E-book, part 2

I didn't think it would be such a long gap between posts, but life can get in the way....

Releasing Judgment Tramp as an e-book is proving to be a challenge--like everything in life, the devil is in the details, and the details of formatting a manuscript for an acceptable looking e-book are way beyond this technophobe. I'm lucky because I have a dear friend who is working tirelessly to figure out the process--and Kristin has been able get some help from other talented people along the way ( a big thanks to Vickie Taylor is due, among others...), and Kristin seems to have things figured out--I think.

It's easy in some ways to be a writer in the 21st century--there are resources available to anyone nowadays that make writing (and the necessary research) more feasible for more people. I can do research on a subject in a few hours today, and I can find tidbits of information that would have taken months or even years of searching out in pre-internet days. I can type on my laptop computer and save my work quickly and easily--no carbon paper copies needed, no file cabinets full of completed manuscripts required. 

I can communicate globally, sharing ideas and information effortlessly via a multitude of social networking sites, chat-rooms and forums. It's all good.

I can network with people globally, and I can market my work much more effectively, all because of the internet. But...there's a catch (you KNEW there had to be one somewhere...).

All of this wonderful stuff takes time away from writing, to the point where it seems that it would be very easy to social network and forum-surf the day away, and never have time to write. That's one of the catch-22's of the new age--it is easy to lose the focus of the mission-writing-and it is so easy to be seduced by distractions.

We have to conquer a different form of gravity today to reach the writing mountaintop, and the grade is still steep.  It's a different climb than the one writers were faced with back in the day...it requires an equal amount of dedication, but in some ways it requires a completely different set of skills. I admire the people who can find time to write, and also find the time and energy to market themselves, research new projects, and wade through the minefield of new technology. I'm not one of those people, and my one saving grace is that I'm smart enough to realize that I need help to achieve my goals.

I'm very fortunate--I have the most valuable resource of all--I have a friend named Kristin. Kristin allows me to be a writer, and she takes care of so much of the other stuff--she is the reason that I will succeed in the brave new world of writing. I couldn't possibly imagine doing this without her.

A good friend can make the difference--and I have the best friend. She doesn't have all the answers--but she won't stop until she does, and that makes all the difference.