Thank you Publish Authority for helping make the 'book within me' a reality!

In my first blog post I mention the journals I took with me on my trips to China to record much of what I saw and experienced during the construction of the Mei Wen Ti and that select entries from those journals wound up in "No Problem, Mr. Walt."

Well, what I didn’t realize at the time I embarked on building my dream was how all-consuming building a boat on the other side of the world, where most people I dealt with spoke no English; how many of my ideas were very foreign to the boat builder; that they knew little about the equipment I wanted on the boat; and I knew little about doing business in China. Everything was a little harder because of all of these constraints, and my idea about simultaneously writing a book based on those journals rapidly faded as I became totally emersed in all aspects of building the Mei Wen Ti whether I was at home or in China.

After the Mei Wen Ti was moved to her slip in Ventura, I continued to be super busy stepping the masts and all the other things you must do with any brand new vessel (good subject for another blog). Once this work was done, it so happened that I was offered a job working for a non-profit in Oxnard and again starting the book got pushed aside.

Sometime back in 2002, I committed (on a very part time basis) to finally writing "the book within me" and I carved out time each day to write. Along the way I found an editor and slowly finished one chapter after another (not in order) that I would send to him to edit. At times the book sort of took the back seat for my attention, and I would stop writing for long periods of time - but, it was always in the back of my mind.

As I finally got close to finishing the book, I found a publisher in the mid-west and things started to pick up. However, before the book could get published, the publisher went broke and the book went back on the shelf while my wife Virginia and I did some traveling, fixed up our new home and went on enjoying our retirement.

Fast forward to June of 2015, while looking for a new publisher, my daughter Lynn and I met Raeghan Rebstock with Publish Authority in Newport Beach, not far from where Lynn resides.

Beginning with that meeting, things really started to move. The software for my old website was obsolete, so Raeghan and her team undertook the construction of this fantastic new website. As part of the effort, a talented artist by the name of Roman (Ron) Pastucha created the cover art for the book and website homepage. Raeghan produced the new site in record time, while the book immediately went into final editing (with their terrific editor Gordon Jackson).

With the help of Gordon, Frank Eastland and Raeghan, it wasn’t long until they were assembling the finalized ebook in the necessary platform formats, while also assisting us in developing a marketing plan, getting the book up on iAuthor and Amazon.com - and all the many other necessary things that I had no idea went in to publishing a book in this electronic age.

Since the ebook was launched on Amazon.com on February 23, I've had many people contact me about their desire to publish their book. I tell everyone, if you want a tip on how to get your book moving, give Publish Authority a call. Then get prepared to really get involved in making the "book within you" come alive.