Helping to launch a new feature in an ezine is both an honor and a challenge. I feel rather like my maternal ancestors, who left New York and traveled across Canada to settle in what was then known as the Northwest Territory--I know where I want to go, but I'm not certain what I'll discover once I reach my destination.

On the other hand, an on-going feature is not truly a destination. In the words of Neil Peart, "The point of a journey is not to arrive." ("Prime Mover") After all, once one arrives, one is no longer journeying.

In my budding career as an electronically published author, I have certainly not arrived. Indeed, I have barely begun my journey with only one book out, one short story in an anthology, three books under contract, and another under consideration. Despite the relative early days of my journey, I have encountered numerous obstacles, pitfalls, hazards, and joys much as, I am certain, my ancestors encountered the tragedies and triumphs of a new land.

My ancestors had the barest of trails to follow and certainly no road signs to guide them across the wilderness. Likewise, I had few road signs to help me along the path of launching my first e-book, getting it reviewed, getting me noticed as an author, getting other submissions into the right editor's screens. I learned by trial and error, more error and accidental discovery than anything else. No one had written manuals on electronic publishing. The ezines and other sites devoted to electronic publishing were scarce and, probably worst of all for me, prejudice against electronically published authors was rampant.

All this has changed in less than the two years since I first heard of electronic publishing. Now the difficulty of the journey lies more in too many road signs in the form of "Must see" sites and publications, not to mention publishers good and bad. So what I hope to do here is talk about my experiences good and bad, and practical advice, encouragement, and moral support to the potentially electronically published as well as those with experience in the industry. I welcome feedback and input, s please feel free to write me at lauriealice@lauriealiceeakes.com. Welcome aboard and let's get the wagons rolling.

lauriealice@lauriealiceeakes.com

http://www.lauriealiceeakes.com < P>