It's a book!
It's really amazing how much work goes into doing such a thing even when it's a small project. If I only knew I would have so much technology to conquer back when I wrote this story in 1986 I might not have even bothered.
Raise a hand if you're one of those antiquated old-fashioned people who actually used a manual typewriter back in the 1980s. And then there was remembering all the events from the 1970s and trying to get it right.
What followed was the manuscript of my first long short story (I don't think I even knew what a novella was back then!), moving it around from box to box until sometime in the 1990s I decided to scan it. I only had a photocopy as a back up. I think I had to wait until they were scanners.
Then, with the text, I read it and re-wrote it a few times, but put it aside. Many books later, I thought I had learned all there was to learn about publishing, specifically self-publishing where you get to do all the work yourself (Yay?), make a little bit more money than a small press would pay in advance (Yay!), but not much because you don't have an army of editors, publicists and distributors, and begging for agency is off the table.
But I thought I'd learned all the tricks in the book; personal website, migrating content, layout code on my website, domain linking. But there were so many new things to try. I decided to crank up the old Mailchimp and only sent out about 100 press releases. Three replied, so far. I'm told that's a good rate. I don't know anymore.
I have yet to send out stuff other than a few social media spots. A book trailer's on its way, not that I think it leads to sales, but it's fun to do. And I know how to do it.
Then of course, is looking at a multiple series of PDF proof and making correction after correction after correction. And then you find out that the Library of Congress only sends out your control number after you've approved the final interior PDF (It's 2024909132, by the way).