It took forever, but I finally got my book published. I finished my first draft of the book in June of 2005 shortly after I returned from Korea the first time. I let it marinate for a while and then went back in and made a second draft while I contacted God knows how many prospective agents.  I got tired of waiting for someone to bite and went on with the next book, which is still (slowly) being written.

In the past few years, a number of things have changed. The newspaper industry has taken a beating;  several big ones such as the Rocky Mountain News  have recently folded. The two foreigner publications, the Ulsan Pear and the Korea Sun, both of which I worked on, folded. That’s part of the reason I now write, edit and program for the online, UlsanOnline.com. The book industry, while not in exactly the same boat, I predict will be soon enough. NY Magazine has already made similar predictions. Printing and distribution costs are rising while electronic publishing costs are shrinking.

Amazon has come out with the Kindle 2.0 electronic book reader and by all accounts they’ve fixed all the poor ergonomics on the 1.0 version. That got me really interested in e-publishing. Even while I was preparing to e-publish, Amazon announced that Apple’s iTouch and iPhone products would be able to read their e-books.  I could no longer wait.  I had to jump on this train.

Well, now you wait no longer. I’m published. Amazon.com has a copy of my book.  It’s only Kindle-capable, which means you need a Kindle to read it. Soon, an iPhone or iTouch will suffice. I still have my own website with the PDF version for sale, too.

Go ahead, get yourself a copy. You know you want to.

I’m going to go back to gloating now. And, if enough people buy my book,it will give me enough incentive to finish the second book, “At the End of the Road.“