web site.

    If I was starting the whole thing right now I might go with Kindle-only, but maybe not; I'm an old school kind of guy. I want people in airport bars to see other people reading my book. I want people to be able to read it during take-off and landing.

    Aaron steered me to a company called Lightning Source as my Print On Demand supplier. So far I have been quite happy. They have a lot of useful information on their web site.


    my first box of wholesale books arrives

    In the last week I've gotten my first order fulfilled by Amazon for one book (just to see it work), and my first wholesale order of 20 books from Lightning Source.

    I've learned a lot of things the hard way on this project. For instance:

    • Obtaining permissions to use quotes and artwork is a royal pain in the neck, requiring many months of correspondence and some detective work. Some rights holders are quite unreasonable, and don't believe in "fair use." If I had it to do over I would have far fewer inspirational quotes.

    • In making decisions about layout, font, structure (does the dedication come before the Table of Contents?), just pick a book you think looks good and copy its visual style.

    • I couldn't do the conversion myself from HTML (how I chose to write the book) to PDF in the format Lightning Source wanted. I didn't have the time or the patience. I had to hire an experienced graphic artist who'd done a book with them before.

    • Good graphic artists are golden; cherish them.

    • If you're selling on Amazon, don't agonize too much about pricing and discount; they're easy to change. Just get the book out there.

    • Lightning Source says it takes 6-8 weeks for a book to appear on Amazon, but for me it happened in 3 weeks.

    • Marketing a book is probably as much work as writing and publishing it. That's what I must do next. This blog is a step in that direction. There will probably be some sort of press tour, book signings, and of course, social media.

    More to Come

    Now that I've been through the process, I am re-energized about writing, and I feel I have some more books in me, including more non-fiction:

    • "A Survival Guide for the World-Traveling Techie" — a sequel I would need help to write

    • "Garage Visualization" — data visualization on a shoestring budget

    • "A Curriculum for Cybernetics and Systems Theory" — based on my web site of the same name; possibly the best thing I've written

    • "Surviving Orlando: A Guide for Dads" — a guide-book for the poor sap who usually pays for the trip

    • "Somewhere Near Barstow: A Guide to the Drive from L.A. to Vegas" — a love letter to the East Mojave desert

    • "How to Raise a Genius in Ten Easy Years" — based on my parenting experiences

    • "How to Run a High-Tech Startup Into the Ground" — a humorous book based on my business experiences

    • "Melon Crate 442" — a memoir of my high school years

    • "Between K-Mart and Jupiter" — a memoir of my college school years

    as well as some fiction:

    • "Tales of El Ciervo Blanco" — a collection of short stories which is mostly written, inspired by Clarke's "Tales of the White Hart"

    • "Macronesia: The First Astrogators" — a science fiction saga abut polynesians colonizing the asteroid belt with solar sails

    • "SOB Trail" — a trashy novel set in central Florida about a science fiction author trying to reclaim his muse

    Stay tuned!

    Disclaimer

    I receive a commission on everything you purchase from Amazon.com after following one of my links, which helps to support my research. It does not affect the price you pay.

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