Creating an eBook

Self-publishing sounded so accessible. Just write, edit and publish. Skip the arduous search for an agent to get you through a wall of rejections to a reluctant publisher and then wait a year or longer as someone else edits your book and creates cover art that you’ll probably dislike. And instead of finding your book taken off the bookstore shelves and shipped back to the publisher after a month, as remainders, your book could be eternal, living in cyberspace forever.

Sign me up. I dredged out a half-written manuscript from twenty years ago and reviewed my material. I originally began the project after being inspired by William Goldman’s hilarious book, Adventures in the Screen Trade. I thought our mishaps in the mountains might make a decent comedic screenplay. And so, I began to write. For some reason, probably driven by growing doubts that anyone would find the stories as interesting as I did, I shelved the project. And only in December of 2020, during a great pandemic, hunkered down at home, had the spark returned, and I began furiously putting words to page.

The writing part came swiftly as it was a memoir, a slice of a magical time in my life. All I had to do was remember and tell the stories I found so fascinating. The memoir genre seemed to be more accessible than science fiction that requires a host of quirky intergalactic species with unpronounceable names and weird science, or the convoluted plot and subplots and evil characters required of crime fiction. Yeah, this should be easy. So, I thought.

I’d recalled Truman Capote stating that “writing is rewriting.” He was correct. That’s where the craft happens and the time disappears as you struggle to make it readable, interesting and if you’re talented and lucky, lyrical and truly captivating. I had no editor. But I did have the help of several good friends and my wonderful wife who read beta versions of the chapters and told me the truth, what I needed to hear to make it better.

And once I had my manuscript in order, then came the photographs, for both interior chapters and a compelling one for the cover. I conceived several titles and subtitles and mocked up over forty versions of covers with those titles with many different images. That was actually a bit daunting and yet fun.

Of course, every book requires both front and back matter. And that writing needed as much care as everything else. The minutia of the logistics, acquiring ISBN numbers, filing for copyright, and creating file conversions for Kindle Mobipocket and EPUB for others were mind-boggling. And don’t forget about keywords and categories and a compelling book description for your online listings.

There are plenty of online resources that instruct on every step of the process, but it’s an Easter Egg Hunt to find what you need. I only moved forward by creating a dynamic, continuously evolving ‘To Do’ list, reranking priorities, and chipping away at everything in bite-size chunks. After innumerable rewrites and tweaks, I finally finished and my memoir releases, as an eBook, July 1, 2021 on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. I tell the stories as best I can. I hope you enjoy them.