The E-book Upload

The E-book Upload

After a long 800-mile round trip to western Montana - the snow beautiful and roads fairly good for winter, I sit down before my computer, newly completed book cover in hand.

With excitement and trepidation I begin the long awaited process of uploading my 6,000-word book/article to Smashwords. Two years of gathering and digesting research articles and over a full year since I began writing the piece, the time has come. The proofing, reproofing and reproofing as well as multiple edits from a variety of sources are behind me. My other writing on my novel and newspaper articles has taken the back seat for a while.

Although I am not techno-savvy, I do get by. Over the past month, I managed to follow the Smashwords "Style Guide" http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52 , stripping out all the formatting in my article to create a flowable text that will read on different devices. (We'll talk more specifically about that later.)

Filled with nervous energy I carefully follow all the leads and prompts on the screen to upload my book, the cover, author profile and other information. As I write the author profile, I can't help but wonder, "How much does one really want to share about themselves for the entire world to see?"

As I get ready to click the "Submit" button (or was it an "Upload" button?) I hope my book/article is well done, professionally acceptable and will be a benefit to those who read it. With some faith in the computer-gods, I plunge ahead, submitting my materials to the Smashwords "Meatgrinder" hoping to pass without any AutoVetting errors.

File uploaded, cover uploaded, author profile complete, I intently watch my computer screen as it flashes, "You are number 26 in the queue to upload at Smashwords." The tiny circle spins as I await confirmation.

Suddenly words pop up on the screen, "You have lost Internet connection." What?! No! All the time spent carefully uploading! I frantically check all my connections, then call the phone company. The phone line crackles painfully as I explain the problem. The service tech responds, "It will be 24 to 48 hours to correct the problem."

With deep frustration, I turn back to my computer and attempt to reload Internet. There, miraculously, pops up the message, "You have successfully uploaded your book to Smashwords, there are no AutoVetter errors." Yay!

Out from my email spits a three-page document about how to get an ISBN number, how to check for compatibility with epub and html files and how to get into the daunting task of marketing your work.

Shortly after completing a few more tasks, my phone lines and Internet go totally dead for nearly 24 hours, interspersed with numerous cell phone calls to the phone company. My carefully planned e-book upload is narrowly accomplished. Hard to believe how dependant we have become on the Internet!

Now the challenge of letting people know what my e-book/article is about and how it can be useful is the next step. What is your next challenge to writing and publishing? Do you have a plan to move forward?

Theresa Nichols Schuster's Smashwords Author Profile: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/tnschuster

Book page to sample or purchase Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) or Excessive Mast Cells? Research Summary: http://smashwords.com/b/266579