I’m talking about my spy novel, of course.  Using the word ‘release’ always brings to mind a picture of a wild animal being let out of a cage in a countryside location, something like what you’d see at the end of a Billy The Exterminator episode.  So maybe I’m releasing it . . . or maybe it was planning to escape all along!

So, after a little back-and-forth, I finally accepted the proof epub file a couple of days ago and Bookbaby can therefore commence sending it out to their retail partners.  In testing though, I learned quite a profound lesson; all e-readers are not created equal!  Now, I don’t own a physical e-reader yet.  The closest I got was trying it out on a friend’s wife’s Sony Reader.  At home, however, I dutifully downloaded and installed Mobipocket, Sony Reader for PC, Kindle PC, Calibre, Adobe Digital Editions and Nook for PC.  Well, I gotta say that the results varied wildly.  There was different formatting, different fonts (although that can be changed on some), different aspect ratios for the cover image, different indents, different spacing… the list goes on.  After some pretty exhaustive searching through the text for oddities and idiosyncrasies, I have concluded that Nook for PC and Sony Reader for PC definitely look the best and offer the most accurate display, with the Nook having a slight edge over its Japanese cousin.  Now, remember, these are computer applications, not physical e-readers.  But if I was to base a choice on what I’ve seen of the apps, I’d buy a Nook.

Due to the delay in my acceptance of the… err… e-proof, not all the retailers may have it up on their websites for the 30th, but no worries.  All the appropriate links will go up on this site as soon as they become available.  There should be reviews coming out soon, and I’ll link to those as well.  Only eighteen days to go!

And talking of momentous dates, this weekend marks the hundredth anniversary of the famous Titanic disaster as you have doubtless gathered from pretty much any media, all of which seem obsessed with the subject right now.  It does hold a fascination for us for some reason.  Must have been a ghastly, horrible night.  My dad would’ve been two years old at the time.  I think it’s lesson to us all never to tempt calamity by saying “even God Himself couldn’t…”

Roger and out, X.