Amazon Published My First eBook! Follow My Progress As I Navigate Kindle Publishing

I know what those of you who know my writing are thinking: Hey Ben what's with all the exclamations!

These sentences are exclamations of joy kind reader!

I finally tied my first eBook together and published on the Kindle format of Amazon.Com. The book is entitled:

Your Life As A Painting

If you are a writer (as so many of us on HubPages.Com are) please write a review of the book, I will forever be in your debt! (Yet another nefarious "!")

Okay I'll stop yelling. I've been thrown out of the fry pan and into the fire recently, as I was laid off from my day job a few weeks ago. So to borrow yet another saying, the mother of invention shoved me into finally publishing something on Amazon.Com, tempting to mark this sentence with yet another "!" of enthusiasm but I'll hold back.

I have worked on this book for the last year, it is one of three that I have been rewriting. Your Life As A Painting is the only one out of the three that is nonfiction. My aim with the book is to give someone a brief guide to living life in a new way, in a way that is as unique as an oil painting or other art. In some ways, it's been my attempt at trying to help others live a creative life in much the same way people from my past have helped me to see the universe in a unique and endearing way.

I hope you enjoy my book, and thanks again to all the HubPages folks who have encouraged and helped me along the way!!!

Here is a sample from the beginning of Your Life As A Painting:

Chapter 1

 Who are you? What does your painting look like?

If you could take your life out of a box, and unroll it like a canvas to look at from beginning to end, how would it appear? Whether it is long or short, big or small, it is important to see your life in this way, encapsulated with a beginning and an end. That way, you can make the most of what is happening in your life right now, by learning from your past.

Is your life colorful? That is, have you had many different types of experiences?  Have you done a lot of traveling? Have you met different kinds of people? Have you worked at various kinds of jobs during your career?

Everyone has something in their life that lends definition and flavor to it.  No matter what your age, you have experienced something rich and unique in your life that no one else has.  You have seen events through the uniqueness of your perspective.  Value this perspective; hold it close to your heart.  It is what makes you whole.  It is what no one can ever take from you.

If your life is a painting, then your different roles in it are the colors.  What roles do you play in your life?  Are you a Parent?  A leader? A dedicated follower? Are you the one who asks questions?  Are you the one who gives answers? Do your friends call you to have someone to listen to? Do your neighbors see in you, someone who they can trust?

The roles you have played in life need not define you for the rest of it, unless you want them to! But whatever it is that you have been in the past, never forget that you can grow into something else in the future.  In my own life, there have been many times that I have fallen into a rut, where I don’t like the role that I’ve been playing.  It’s easy and obvious to just say, change your life! Change your role in it! But I know, as I’m sure you do too, that to make those changes is a lot tougher than just saying it.

If you like who you are, why change it?  As the old cliché goes, if ain’t broke don’t fix it! Many people that I have met who enjoy who they are do so because they are in a constant state of reinventing themselves.  Even if they maintain the same roles, a mother, a letter carrier, a teacher, a counselor, they change up their routines, or they change up their methods to constantly inject some newness into what they do day to day.

If on the other hand, you are like me, you have needed to change your entire role in life by necessity or chance. I find catharsis by going outside, always. It helps me to change even if just a little bit, to breathe in a bit of fresh air, to collect your thoughts.  For example, gardening is good for your body, because wild microbes in the soil interact with your constitution physically, as well as mentally and spiritually. I feel it’s the same for just going outside and getting some air.  It recalibrates your body. Our bodies didn’t evolve to sit in a house all day with stagnant air and a near motionless existence. Sometimes even opening a window or sitting in the sunniest room in the house can let some life in and instigate some changes in your mood.

Strengths and Weaknesses

When you’re trying to figure out who you are, there’s no easier way than to look at your strengths and weakness’.  Just as an artist must decide how they create best.  Are they good at realistic rendering? Are they masters of color? Are they more sculptors than painters?

You must find whatever it is in your life that you are good at and run with it! Just as you must find whatever you don’t do so well, and either do less of it, or practice and do it better!

12.25.2010

For what it's worth, I am going to try and update this hub article more than any I've done before, in part for tweeking my approach to Kindle, and in part to allow maximum feedback from peers.

Amazon says the book was published December 22, 2010 but I didn't find it available until Christmas day, a little after midnight December 25. I also wanted to thank my old friends Rob Stolzer and Marie Updegrove for their help in putting this little chapbook together. Right off the bat, one of the first things that threw me for a loop, was how "contributors" can only be labeled as one of about five or six categories. So I felt like I may have overreached a little by labeling Rob Stolzer as an editor since he only previewed a page or so, but Amazon didn't provide any other credit label close enough! I say that out of respect for Mr. Stolzer as he wasn't privy to the entirety of my first draft. Regardless I'm grateful for his contribution!

Also I need to thank our HubPages writer who goes by the handle: booksoverdue. He's written a few succinct hub articles on the subject of publishing and formatting on Amazon's Kindle.

So far the number one misconception I've come across, is that people think you need a Kindle pad to read these eBooks. But of course, you can use a regular PC or Mac, an Android or iPad or a regular Kindle device.

12.26.10

I realize more than ever the miscommunication about Kindle books immeditealy!

YOU DO NOT NEED TO PAY ANYTHING EXTRA TO DOWNLOAD A KINDLE READER!

This is a bigger obstacle than I first thought! Even my wife thought you needed a kindle pad or a Smartphone or something, but you can read a Kindle eBook with any computer. You have to pay for the book of course, but the reader is free!

ALSO! I need to thank my lovely daughter Isabella, who offered an edit to the title a few day before publishing, originally the book was entitled: Your Life Is A Painting

But Isabella and I agreed it sounded too pushy, as if to say, your life is a painting whether you want it to be or not! Haha! Anyway, I am grateful for daughter's insight!

12.28.10

Just to spell it out clearer as now I've hinted to the fact above and below...Amazon says it takes 24 hours to process English books. I made an initial error which it took a day for Amazon to figure out, after I corrected that, they ok'd the book for publishing, but then it took another day to have it "live" and running on the site. Hope that helps everybody! Basically, it seems more realistic that most books will take 2-3 days to be up on the site, non-English books even longer.

1.07.11

Well I have now gone ahead and printed up, that's correct, on actual paper! I've printed up some PR to send to various media outlets, a magazine, newspapers and at least one smaller morning news show. We'll see how it goes. I've been thinking of writing up some and targeting the "O" network, nobody moves books like Ol' Oprah! I'm still stewing on that one though!

Well it's been nearly a year and no huge sales to report! Ah, what can you do but go on right? Still, I feel happy to have had the experience of getting feedback from a genuine cadre of believers, truly a priceless gift. For anyone who took the time to read my observations, thank you kindly and I hope your walk with Gitchie Manitou is a kind one.