A New Kind Of Publishing

This morning at about 8 AM I finally succeeded in publishing my first Kindle book.

It was quite straightforward in the end, although the process was convoluted, perhaps because it was my first time. There were a number of things new to me that I had to find out, such as the unique identifiers to enable income to me to be paid directly into my bank accounts.

My objective in this publishing venture is to be able to raise funds not for myself, but for the Queen Alexandra Hospital just across the road from where I live in Worthing.

What I have published is the collected blogs for the whole of this year, 2012, which has been such a significant year for myself and for the Nation as a whole.

Since my personal blog reflects my personal interests, and is as much as anything stimulated by what I see and hear in the media, the 75 blogs that I have written since January 2012 have in effect provided my own perspective, as a disabled person, on this extraordinary year.

It is much closer to autobiographical writing than a critique of the year as a whole, and anyone reading this blog will already have access free of charge to the archive of my blog activity over the course of this, my first year of blogging.

Of course, anyone that so wishes can obtain access to all of the blogs included in this Kindle free of charge, but I am banking on the fact that for some people, access to my collected blogs for this year in Kindle format may in fact be useful, and the fact that it is priced competitively at around six dollars [ US ] with all proceeds after Amazon commission going directly to this wonderful purpose may make some purchases from my general blog readership.

And what a readership I have obtained over the course of this year.

Then have been over 1200 page views genuinely worldwide, with some astonishing reading [from my point of view] from countries that I have not expected to be part of my readership.

As can be seen from some of my blog entries, the statistics of the origin of my readership has struck me sometimes as if it were a medal table from the Olympics, so much so that I have begun to lay plans for a virtual Olympics based on where purchases of my first volume of poetry are purchased, copies of which are available for sale directly from the hospital itself (QAHH).

Publishing this volume of my collected blogs as a Kindle at this time of year is very much a toe in the water for myself, since as a lover of books, it is something beyond my experience, although I am seriously considering getting one of these new machines in order to see if it will enable me to read once again, as my disability, multiple sclerosis, prevents me from holding a book and turning the pages.

And so it may in fact be something that will become an assistive device for me, as indeed is already my computer.

Although I am registered blind because of my condition, my eyesight is variable, and in some respects a computer screen, especially one in which the size of print can be altered, is easier for me to be able to read from.

And of course I have discovered spoken books, which can be an extraordinary means of accessing literature.

And so I suppose this is an appeal to my worldwide audience to consider purchasing this electronic book, as a tool for themselves, or as a gift at Christmas for someone who already possesses one of these new machines.

It may well be a revelation to me, opening the door once again to reading, which has been a lifelong companion to me.

And as anyone that has read my blog must be aware, the Queen Alexandra. Hospital is an extraordinary place, providing an exceptional service to those that have served often in extraordinary circumstances in our armed forces.

It has an extraordinary history that goes back to 1915 when it was first founded as the George V Hospital in London, and was the first point to which soldiers returning injured from the trenches of the first world war and were provided with rehabilitation and continuing care.

That work has never ceased, though it carries on unseen by the general public.

This is an opportunity to help this important work continue, and I hope that the success of my worldwide readership for my blog may be translated into sales in this new electronic medium.