Introduction
Welcome to the July 2020 Journal, our third issue. We are pleased we’ve kept this commitment again this quarter. So far, the format is working for us.
Once again, we are going to record and review the activities conducted during the April – June quarter and discuss our planned activities for July – September.
The coronavirus continues to pervade our thoughts regarding travel. However, we were able to travel to Rainbow Beach in the Wide-Bay Burnett Region which is adjacent to our Sunshine Coast Region and spend four relaxing days there. The weather was fine and sunny, but cold for Queenslanders (8⁰C-20⁰C). But our plans for travel to the UK in September – October will be cancelled. We will not be travelling overseas until our government gives the OK and there is a vaccine or effective treatment is available.
We are using the same journal headings as last quarter, but slightly reordered with Travel, Posts, eBooks, and Our Website.
So, without further ado, let’s get stuck in:
Travel – July 2020 Journal
We were able to travel to the Cooloola Coast during June. More specifically, we had four days at Rainbow Beach and visited Tin Can Bay, Inskip Point, and the Carlo Sand Blow. We were unable to visit Double Island Point because a 4WD vehicle was required. Moreover, group tours were cancelled because of CIVID-19, and private tours were prohibitively expensive. So, we’ll have to return – such a shame 😀 . This trip was part of our thrust to really understand the Wide Bay Burnett region.
Travel restrictions have been gradually lifted within Queensland across May and June. We can now travel throughout the state and we expect interstate borders to be opened soon. In fact as this post goes on line the Queensland borders are open to other states except Victoria and parts of NSW.
Posts – July 2020 Journal
April – June
Six posts during this quarter, wonders will never cease! The posts included:
- Our Second Quarterly Journal
- Queensland Hotels (Heritage-listed) (28 April)
- Aberdeen Architecture (Updated 28 April)
- Our Self-publishing Approach – Part 3: eBook Marketing (Revised) (22 May)
- A Glimpse of Gympie Heritage (15 June)
- Our Self-publishing Approach – Part 13: The OS Wayfarer Author Website (30 June)
Being grounded with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) has enabled us to review, update and catch-up with our posts. Our travel post on Gympie, Queensland Hotels and Aberdeen are examples of catching up. We’ve had this material for some time and the hiatus on travel activities has enabled us to publish these posts. Similarly, our two posts on self-publishing have resulted from having more time to reflect, research, update and write: eBook Marketing and The OS Wayfarer Author Website.
July – September
Our posts during the next quarter will continue in much the same way. We will look at our existing photos of heritage-listed buildings and build on our content. Also, we will continue to review, research, and update the series on self-publishing.
Amazon Links:eBooks – July 2020 Journal
We have been thinking about our eBook situation. To keep faith with our goals we need to self-publish an eBook this year. In the April Journal entry, we pointed to two eBooks: Queensland Heritage-listed Buildings and Our Approach to eBook self-publishing as possibilities for self-publishing. These two books remain on our priority list. However, we have added updating our Queensland Coastal Towns eBook to the list.
To self-publish another eBook this year we need to prioritise our efforts. Our current thinking is discussed below.
Queensland Heritage-listed Buildings
We have chosen this eBook to be the new eBook for 2020. This will be a nice challenge as we haven’t attempted this type of eBook before. The task and decisions before us include:
- Which buildings should be included – is a good photograph available? Is it a striking building? Does it depict an important style for a period of history? Should there be a balance of buildings from along the coast?
- Should the eBook have themes, for example: hotels, banks, post offices, schools of arts etc?
- How much theory should be included, for example: discussion about styles (Classicism), heritage-value, building period, significance to the local community etc?
- What type of eBook should it be, for example: EPUB, PDF, Printed or some combination of these?
- How closely should this eBook be aligned to the Queensland Coastal Towns eBook? After almost all the photographs come from these towns. Maybe the eBook should stand on its own?
It has taken some time to make the decision to pursue this eBook. However, we are glad the decision is made because we now have a goal for this year. We seem to work better with clear goals.
Can you help us make these decisions? What do you think? Please comment below.
Our Self-publishing Approach
Even though we have published 13 posts regarding Our Approach to Self-Publishing, we feel this is still very much a work in progress. More of the posts, as with eBook Marketing, need to be revised, updated, and extended; while we still have new posts to add like the recent The OS Wayfarer Author Website.
This will take time and further work will take the form of posts for the remainder of this year.
Queensland Coastal Towns
We have resolved to continually update and extend our Queensland Coastal Towns eBook. We want this eBook to evolve into a substantial guide for Queensland Coastal Towns. Our first extension will be to add information about Gympie and the Cooloola Coast; while our first update will be to incorporate Australian Bureau of Statistics 2016 census data to replace the 2011 data.
Since this is an eBook (as opposed to a printed book) updates can be released relatively easily once sufficient new material is included. It may be possible to release an update this year, but it will take second place to the Queensland Heritage-listed Buildings eBook.
Our Website – July 2020 Journal
We have been recalcitrant in not paying more attention to our website recently, especially since it is our most important self-publishing resource. We need to reinstate our policy of spending half-a-day-a-week with website development. A few tasks beckon:
- A progressive review of content to ensure relevance, consistency, and currency.
- An update of the side-bar content
- A review of the application of social media engagement across the site
- A review of the website plugins
Maintaining an author website is a never-ending task!
The final word…
We trialled our DJI Osmo Pocket video camera while we were at Rainbow Beach, and it worked well. However, the operator technique could be betterL. The intent is to post these videos on Facebook once we feel an acceptable standard has been reached. At this stage more practice is required!
See you next quarter.
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