As the release date approached for my e-book, Extending Your Use-By Date: Why retirement age is only a number, I wondered what would be an appropriate way to launch it. After all, it’s not in hard copy, so there’s not much point in having a ‘traditional’ launch, often held in a bookshop, with the author signing copies of the newly purchased book. With an e-book, there’s nothing to sign.

Then it came to me: a launch via Skype – using technology in line with the e-book concept. And Dr Karen E. Watkins, Professor in Adult Education and Human Resource and Organizational Development in the College of Education at the University of Georgia. Athens, USA, generously agreed to say the appropriate words – online.

Professor Watkins is the author or co-author of six books and over 100 journal articles and book chapters, was inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame in 2003. She’s been to Australia several times, most recently as a consultant on organisational learning.

So, on Sunday 24 March, a small crowd gathered in Brisbane, Queensland, to hear Karen talk from Athens, Georgia, USA, about her own personal experiences as an ‘older worker’ with no intention of retiring, and to send the book on its way. The only limitation with a Skype launch was that we couldn’t invite her to join us for champagne to celebrate the occasion 🙂

In the past week I have done twelve radio interviews about Extending your use-by date, with more to come. Many of the interviewers were intrigued by the notion that more than 1 million Australians aren’t sure when they’ll retire and more than 650,000 say they’ll never retire, but all of the interviewers were supportive of the idea behind the book. You can  listen to or download an interview here with Natasha Mitchell on Life Matters, ABC (Australia) Radio National, which went to air on Thursday 21 March.

Extending Your Use-By Date is available as a download for AU$9.99 from the publisher, www.xoum.com.au, as well as at Amazon.com, Kobo, and the Apple iBookstore. If you want to download onto a desktop computer or laptop, you first need to download a free e-book reader, such as Adobe Digital Editions. If you have a tablet or other mobile device, it should have e-reader software already installed.