This page will be devoted to my recently published book and some stories that did not make it into the text for a number of reasons. As I have not yet departed the profession or the planet I will include ongoing strange happenings as they occur. If I knew how to start a blog I would but at this time suffice it to say any questions, comments, reviews or just whining in general can be directed to dspiderw@gmail.com.
The book is titled "Behind the Swinging Doors" and consists of 50 years of my travels through the world of food service. Being an egotistic author I just assume everyone wants to read it so it is available at Amazon Books, Barnes and Noble or from the publisher, Outskirts Press.com. All have websites that you can happily click your money away. I only ask that you leave a review at Amazon. So much for the commercial. So why did I write this soon to be classic? It started out as ramblings on this site until I realized that I had a lot of stories. Soon I found myself with 100 pages typed and hardly through my first 15 years. I decided that maybe this journal hidden deeply in a free website site should have a more formal presence. I enjoy fishing and vacation in Northern Wisconsin. The owner of the resort had written a book and after very little coaxing he gave me a rough outline of the adventure. He had not only written but published it himself with the help of an $800 software program. Not being much of a techie I began investigating other avenues.
Traditional publishing is very expensive and made for the likes of James Patterson. The next opportunity goes by the name of self publishing and involves a lot less money but quite a bit of research in choosing one. A quick search provided me with a multitude of companies none of which I ever heard of. I began to check reviews and was horrified at the number of unhappy people who railed against the person they used or the genre in general. At each companies website was an equal amount of "happy campers" praising said company for a job well done. So who do you believe. I fell back to an old restaurant adage that if you satisfy one person they will probably tell someone else. If you provide inferior food or service they will tell anyone who will listen. I decided to use additional parameters.
Having more than a little cheap sake in me I now considered price. Once again there was a very wide range depending on what you were looking for. They would do it all for you or just put on a cover and everything in between. I equate it to buying the car model "starting at".... The vehicle doesn't really exist until you add some packages and options each of which kicks up the price. During the investigative process your email becomes a haven for ads from editing people, publishers, formatters and even the software to do it all. Your delete button will get a work out. After a while I had narrowed it down to a few and now I began to check them out more closely. In the end it was the actual name of the self publisher that caught my eye.
Outskirts Press had a rebellious ring to it so I joined the site and began shopping. They had a list based on gemstones, ruby sapphire and the like with an ascending price schedule based on what was included. Each month they would have some kind of promotion and this particular month it was $200 off their Diamond package. For the down payment of $35 I could lock this in. It included a few perks the lower ones did not including an ISBN number. Well that alone sounded awfully professional! Since $35 was a small investment I decided to commit. It was non refundable but now I was invested in the project. A preliminary contact was made and the agent explained how the rest of the program worked. My book was not finished yet but it was a good idea to begin setting up the publishing so when the book is done you can pull the trigger on it. I began writing in earnest and paid the rest of the $700 price tag. This would connect me directly to a pre production representative that would assist me until we actually printed the book.
Writing a memoir type book is cathartic in many ways. You remember better times, worse times and some times you totally forgot. I spoke to some old friends about the different eras and all were able to remind me of an anecdote or two. All in all it was a fulfilling project and my hat is off to professionals who crank out book after book. It is a hard job. As I approached the end I began to discuss my upcoming publishing and heard terms like format and PDF. You were allowed 25 edits and then it cost extra so being on a frugal budget I began to reread my manuscript. I shortly realized that 25 edits would be gone in 10 pages unless I changed them prior to pulling the trigger. Now started the real work.
I would estimate that I reread the book 6 or seven times changing misspells and punctuation each time. It became apparent that after a while your brain has seen the same mistake so many times that it just overlooks it. There is probably some psycho medical term for that but I do not know it. Finally I decided a few typos would help rule out the ghost writer theory and stood ready to press the PUBLISH button. After that all changes cost money. Now I was informed it must be changed from Word format to PDF. At this point I was still thanking a higher power for Spell Check. It took some time but my publishing consultant walked me through it and finally I was ready to push the "button". Really that was all there was to it. Within a week I had the approved copy back, the book was listed on the publishing website and Amazon and I got 10 free copies for my trouble.
This all occurred 5 years ago. I am currently still selling the book either directly or through Amazon. Numerous marketing strategies were offered, for a fee so I opted to go word of mouth. Presently I am around break even sales vs cost but to see a book with my name on it all shiny and looking fairly professional was more than worth it. And if I had a dollar for every time I heard "You wrote a book?" I would have an extra thousand dollars or so. Bottom line: It was hard but fulfilling work and answering the above question "Yes" never gets old. Even better you show them the physical item and get "You DID write a book!" is priceless.
BOOK PUBLISHED FEB 2015 AND AVAILABLE FROM PUBLISHER, AMAZON.COM OR AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY FROM ME. Email dspiderw@gmail.com for details.
UPDATE 02/01/2021 RETIRED....FINALLY