I’m learning . . .

I’m taking a class this semester in ePublishing. (When I’m done, I want to talk to Kitty, who I suspect is just as qualified to teach the class as my professor.) At the start of the class, the professor basically said we’d be learning as we went. That there are no standards and that epublishing is developing in much the same way that the Internet grew and morphed into what it is today. Organically. Driven by those who are using it and doing it. That means we writers and readers who are using epublishing in any way are making history.

In this class we each must write a book which will be published onto Amazon. (We’ll also learn how to publish on iBooks, but will not be required to because of the fees.) The past several weeks we have been writing these serious, silly or downright ludicrous tomes. Or at least that is the expectation. At least half of us have said at one time or another we have very little written.

It helps that our professor doesn’t really care about our topic. He is expecting us to produce a finished, professional product, but it can be on any topic we desire. He said in our first class, it could be something as simple as “29 Ways to Prepare for the Coming Zombie Apocalypse” or as serious as “Surviving Cancer” or as practical as “How to Create a Functional Wardrobe with 10 Pieces of Clothing.” As long as it was 30-40 pages in length, the topic didn’t matter.

Sometime in the next week or two, we will begin learning the process of formatting and publishing our books. As that time nears, I’m reminded that a writer must have content before she can publish. Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? And it is. But how many times have we begun the “Where will I publish this?” questions before we have even started to write. One of my classmates has asked several times about how to format. And received the same answer each time. “You’ll learn that later. For now just write.”

That is my advice to you. For now, just write. Once you have your story, book, poem, screenplay, whatever written, that will be the time to consider publishing. When I’m finished with this class, I’ll let you know some of what I learned about that process. (Although I’m sure Kitty could teach us soooo much more. She is one of those trailblazers influencing the way epublishing develops.)
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