I have acquired many new, used, discontinued, clearance and on-sale hydroponics and smart soil growing systems.

Some of these have apps. Some of these have apps for the sole purpose of being able to say, we have an app. Some of the apps aren’t worth the bits they’re written in.

That got me thinking and tinkering. I worked in QC for six years before I retired. Before that I worked in IT for 26 years. During my QC stint I documented everything in logbooks, transferring that information into the contract approved QC forms. With that as context, I started to create a logbook with custom pages for each growing system I owned. Each page has a consistent page layout, the same, but different for each system.

I expanded beyond, to include as many systems as I can find.

I slog away and break my initial document into two. I focus on and finish the first logbook.

I request an ISBN from Library and Archives Canada. Denied. But, I can submit my document for review and they may change their mind.

Now, I’m eager to get on with it, so I publish my document to KDP with an Amazon supplied barcode, while at the same time, requesting five author proofs (I didn’t follow the process), and sending in my document to appeal my ISBN rejection.

Appeal response is back before the author proofs. I’ve been approved for an ISBN. Great. I try to delete my barcode version. Can’t. I’m only allowed to archive it.

The proofs arrive. The gutter is too small. I used B5 JIS trim with a 15 mm gutter. It doesn’t fold flat enough for my liking. I also discover that the margin of error that Amazon deems acceptable is 1/8” or 3 mm. This is very noticeable and disappointing. I discover that the error may be exacerbated by my trim choice. I also discover that B5 JIS isn’t available for hard cover and extended distribution. Great.

I resize my B5 document to Executive 7” by 10”.

It’s only a few millimeters out from B5. I increase the gutter to 3/4”.

I add my freshly minted ISBN. Exciting times. I request five author proofs and wait. They arrive. The gutter is still too small, in my opinion. Some small errors have crept in during the resizing. I fix everything. I re-upload. I’m waiting on a charity, so I can include a donation blurb.

While I’m waiting, I start to flesh out the second logbook. It’s coming in at 180 pages. The first logbook is 120 pages. I had made decisions on the number of pages in the first logbook to keep it at 120 pages. Now, I’m thinking I was wrong. I revist the first logbook, happily expand it to 180 pages. Haven’t heard back from the charity, so I decided I’ll donate without having a blurb in my book. I remove the charity blurb. Push it up to KDP and request one, not five, author proofs.

While I wait. I decided to split the second logbook into two. I’d made decisions to get it to 180, that I wasn’t happy with. Now it’s 180 and the second one will be 180.

That’s three logbooks from an initial idea for a single logbook.

The new 180 page logbook author proof is supposed to arrive Wednesday.

I’m already exploring hard cover and other language versions.

Exciting times.