I am bursting to share this idea

I have written what I consider as books, more than 300 k words, at least. So yes, I have been writing for years.
However whenever I offer something for publication I am ignored. I know, I know; the easy part of writing a book is finishing the story. Getting it published is the hard part.
I am a computer programmer in real life. I guess that makes me a technician. I must think and write like one too.
This morning I awoke with a simple solution to my dilemma - make my latest book into a web site.
So here's the idea: Keep the story the same, but use illustrations in place of too much writing, but not quite a comic, (I am not artistic enough for that).
It is science fiction of course, but each time I get technical - which is quite often - replace it with a Flash movie explanation. I have the tools to do it.
So I must publish it on the web.
Three options to view:
• Free straight from the web site with a picture in place of a video and perhaps making only the first few chapters available.
• If the reader thinks the book looks good, then pay a reasonable (small) fee and download the full book with an option to view it off-line in PDF with videos in Adobe AIR.
• Alternatively use a PDF with an open Internet connection with videos in Flash.
Perhaps I might put some security check so it cannot be copied too easily.
Now most of the book is based largely on my own experience with huge injections of imagination. It is also classical Sci-fi, and set the in twenty first century so almost everything except the Sci-fi, is in today's world and illustrating that would be fairly easy using royalty free images - (Sci-fi in videos and everyday things in pictures).
So that's the idea - take a long time; yes - so what's new?
What do you think? Is it a good idea? Will it sell?

The March of Technology

Wow! I am playing 'Catchup' like crazy.
Of course I do computer programming for a living, so I have never been far from what is happening on the Web, but C++ (my language of choice and expertise) is not close to the languages used on the Web.
What has changed more than anything is the quality of the presentation. My web-sites of 10 years ago that look like newsprint compared to the glossy magazine sites of today.
I loaded some of my original work and shuddered when I saw it on the screen, but it was not so much the appearance that astonished me, but it was the speed of my old websites - they simply flashed up onto the screen, almost instantaneously.
So the great looks has come at a cost. I am confident that once this old dog learns the new tricks I will have something to share with my younger colleagues.
Performance is not the only sacrifice with the new technology, but the tools that are necessary to produce the magazine glossy pages are not cheap. Thankfully they are easy to use and learn.

GraceBook - A Showcase of Grace

I am putting my writing on hold while I get back to my old fascination with the Internet.
I am in the process of conceptualising a huge new idea. If you are familiar with FaceBook then you know what I am planning – except it will be for supporters of Christian's whose full-time occupation is related to the furtherance or the Gospel of Christ.

Thanks to a new initiative from Google, I can design a Web Site and host it on the Google Resources for low start-up cost (other than my time of course).

My plan is that I will design Web Sites for Christian workers. I want to link these and other web sites, blogs etc., that I or others could design into a loose network around my own central website to form a hub and I will support the web sites I designed, for a year or so, more or less if necessary until the owner can come up to speed to manage it alone.

OK I’m rambling. Here are the principles:

• The community of websites will link to back to the central GraceBook Site. This will have a Social Networking structure like facebook.com or maybe more like twitter.com where supporters can network with one another in a Christian atmosphere, share (or tweet about,) pictures and stories, celebrate birthdays of the Christian workers and discuss, vote, select or suggest which are the best of the photos / stories / articles from individual web sites to showcase.
  
• The individual web sites will be owned by the Christian Worker (or by their Support Group if politics require anonymity.)This is for donation collection purposes which will go straight to the owner or a delegate.
• Technical support for the Website is open for anyone and controlled by the owner who will have all source code.
• Ultimately the running of the Network can be done by the community if it gets to big for me alone.
• The latest newsletter, videos and photo's will be clicked open from the Home Page. Previous docs will be available in an archive. This will keep the web sites alive and interesting and we will have something to discuss in the GraceBook Site.
  
• The primary purpose of the individual sites will be as a Showcase of Grace.
• The secondary purposes will be:

1. To keep in touch with mission contacts
2. To give feed back to supporters.
3. To win new supporters.
4. To stay real to supporters by sharing family photos, videos and events.
5. To provide an easy access to make donations.
6. To incorporate (share) other forms of Internet communication – e-mail, newsletters, blogs, tweets and important links.There is an API (computer programmer mechanisms to connect to twitter.com and Google Gadgets and applications) for just about everything we need.
   

• The central GraceBook site may also collect donations – Initially I would support the under supported individual sites – and if I need the support one day, I’ll keep a tithe for myself and give the rest away.
• My aim will be to use the latest technology by keeping the whole thing powered by Google. There will be no limit to where it can go.
• Finally, thanks to Google, there will be no infrastructure costs to start-up and before any charges start to accrue the owner should be able easily meet them from the income that the community will provide or else decide to close the site.

Well that is the vision. Please let me have your comments. It is a big project. I may need to get the help of others but the beauty is that it can start small.