I wrote the novel Bad Patches back in the mid-eighties on a typewriter. I made some attempts to publish it but no takers. It sat around for almost 20 years. Meanwhile the internet came along and with it ebooks. Recently I had it put into electronic form and then I revised it. To my surprise I discovered it is possible to publish such books oneself through Amazon. So I decided to do that. The service is actually free and the book goes on one's author page. It can be dowloaded to Kindle or a computer and it can be bought in paperback form. The price is very low. So no need to go via traditional publishers. The only issue is publicity--people need to be told it exists. I'm very interested to see if it finds any readers, and what they think. A commercial publisher has to make a big financial investment to put out a book, so it needs a substantial audience. But a book like mine is unlikely to appeal to a wide audience and might be enjoyed by only a few hundred people. In self-publishing the book I can reach that precious few hundred. This is quite a fascinating experiment in book publication. Let me know what you think. (You can also read the first couple of chapters for free.)