How it came to this...

After I wrote This Is Where I Came In several years ago, I formatted it in a page-layout program and designed a cover; I was able to do this because I'd spent years in the graphic design business. I wanted to have a quality, professional-looking presentation instead of a raw manuscript to show to prospective agents and editors. I did this even though I think that agents and editors are not greatly impressed by such tactics. My goal was to make it easier to imagine my novel as a real book. I even did some full-color promotional cards to give out at conferences. People liked seeing the things I'd made, but it didn't help a great deal.
I attended the annual Agents & Editors Conference which the Writers League sponsors. Part of that conference is a 10-minute one-on-one conversation with an agent or editor in which you can pitch your book idea face to face. This went well and the agent requested that I send the entire manuscript to her office. I got a polite rejection letter, but kept plugging away.
As I said in the previous post, I would eventually be signed by two different agents, neither of whom was able to place the book. It might have stayed in my desk drawer forever, but something happened last week.
I read a book.
Let me rewrite that slightly: I read a crappy book.
It was a novel which had actually been published by a small publisher. As I read through it, I couldn't believe anyone would print this book. It was sophomoric, with shallow characters and the most cliched plotting imaginable. I began to think that I had given up too easily, because I was certain my novel was better than this one. I dug out my old manuscript and began reading it for the first time in years...and I liked it. In fact, I was brought to tears by one part which I'd forgotten.
So I decided to do something. I don't really want to devote the time and effort of going through the tedious hunt for an agent. In addition, something had changed since I wrote my novel; I had become an ebook devotee, first on my Palm Pilot, then on my iPhone, and now on my glorious iPad. It's increasingly rare now that I buy an actual dead-tree book anymore, preferring to carry a stack of books in my iPad at all times.
So why go through that process again? I decided instead to go the electronic route. It's not that I expect to sell thousands--or even hundreds--of books. But at least my book will be available on a world-wide basis. Next time I'll tell you how I decided where to sell my ebook and how I got it ready to present.