Richard S. Lowry has spent the last twelve years working off and on at a labor of love. Richard, an integrated circuit designer, businessman, entrepreneur and military history buff, has always wanted to publish a book.

When Saddam’s tanks rolled into Kuwait in the summer of 1990, Richard immediately started collecting information. As the months passed and the defense of Saudi Arabia turned into the last great war of the 20^th Century, Richard’s study began to fill with newspapers, magazines, and lined pads of paper containing hastily scribbled notes.

To sort out the military events surrounding two 500,000-man armies would have been nearly impossible for one person using a file cabinet or two to organize the research. Richard decided to use his home computer to build and maintain a chronology of events of The Gulf War. As he collected more and more information he finally reached a state of critical mass. “I could write a book,” he thought.

For the next eleven years he sporadically worked on his book. After 9-11 he decided to get serious and make a final push to finish the book and get it published. It turns out that writing The Gulf War Chronicles – a Military History of the First War with Iraq was much easier than finding a publisher. Richard diligently sent off inquiries to all of the publishing houses he could find, only to find out that the majority of the first-rate publishers would only accept manuscript submissions from a literary agent. Not to be deterred, he then sent out inquiries to several literary agents.

Richard finally realized that this process could take a very long time (it was already 2003). It was possible that he may not ever find an agent/publisher that was willing to risk publishing a first-time author. So, he turned to Print-On-Demand publishing.

The Gulf War Chronicles is currently in production at iUniverse and will be available for sale by December 1, 2003. Initially, you will only be able to order a hardbound copy at iUniverse’s website www.iuniverse.com In the near future it will be available online through Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Books-a-Million. Eventually, we are hoping that The Gulf War Chronicles will become available at your local bookstore.

Herein lies the only drawback to Print-On-Demand Publishing. It is very difficult to get the same exposure as a traditionally published book. As with most things in life POD’s strength is its weakness as well. Anyone can publish with POD. That’s great! Think of it. ANYONE can publish. Isn’t that an extraordinary technological accomplishment? Yet, because anyone can publish a POD book, authors like Richard, who are serious and who have produced a work worth reading, have a difficult time getting exposure for their book.

Information overload! Book reviewers can’t possibly read all the material that is being published. Bookstores can’t possibly accommodate every author’s request for a book signing. So, serious authors like Richard Lowry must work very hard to get the word out. Without publicity The Gulf War Chronicles will die on the electronic vine.

If you are considering publishing your own book, Print-On-Demand publishing could be right for you. If you want your book to be the next rising star on The New York Times bestseller list, think very carefully about developing a marketing plan. Construct a Website like www.gwchronicles.com and think hard about how you will advertise your book.