— I published my book! On Valentine’s Day to mark the special occasion. Having sweated all the details as best I could, I decided it was time to cut the cord. And so, with the click of a button (“Approve your proof”), six years of hard labor–a labor of love, but hard labor nevertheless–came to a sudden end. For better or for worse, I had now unleashed my book on the world.

The picture above depicts my original vision of the book launch, but due to time constraints the hardcover edition has been postponed until a later time. The print-on-demand service at Amazon.com–CreateSpace–has done an excellent job with the paperback edition. I like the off-white paper, neither too bright nor too dark, and while the (newly offered) matte option for the cover looks and feels quite nice, I decide to stick with glossy for two reasons: it brings out the strong colors on my front cover while at the same time enhancing the contrast on the dark background of the back cover. This is all very subjective, of course, and I’d like to hear what other authors think about it.

My book is also available in e-book formats: Mobi for Kindle devices, and epub for the rest of the world (Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Apple’s iBooks, Kobo, Google’s Play Books). The conversion process (from MS-Word manuscript to e-books) can be simple and straightforward, unless one tries to get more fancy with formatting and fonts (for those nice visual touches that add to the reading pleasure). Not all e-readers are created equal, and a little customization–while well-intentioned–could end up wreaking havoc across different mobile platforms. This, in my experience, is the most significant difference between print and electronic publishing. Again, I welcome input from authors who have experimented with this.

There’s no word to describe the feeling I have holding a physical copy of my book, in all its colorful glory, in my hand. My dream for as long as I can remember, now finally come true. I’m not sure it has quite sunken in yet.  But now comes the hard part as I struggle over the next months to give my work some exposure among the sea of new books–more than a million new titles per year in the U.S. alone! So I’d appreciate any help I can get. If you have a chance to read my book and like it, please spread the word and help other readers find it. In this age of incredible technology, word of mouth is still the best marketing tool around!

Thank you, and enjoy!