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October 2009 
I dropped out for a little while!
Posted on Mar 26th, 2009
by 
J~E~S~S
J~E~S~S
I was very busy because I set a goal for myself. At first I was going to have my ebook live before Feb was over. Then my boss, a publisher, suggested I find an editor. Okay, I took him seriously and found one a week before my own deadline. But my Chiropractor, who had been reviewing a printed version of my ebook, and had marked it all up with red pen and had it ready to review with me, left it on the kitchen table, and his wife trashed it (not knowing what it was.)
So then we scheduled a meeting over breakfast to review what I had written, and he had great suggestions, yet they required that I research some more, and write a new section. I did that, and I was 2 weeks past my deadline. I submitted the changes to my editor and she spent 3 or 4 days to review it, and TG because she found some embarassing mistakes.
Then, even though I tried to control my tinkering, I just had to tinker some more. I added another section based on research I found over the weekend in a bookstore and at the library. How could I go live with this potentially important information missing from my ebook? I could be called an amateur! Oh, the shame. So I added the section.
Then my editor and I found that some of the links in the document aren't working. There was a pattern. I have footnotes at the bottom of nearly every page. Only the links that were last on the page were broken. Hmmm a mystery. I found out that the footer was being appended to the last links. I changed it to an image. Then the page number was getting appended to the final links on the page. I added a space after every link and that solved the problem.
Well, this is all very boring stuff to someone who isn't an editor or publisher or writer. But I am just putting it out there to show that writing an ebook is very labor intensive. With my perfectionist tendencies, I probably made it harder than it needed to be, but I'm very proud of the result.
You can read about it here: http://www.liveonpurpose.info
Zaadz' own Brian Johnson generously donated one of his Philosopher's Notes to be added as a bonus item for purchasing the ebook.
So then we scheduled a meeting over breakfast to review what I had written, and he had great suggestions, yet they required that I research some more, and write a new section. I did that, and I was 2 weeks past my deadline. I submitted the changes to my editor and she spent 3 or 4 days to review it, and TG because she found some embarassing mistakes.
Then, even though I tried to control my tinkering, I just had to tinker some more. I added another section based on research I found over the weekend in a bookstore and at the library. How could I go live with this potentially important information missing from my ebook? I could be called an amateur! Oh, the shame. So I added the section.
Then my editor and I found that some of the links in the document aren't working. There was a pattern. I have footnotes at the bottom of nearly every page. Only the links that were last on the page were broken. Hmmm a mystery. I found out that the footer was being appended to the last links. I changed it to an image. Then the page number was getting appended to the final links on the page. I added a space after every link and that solved the problem.
Well, this is all very boring stuff to someone who isn't an editor or publisher or writer. But I am just putting it out there to show that writing an ebook is very labor intensive. With my perfectionist tendencies, I probably made it harder than it needed to be, but I'm very proud of the result.
You can read about it here: http://www.liveonpurpose.info
Zaadz' own Brian Johnson generously donated one of his Philosopher's Notes to be added as a bonus item for purchasing the ebook.
Access: Public
YAY JESSICA!! I just bought mine and I can't wait to read it. Thank you for making all the information so easy to access. I love the breakfast poster!
Oh, Helen, you're a blessing. You're my first sale. Now that I have one sale registered with the system, I can advertise my book to the “marketplace” that paydotcom keeps. This means more traffic to my site, hopefully. I'm still working on integrating the sales process into joining my autoresponder list. I'll add you manually if I can figure it out, then you can test my autoresponder system.
I think I'll remind people to read the book every four days or so, to urge them to read a little at a time. Is that a good idea?
Yes, that's a great idea to send out the reminder. I feel so fortunate to be your first sale…so often I put things off and then forget to get back to what I wanted to do. I'm glad I followed through with my intention this time.
You are really such an inspiration to all of us, Jessica. How incredible that you did this. I salute you big-time and send wishes for hundreds and hundreds to buy your book (maybe thousands and thousands?)
I'm glad you did, too, Helen! Thank you.
Centria: I'm touched you think I'm an inspiration. I don't know why I wrote this ebook all alone except to prove it to myself that I could. There is a quote on the Gaia quote finder I marked as a favorite:
Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an
amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then
it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be
reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him to
the public. ~Winston Churchill.
I surely did feel like that book became a tyrant in my life after I had invested 10 months of research and writing. Then I couldn't NOT finish the project and it ruled my life, to the chagrin of my family.
So I've flung it to the public. Now for the hard part; marketing.
Jessica, you're inspiring that monster within that is still a tiny spark wanting to be birthed!
And I join in with Kathy, to wish you thousands of sales.
thanks Meenakshi.