An eBook Odyssey

I did it! This weekend I created an eBook from start to finish. I decided to embark upon the fine art of eBook creation because it is the current industry trend and common sense suggests it behooves me, an author, to understand this contemporary means of delivering long labored over content conveniently to those who may be interested in acquiring it. As with most things, it isn't enough for me to know that any traditional publisher who might be handling any of my work will already have all their mechanisms in place to meet this market need. Nope, I wanted to know how it works hands on!

What I learned in the process was how much I didn't know! One of the major learning curves came with the acquisition of images. This particular little project required a number of images of food and food preparation (hint!), so off I went in search of the most appealing, appetizing pictures of the foods I had in mind. I purchased for what seemed like extraordinarily moderate prices the images I liked and after hours of calling on recall and childhood memories I had recorded the information I needed to set my e-book in motion. I had already set-up the mechanisms to be able to publish eBooks a while back, including contractual agreements with an eBook publishing site, so I was indeed ready to test the marketplace.

Suddenly, it dawned on me that this could not be that simple, that I probably had not thought something through clearly. I decided to go back and check the licensing for the images to make sure they covered the project I had in mind. Thank God for common sense! While the license I had for use of the images I acquired covered a host of uses, a more expensive license was needed for those images I originally planned to use to be able to use them in an eBook. Oops!

So, it was back to the drawing board. I removed all of the images I had thought to use, and dug through my own little cache of personal images, until I found some that at least captured the spirit of the project and inserted them. You see, I was still determined I was going to complete this project because I started it. That's a part of my new commitment to myself - finish everything I start from now on. Period!

So, out there somewhere in lonely eBook cyberland is my first eBook creation. It is on its own though. I'm not going to lay claim to it unless and until it becomes a best seller -- in the world of down home recipes!