The new academic year has started and summer is over. But the “free-thinking” weeks of July and August provided plenty of opportunity for research (into the earls of Cornwall) and on other historical related areas. It also has offered the temptation of compiling a collection of past articles for an ebook.

Having read into the topic – including scanning through the excellent comments on the self-publishing subreddit – I’ve considered whether or not to upload a past article or two in the form of an ebook to test the water. At first I considered putting together a collection of the different Cornish themed articles that I’ve written and had published over the past decade, but then I thought that might be too much a time-wasting process (especially when considering the editing that would be involved). So, then I decided on quality rather than quantity, which involved trimming down the articles that would be placed in the volume. Then the trimming became rather bloody and I ended up with three articles; this was okay because I thought of a useful title: Onan, Dew, Tri. This was based on the numbers as written in the Cornish language. But I started shying away from this due to feeling dirty in using the Cornish language for my own gains (considering I do not speak Cornish myself), and then I realised that these three articles didn’t relate in any way. There was no actual connecting theme! So, the thought-train rumbled onwards…

The next logical shift was this: “Well, how about I just choose one of the articles?” Then there would be none of this nonsense about whether or not they fit together, or the need to try a gimmick for the title of the collection. And so I narrowed down my search to one article: ‘The Oddity of the Siege of St. Michael’s Mount’. This was something that related to an event from 1473-74 when the Earl of Oxford took control of St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall and held it in opposition to the Yorkists who controlled the kingdom at that time. I was getting quite ahead of myself until I realised that it was only one article and under 4,000 words long. Could books be just 4,000 words long?

Well, as it turns out, no books can’t be that short in size. But ebooks can – they come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. It could contain simply one page of only a dozen words! And so, here I am the end of this thought process having decided on re-editing this article on this event from 1473-74. But hopefully by going through the process through Kindle Direct Publishing I will learn a trick or two if it comes to self-publishing an ebook later on down the line.

Of course, I will update on this very blog as soon as anything comes to light. I’m quite interested in how this digital revolution has opened up an avenue for new voices, and how quickly something can be produced (within a couple of days). I’ll get on with it to see what the end product looks like.