My trip through the Philippines will be coming to a close soon — at least in this journal. And I wanted to let you know that there is more to look forward to in the coming week.
Along with the upcoming journals from my travels throughout the islands of Taiwan, I will also be releasing the various parts of my next film, Travel Geek: Documentary Taiwan — just as I have here in the Philippines section of the blog. However, before I get on to that, I wanted to announce another very special treat — for the readers of this blog and for me as well.
After the final day that the last of the Philippines journals are published, I will be releasing my new book, Postcards from the Pavement: Southeast Asia, the book that follows my Southeast Asian travels all the way through to the beginning of this blog. So if you ever wanted to enjoy the entire ride and read about all the places that I have visited since moving to Asia — and all in one sitting — this is the book for you.
Publishing a book is not easy business. But the process has been made much easier in recent years by the free market competition against the Big Six publishers. And in even more recent years, the big wholesalers like Barnes & Noble and Amazon have even come into competition of their own. The ePub market has exploded with independent writers like myself. And we’ve created such a demand for easy publishing, that the response has been overwhelming.
But before the book gets its ISBN and goes on the bigger distribution websites, I wanted to offer it here to my subscribers first.
This book — released here in PDF so anyone can read it without the eReader, Nook, Kindle, etc. — comes with fully interactive links to videos hosted on the site. So as long as you’re near an internet connection, you can watch the videos right from the book!
It’s also completely collated with jump-to-chapter and jump-to-page links and search options. You can even highlight, mark, bubble-text and page-save just as in the latest PDF options!
What’s more, I have added scores of new photos that aren’t offered on my blog or on my photography website. So when you get the copy of the book, you will literally have a collection of my photographic works that aren’t available anywhere else on the web!
There are nearly 1000 external reference links in the book as well. So you’re guaranteed to get everything that I have online, plus all the additional content that is only available in the book.
But probably the best part is that, because it’s available for download right to your computer, you can print off an entire copy for yourself, buy one and print it to give away as a gift, or just pick and choose which photos you would like to print and hang them as a memento from the last few years and many thousands of miles we’ve spent together.
When you buy the book, you can also be sure that no big corporations or production companies will benefit in any way. They have enough money already. This money will go right back into the blog. There’s something big that I have planned, but up until now, I haven’t been able to talk about it.
But, since we’re already talking about it; I plan on a monumental trip in the fall of this year, including a documentary filming excursion that will cover ALL ELEVEN COUNTRIES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA! So the funds gathered by this book will be given right back to you in all the films, photos and journals that will be created throughout that trip.
It’s a very exciting time for me. I am one of the few media professionals that is completely online. Of course, if you want hard copies, those can be created. I only print books and photographs from my commercial website, cyleodonnell.com, when orders come in. So there is no paper waste, no stockpile of cardboard and plastic packaging sitting around in a warehouse somewhere, no chemicals from printing — nothing but my green books, blogs, images and articles. Even my website is hosted with iPage, a company whose servers run from wind-generated power!
I am setting the cost of the book at just $4.99 — and only for the readers of this blog — because I want everyone to be able to afford one. The later release on the ePub giants will cost more because they take a cut right off the top. So you get the cheapest rate, the freedom to print off the book and you get it BEFORE anyone at Amazon or Smashwords even see it!
And if you’re a friend on my private Facebook page who enlisted in the recent event to sign up for the blog, don’t worry I will be announcing the free password on that event to get your copy as soon as I release the book later this week. I haven’t forgotten about you guys!
But having said that, I can honestly say that I need subscribers more than I need the money. So if you’re reading this and can think of a handful of people who might enjoy my blogs and photography, I will give you something too: If you can get five (5) people to subscribe to this blog, and they send me an email verifying that you got them to sign up, I will send you a free copy of the book as well. But it’s gotta be pretty fast because the offer ends as soon as the ISBN is assigned and it’s published in the commercial market. (that email is cyle@cyleodonnell.com)
Remember, this is just the first book in a series of many more to come. In fact, before the end of next month I plan on having released more than 50 short stories — all within the collection of stories from the Mishaps in Motion series, which includes this upcoming book, Postcards from the Pavement: Southeast Asia.
Watch the video below, and see what I have planned for the future.
Until then, enjoy the last journals from the Philippines!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poAecxtbp3o]