Square One

Mark Sosin's interest in epublishing is growing!

After 20 years in the publishing industry it seems as though we are back to square one. Three years ago we knew very little about the emerging digital publishing world, but it is amazing what we have learned over a short period of time.

What we have discovered is we are all sharing similar paths when it comes to first understanding then embracing and utilizing the many valuable resources available to us as authors and artists in the digital publishing world. While we may all be following similar ePaths, most of us are at different eJunctures.

By attending both the Florida Outdoor Writers Association's and the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association's annual conferences recently, we've learned that everyone seems to be coming up to speed in regards to the ePublishing world. The process seems very similar to the transformation we experienced just a few years ago with the emergence of digital photography.

Through our conversations with many authors and artists, Little Pond Publishing has developed packages and services designed to assist the beginner, as well as the seasoned professional, from start to finish.

If you would like us to consult with you throughout the ePublishing process, we can; or if you just need some of the a la carte services we provide for authors and artists, we can do that, too.

While striving for excellence in customer service is our primary goal, our main focus is to build a long-lasting win/win relationship with you as we navigate the ePublishing process together.

Here at Little Pond Publishing we understand that by listening to your needs and desires we are able to design an ePublishing program that works best for your success.

Rodney Smith, CEO of Little Pond Publishing;and author of Catching Made Easy and Enjoying Life on the Indian River Lagoon is a visionary and community leader who like to share his tales. Download these books digitally on Amazon, iTunes and Barnes and Noble by searching "Rodney Smith+Name of book"; or order the soft-covered books online!  See all of Rodney's upcoming events and exploits at www.rodneysmithmedia.com.

What's the Term?

It took only 17 years and a hundred days or so in the publishing industry to truly appreciate the value of thoroughly comprehending the language and terminology connected to what you spend your time doing.

Recently a friend, author Mark Dotson, was reviewing Road to Matapalo, a manuscript of mine. Forthright, he offered his opinion. "Seeing I'm not a surfer, I didn't understand the majority of the surfing lingo you used." It was Mark's way of saying, “You best check that out.”

As a publisher working with hundreds of writers, I've found understanding the lingo is absolutely essential to the success of ePublishing for all parties involved. A recent teleconference conversation between Little Pond Publishing team members and an author started with introductions and then turned toward an informal language and terminology review. This made our communication sharper, more focused and mutually beneficial.

Here are a few eBook and digital publishing terms for you.

ePublishing: short for electronic publishing

ePub or EPUB: short for electronic publication. These come in many formats, including eBooks, digital magazines, newsletters, etc.

Tablet reading device: the full name for a tablet. It's the same as any mobile, compact device (little computer), like the iPad/iPhone, Google Nexus, Kindle, etc.

Print on demand: this means books are not printed until ordered and can be printed one at a time.

MOBI: an eBook file format. Converting files is a major part of ePublishing.

Coming up to speed with the new world of eBooks and digital publishing lingo is going to be a critical part of success for today's writers and artists. Comprehending simple terms like hash tags, file formatting, fixed electronic layout and flowable electronic layout will help put you in the driver's seat. As an author or artist, don't find yourself incapacitated by a lack of ePublishing vocabulary. Success is only a few words away!






Rodney Smith, CEO of Little Pond Publishing;and author of Catching Made Easy and Enjoying Life on the Indian River Lagoon is a visionary and community leader who like to share his tales. Download these books digitally on Amazon, iTunes and Barnes and Noble by searching "Rodney Smith+Name of book"; or order the soft-covered books online!  See all of Rodney's upcoming events and exploits at www.rodneysmithmedia.com.

Characteristics of a Book Reader

Have you ever noticed how reading habits vary from person to person? Some of us can only read one book at a time, while others have multiple titles sitting by their bedside, in their bathrooms, scattered about their house and office.

Romantic novels are the king for some, crime mysteries work for others, and a good many of us never investigate either of these genres. More than once a sage has suggested to me it is best to move away from your comfort zone and be a consumer of many topics. This can be difficult and ever so rewarding.

I'm a slow, steady reader. Prolific in the titles I consume, I’m more like the turtle than the hare, eventually reaching the finish line. Following the adage stop and smell the roses, I wallow in the words and connect to the author's message. Books with a message captivate me. I have no time for shallowness.

I like it when people share books with me, and people have shared many. There's something very special about someone knowing you’ll appreciate their connection to an author, book or subject. Two of my dearest friends, Rusty Chinnis and Mike Holliday, share books with me often. Rusty is famous for casually mentioning an author, and then voilà, two days later that author’s newest book is delivered to our doorstep.


While I won’t be sending any of you a new book anytime soon, I'd like to share a few of the books I've read during the past year or so. Mike Holliday leant me Dead Zero by Stephen Hunter. With its drones, death squads and strong military flavor, this one varied far from the literary path I usually follow. Regardless, I found it to be relative to today's world, provocative and entertaining. I rooted for Ray Cruz to the end.

John Englander's High Tide on Main Street deals directly with sea level rise and our ability to deal with it. Living with Florida's Atlantic Beaches: Coastal Hazards from Amelia Island to Key West by David Bush is a technically sharp, science-based look at Florida's east coast beaches and barrier islands. I suggest these books to anyone living on or near the beach or concerned with sea level rise.

Life and Death of the Salt Marsh by John and Mildred Teal was an equally sobering look at our world. Al Gore's newest interactive eBook, Our Choice, was by far the most creative publication I coddled in 2013. Strauss and Howe's The Fourth Turning is an interesting look at why we are where we are in America today. Books John Adams by David McCullough and The New Revelations: A Conversation with God by Neale Walsch were both uplifting and interesting. I reread two iconic books, one for pure pleasure - To Kill a Mocking Bird - and one for pure strategy - The Art of War.

Books are central to our ability to communicate our collective knowledge. They are always a good gift idea. For Christmas 2012, our favorite youngest son, Jacob, gave me a book I highly recommend everyone study, Zen Yoga.

Namaste

Rodney Smith, CEO of Little Pond Publishing;and author of Catching Made Easy and Enjoying life on the Indian River Lagoon is a visionary and community leader who like to share his tales. Download these books digitally on Amazon, iTunes and Barnes and Noble by searching "Rodney Smith+Name of book"; or order the soft-covered books online!  See all of Rodney's upcoming events and exploits at www.rodneysmithmedia.com.

A Thumbnail Idea!

The Florida Dung Beetle- an idea?

It's funny how little things can generate great ideas.

In this case, it’s an exciting find. Our crew of hikers, seven of us, huddle close together, marveling over our discovery. Our captive, a rainbow scarab, is a brilliant iridescent blue-green beetle with a hoe-like brown horn projecting well above his wedged forehead.

Sandra Friend, and John Keatley lead our hike. Their shared passion for hiking is contagious. We're a group of Florida Outdoor Writers Association’s conference attendees who opted out of fishing on the great Kissimmee River basin. This year's conference host, the rustic Westgate River Ranch, is situated at Lake Kissimmee's south shore and connected to the KICCO Wildlife Management Area. We're hiking the Florida Trail south toward Ice Cream Slough.

Along the way I find him wallowing and lifting the earth under a pile of unidentifiable clay-like gray dung on a very narrow portion of the Florida Trail wedged between a divined grove of ancient palmettos. For me it's one of the more interesting beetles I've seen, and I've seen my good share. Twenty years ago while surfing and camping in Pavones, Costa Rica, my companions and I discovered a huge, somewhat similar-looking beetle in brush near our campsite. It had a marvelous glitzy exoskeleton, and its body nearly filled my hand. After we caught and released the critter, we watched in amazement as it opened its wings and loudly buzzed away. It was twice the size of some of the birds we were seeing around us.

This Florida dung beetle is about the size of my thumbnail. Noticeably happy when I gently place him down he disappears back under the scat, quickly escaping the tip of the palm fond branch I use to achieve its poopy catch and release.

While this critter encounter could lead me down a path lined in crappy thoughts, it actually paves a pathway of inspiring possibilities. I marvel at how such a diminutive beetle can generate the strength to lift a hundred times its weight in dung.

Later that day back at River Ranch, the FOWA conference's annual Al Hubbard Corporate and Tourism Showcase is buzzing with writers and authors. Many of them visit our LPP display and fill out our LPP writer's questionnaire. The data we receive from the questionnaire clearly shows the vast majority of writers understand and appreciate the value of publishing an eBook and have the desire to publish an eBook.

Rodney Smith, CEO of Little Pond Publishing;and author of Catching Made Easy and Enjoying life on the Indian River Lagoon is a visionary and community leader who like to share his tales. Download these books digitally on Amazon, iTunes and Barnes and Noble by searching "Rodney Smith+Name of book"; or order the soft-covered books online!  See all of Rodney's upcoming events and exploits at www.rodneysmithmedia.com. 

Everyone Loves a Contest

Everyone loves a contest. As Americans, the thrill of winning is in our blood! The vast majority of us take pleasure it competing or watching great sports. Often competition helps deliver the energy needed to lift us up to the next level. It has been this way and will remain this way for eons.

For this reason, Little Pond Publishing (LPP) is sponsoring two one-of-a-kind contests for both sage and novice writers. Autumn Tales is for the writers of murder, mystery or romance novels; and Tattle Tales is for the writers of children's books. For more information on these excellent opportunities go to littlepondpublishing.com

As a digital publishing house, we believe it is critical for LPP to lead the way in communicating with writers in new and creative ways. These contests have be designed for this very reason. Today writers have more creative and technical tools within their reach than ever before, and it's LPP's goal to help them utilize these assets.

Is that thunder I hear?

Hell's flames coming to Vegas

Is that thunder I hear?

It's 8:40 A.M., and raining lobsters here on Florida's Space Coast! No really! The sight of the foam cooler, heavy with fresh lobsters sitting on our dining room floor, shook me into reality.

The two-day lobster mini-sports season (July 24/25) had cruised past its mid-point just as a line of heavy downpours and gusty northwest winds brush the coastline. Despite the necessity of dodging tropical showers, many divers and snorkelers hunting and gathering spiny lobsters experienced high visibility and success up and down Florida's East coast, despite nasty algae blooms in Biscayne Bay and the Indian River Lagoon.

Being away for the past two weeks, I journeyed from Satellite Beach, Florida, to Las Vegas, Nevada, then to the Florida Keys. For me reading and traveling go hand-in-hand, and lately I've been carrying David McCullough's great John Adams biography through airports and subways. This darn paperback must weight four or five pounds!

I laugh out loud at times as tiny glimpses of my subliminal transformation into the eBook world surfaces. My dear friend, John Detmer, talks of how paperback books were forbidden from his parents' library in their home nestled along Chicago's south shore of Lake Michigan in Winnetka, Illnois. Yes, there was a time when hard cover books were king.

In a world where people travel light, fast and agile, the thought of continuing the old ways is moot. Change comes rapidly to the tech savvy folks. We now live in a world were libraries, thousands of titles, are carried around on a tablet weighting less than a pound. Is that thunder I hear?

Until next time . . . Fodder Away to my Facebook!

A Fluid Tool of Alteration

In early summer for the past decade or more my good friend, Mark Nichols, reunites a bunch of fishing captains and outdoor photojournalist friends. We gather at River Palm Cottages in Jensen Beach for the D.O.A. Lures¹ Outdoor Writers Bash (the D.O.A. has become a sponsor of Florida's Eco Voice Digest and if you are interested check it out at Eco-Voice.org).

The gathering is a joyous occasion full of great food, spirits and many new and old stories. We also do a load of fishing along the shores of North America's greatest and most diverse estuaries, the Indian River Lagoon.

Mike Connor with a seatrout!

For me fishing has been a fluid tool of alteration. Just add water and most of us become different creatures more in tune with our surroundings and connected to our natural spirit. As a fishing guide for nearly twenty years, I would usually focus my thoughts on the security and happiness of my clients while on the water, but today things are a little different. Now fishing provides empty space within my mind, where I can fill it with thoughts of simple things in life. Things like the great southern white butterflies invading our backyards this time of year or how well the shrimping has been on the lagoon the past couple of months, but of course, slowly, steadily more pressing thoughts begin to percolate.

As I dive deep into the advancing world of digital publishing, I feel a bit melancholy hearing my respected associates resistant to change. Perhaps my sadness is more about the distance created between us by my chosen path and in my mind¹s eye I am watching them fade into history carrying with them rich, colorful stories that might have been shared with a new audience.

Until next time ... Fodder Away!