It's past time to end my hiatus from posting to this blog. As I was catching up on message threads on a forum site for Kindle owners and authors, I saw something that inspired me to address the topic of this post: One of the fastest ways to turn me off from a book is to compare it (or its author) to some well-known name.

Before the end of the year, I wanted to complete a "to do" list item that has been nagging at me too long. The task: Release my children's book (Two Boys, Two Planets) for the Kindle. As a non-color, text-oriented reading tool, the Kindle was originally not well suited to children's picture books like mine. With the recent release of the Kindle Fire, however, and the ongoing availability of color-enabled Kindle apps for various platforms (PC, Mac, iPod Touch, etc.), I now believe it is less likely to be a waste of time to convert the print edition to a Kindle edition. I also found it encouraging to read of the success of other children's book authors publishing for the Kindle platform.

As some quick background, I participated in NaNoWriMo this year, as I have in past years, but for the first time I did not win. After getting over my disappointment, I decided to document some of the lessons I learned. If I participate next year I will hopefully remember to look back at these lessons and apply them to improve my chances of winning. By sharing them here perhaps other participants can benefit as well.