Songwronger, thank you for that. I'm sure it will be of great help to anyone who's striding into self-publishing. At the time that I published my first book in 2004 a person had to buy a block of 10 ISBNs as they would not allow you to buy just one. So I still have a few left to use.

I will read with interest the link you put in about the aggregators. I've had a look@bookBrewer.com and actually started to enter an e-book edition of my 2004 book. They make it very, very easy and will submit it around to all of the major purveyors of the books from what I have read so far. You have to enter the book chapter by chapter which is a little tedious for this first book because each chapter is only about a page to a page and a half, so lots to enter, but it feels good to get it done.

They offer three different packages from what I've read, ranging from from 20 to 60 or so dollars and it says the author gets 95% and retains all copyrights, of course. There is more information on THIS PAGE. I still have to research more about the charges and the digital rights management and all that. It's great to share these things with other mudcat writers, thanks again! If I'm happy with this first one after I see the sample they create, then I intend to do my other novels, one of which, Prairie Child, is ready to go.

One great thing for me is I'm finally getting Dragon NaturallySpeaking trained so that my hands are so sore. I haven't practiced yet on how to command it, i.e. surf the net, click on things, etc., but as a writer I think it's probably one of the best things that's ever happened.

Good news on your upcoming publications. I've got a few short stories and some other things that have been put out there and you Steve published as an op-ed writer but I seem to do better in the long haul.

Do you know about NaNoWriMo, national novel writing month? If you just put it in your browser you can go find out what it's all about. Hundreds of not thousands of people all around the world commit themselves to churn out a 50,000 word plus novel within the month of November. It's great fun, torture, and satisfying, plus there's tons of support and camaraderie throughout the month and, even the year. Lulu always has a deal where they offer to print your novel written for NaNoWriMo for free, that's the POD. It's a nice way for someone to see a sample of what their book would look like. One thing that NaNoWriMo really taught me is how to turn off my inner editor. That's essential just for that month, then of course you've got all the time in the world to go back and edit. I'm usually ready about two years later to turn out at all from that so I usually miss every other year doing NaNoWriMo. I was interested to find out that one of my favorite authors Paul Cuelho also writes this way. He doesn't use NaNoWriMo, but takes the month of January to produce a new book and gives himself two years to rewrite and edit to his satisfaction.

There you go I've gone on too long only because it doesn't hurt to type. LOL

Thanks, again,

kat