The Highs and Lows of Print Media

Today, after more than two years of waiting, the box containing a stack of my book, Trail to Tale, arrived on my front porch. Now, while it is correct to assume there is nothing quite like the high of holding the book you created in your hands, it in no way represents the entire story. Flash back just under three years when I first dreamed of finding some use for the thousands of photos I had on my cell phone, and you’d find an eager author ready to write and share his slice of the world with the general public. While it is true I wrote most of the written text (at least half of the space) in just over a month, the long, drawn out process of figuring out sizing, graphic placement, resolution, licensing, creating an author’s website, copy right, downloads, merchandizing, and pricing, along with the other necessary steps necessary to make my dream a reality, it became somewhat overwhelming. Other authors had told me it would be well worth my time skipping the publishing houses to learn the system on my own, but honestly, by the time I greased every palm demanding a cut along the way, I lost most of the steam I had originally built up for sharing my work. I suppose most of my view came from my motivation for creativity rather than focusing on profit, but while other authors discussed issues with their publishers, you begin to see time as the biggest factor in your future after entering the latter half of your all too short life.