A fellow blogger recently passed away, a life suddenly taken without warning. Today, I visited his blog to read a few of his posts. It’s haunting to realize that you’re reading the words of someone who has passed on. It’s also a very emotional experience. All of a sudden their words have a greater meaning.

The posts that made us laugh, make us laugh even harder.  The ones that brought tears to our eyes, bring even more. We realize that each word was leading up to their final day, a day that they were unaware of when they wrote them.

A few months ago, a woman who had been struggling with the loss of her daughter, wrote a post. None of us knew that it would be her last. Perhaps she didn’t either. But when looking back at it, it’s heartbreaking to realize that the signs of what was to…

BookGarage

A dream and a vision for professional self-publishing

We are the witnesses of a (r)evolution in the publishing industry triggered by Amazon and the like.

Jeff Bezos has opened the gates and the gatekeepers are looking at each other unsure of what to do.

Self-publishing has created a marvelous thing: everyone can publish a book, and establish a one-to-many direct relationship with readers who buy and enjoy the new voices.

There’s a terrible monster that haunts the publishing valleys, too: everyone can publish a book, and readers are exposed to the slush pile for the first time visible to the many. Recently, Books-A-Million has declared that its bookstores will be equipped each with POD printers. “Every book is printed because it has been sold,” breaking the old paradigm stating that “every printed book maybe is sold.”

The advent of cheaper and cheaper flash printers, together with higher and higher…

*A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She reduced altitude and spotted a man below. She descended a bit more and shouted:* *

‘Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago but I don’t know where I am.’

The man below replied, ‘You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground.* *You’re between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.’

You must be an Engineer,’ said the balloonist.

‘I am,’ replied the man, ‘how did you know?’

Well,’ answered the balloonist, ‘everything you have told me is probably technically correct, but I’ve no idea what to make of your information and the fact is, I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all. If anything, you’ve delayed my trip by your talk.’

The man…