My memoir titled "Face The Music" is now available online, with payment arrangements made through Paypal. This book, three years in the making has been through several re-writes. I worked diligently trying to pare it down in order to appeal to literary agents and book publishers, but in the end I could neither satisfy their demands for a shorter book nor my own reasons for writing the book to be released in an edited version. Several suggested that I cut it in two and release TWO books, but I felt that was cheating (or taking advantage of) my readers.
To quote a friend of mine: "It IS what it IS".
In the year I was fine-tuning it, a recent development occurred which has altered the book industry. The immense popularity of Kindle and other eBooks has opened the door for the future of book publishing. I did some research and discovered that most eBooks utilize their own format (reminiscent of the Beta vs. VHS Wars of the past). Not wanting to be caught in the middle I did further research, consulting several learned instructors in electronic media at Arkansas State University. They advised me that to reach the maximum potential I should publish my book in Adobe .PDF format, a universally accepted media reader which is free to download off the Internet. I found software that could convert my original manuscript in MS Word format to .PDF.
While admiring the way the book looked in .PDF, a thought long tucked away in my cranium crept back into my consciousness. I had always wanted to include pictures with my book as I have a huge database of family and personal pictures, but the large page count (800 pages) made it already nigh impossible to afford to do it myself, and publishers did not want to touch it due to the length and the mistaken notion that this book is little more than a "sex, drugs and rock and roll" book. Adding a section with pictures would GREATLY increase the DIY cost of publishing it. Besides, I never like the idea of a section of images half-way through a book. It's so much more fulfilling to see the images right in the body of text, making the instant connection between storyline and visual stimulation. Bu, alas, I gave up that notion during the frustrations of trying to find a publisher or agent.
But now..... with an eBook, I could add pictures, and I could add them anywhere in the document! I spent another month selecting and Photoshopping images, adding titles to some, and placed them in Chapter after Chapter. In the end there are 500 images in the book. Some (like my civil war relatives) are of historical value. Others are of bands I have worked with. Still others are strictly personal choices which I feel add to the reading experience of following my life from childhood into manhood. By adding borders and shadows the images fit snugly into the storyline, and give the manuscript a more professional look and feel.
But as I was reading through the book and adding pictures I kept thinking "Boy, this would be a great place to have a music selection about this event or this band." The more I thought about it, the more sense it made to me. After all, is this not about the life of a man who has lived through so many levels of technology? It is only fitting that the memoirs of a man in the music business, broadcasting and recording should be as media-friendly as possible. The electronic book media opens the door to all types of technology. Why not take advantage of it? I have a large library of recordings at my disposal. Why not tap into that?
So.... I began selecting specific audio files and music files to add to the book. So when the reader gets to Chapter 4 and reads about my mother playing her piano and entertaining guests at our resort, I included a clip that I recorded of my mother playing piano and singing one of the songs that was a part of her repertoire back in the day. Or if I was describing the music of a band I recorded I included one or more songs from those sessions. I devised a tagging system where the reader could consult a folder containing all the music clips to see if there were any additions in the particular chapter they were reading. I elected NOT to include links in the book to the songs as I did not want anything to detract from the enjoyment of reading pages uncluttered of links or other metatags. As a bonus to readers I included the entire "New Tricks From An Old Dog" album, my solo music project. In the chapter where I describe each song, who played on it, and how it was recorded, the reader can merely open the folder on the CD-ROM and click on a song, which will open their Windows Media Player, and have the song(s) running in the background while they read. TRULY INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA !!
The eBook is 800 pages, and contains 500 pictures. In addition there are 75 songs in MP3 format included on the CD-ROM. For more information and further descriptions on the book, as well as a link where you can order your copy, go to:
http://www.cedarcreststudio.com/facethemusic
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