Self-publishing in a world of technology

I work as an IT professional, but I will admit that there are more times than not when I wish we could just take a step back from all the technology that surrounds us. I was away from home when the huge power outage occurred in the summer of 2003, affecting the northeast U.S. and much of eastern Canada.  I often wonder what the quiet was like during that time.  No humming of air conditioners, no radio, no artificial lights… no computers, no Internet, and no cellphones!  I think it’s this wish for a simpler way of life (circa the late 1980’s or early 1990’s and not, say, the 1890’s) that was my motivation for self-publishing my book.  I don’t own a Kindle or a Kobo. I love to visit the library and flip through real books.  I hope my son learns to appreciate these simple luxuries as well, and that they are around for him when he is older.

All wishful thinking and reminiscing aside, technology is still a great tool for collaboration and communication in this day and age.  During the past 15 months, Darren and I only met in person less than a handful of times.  We regularly exchanged emails, sending files back and forth when we needed to run things by each other.  Rarely did we pick up the phone.  As the book started to take shape in a more finalized format, Darren introduced me to Google’s Hangout.  He was able to work on the layout in the comfort of his own home office while I watched remotely from my PC at home.  Now that the book is completed and a final softcopy will need to be submitted to a publisher, I’ll be learning more about DropBox which allows for filesharing and downloading.  Of course, I haven’t even mentioned how awesome it was to see how Darren draws and colours his illustrations right on his computer.

From a marketing perspective, I still have a lot to learn, but I’ve used Blogspot to start this blog, Facebook to create a page for the book, and 50Megs to set up a website for my publishing company, Tytanima Press.  I’ve set up a PayPal account, and I’ve connected with other authors on LinkedIn.  And there may still be other tools that I learn to use to help spread the word about The Littlest Knight.

 So, as much as I like to take a step back from technology as often as I can, it does certainly have its benefits and can help facilitate something like the self-publishing endeavour.