Published Books by Michael Martinez
Parma Endorion, Part Two

Page 1    Page 2    Page 3    The Anglo-Saxon Myth

After several weeks of discussion, Michael and Matt Tinaglia (Parma's editor) agreed on about six artists. Michael sought help in contacting them from the Webmasters operating the galleries where he found their artwork. Not everyone could be contacted, but Rich Sullivan and Anke Eissmann responded and agreed to allow some of their pictures to be used in the eBook. "Neither artist's interpretation exactly matches mine," Michael notes, "but their work was so good, and so very close to what I was looking for, that I really had to use those images."

The result, after Matt Tinaglia finished assembling the eBook, was an amazingly concise eBook. Hardly innovative, producing the eBook was nonetheless a new experience for the author, editor, and artists. The bulk of the work was performed by Matt, who studied how eBooks are created and selected the styles. With a few suggestions on arrangements from Michael, Matt efficiently produced a respectable eBook.

Michael then turned to Eva Almeida, operator of the eBooksnBytes Web site and newsletter, for advice on how best to distribute the eBook. The eBook industry is still in its infancy, and Michael wanted to avoid as many of the pitfalls that eBook pioneers had encountered as he possibly could. Eva is a respected member of the eBook community. She also operates the Free eBooks.Net Web site. Eva, a Tolkien fan herself, graciously offered to host the eBook there.

When all was ready, the eBook was launched on January 5, 2001. "I have to admit that that first day was one of the longest of my life," Michael concedes. "I had told everyone involved in the project that I expected about 50,000 downloads in the first year. That was, I think, a reasonable projection based on the performance of the Web sites. Also, New Line Cinema had released an eBook related to the 'Lord of the Rings' movies. It generated about half a million downloads in a matter of days. I decided we would be overshadowed by that eBook, even though it had been available for months."

The waiting ended early on January 6 when Michael asked Eva how well they had done. She reported that she had had to give the eBook its own server. There were 4,000 downloads that first day, a record for Free-ebooks.net. Among all eBooks, 4,000 downloads in a day is exceptional, unless you are Stephen King or Peter Jackson. "I was stunned," Michael admits. "I mean, I was afraid we'd get maybe 50 or 100 downloads and then I would have to give the team a pep talk. But we blasted out of the gate ahead of the pack." Within three weeks, Parma Endorion downloads had surpassed the 25,000 mark and Eva proclaimed it the top download for 2002 in her next eBooksnBytes newsletter. Premature? Hardly. Most eBooks never see 25,000 downloads in a year, much less three weeks.

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