Amazon introduced the Kindle and it became the new "must have." The device seems to be on permanent back-order, a status that didn't change even when Amazon announced it was about to introduce the Kindle 2. Other companies, like Sony, have e-readers too, but it's Amazon that led the charge into a brave new world. It was Amazon that told authors that if we wanted to publish our work, just upload it and they'd make it available on their site to all those Kindle owners.
Wait -- there's a way to get my work out there and off my hard-drive without spending a fortune to self-publish? I can, gulp, make my work available to actual readers?
As my husband would say --- CUE MR. BRICK!!!
Okay, I know that Amazon didn't introduce e-publishing. It just gave it feet. With the growing number of Kindle owners, soon, e-publishing may run. When the app becomes widely available for cell phones, e-publishing may take wings and fly. The possibilities percolated in my disturbed little brain and one day I turned to my hubby the computer guy and said - Give me a book cover.
The first book I ever wrote, the one I wrote before I had any concept of the tight little rules in what the majors will and won't publish (Brotherly Love) became my first Kindle book. After I uploaded it, I discovered the Mobipocket forum that formats and distributes e-books for PC and other online e-publishers to a list of great e-tailers.
I wasn't surprised to read my Mobi contract (I am a lawyer) and learn that AMAZON OWNS MOBI. So, one writer who appreciates Amazon for being far-sighted enough to give everyone a forum and let the buyers decide what they want gives three cheers for Amazon. Yip, yip, yipee!
Today the Kindle and Mobi, and tomorrow - the world. The possibilities are endless, now that I've opened my eyes to see them. Maybe it was all the publicity surrounding the new Kindle launch or maybe, it was a conspiracy between my hubby and his co-hort in crime, Mr. Brick.