Whew.

Splash screen for the
English version

Just submitted app #1 (travel phrases) and #2 (旅行会話) to Apple's App Store. Way more painful than I expected, but it's done. Hopefully it will make it through the review process unscathed.

Then, apps that I have made will be available for download and purchase. I'm still grappling with this idea.

In fact, it's the first product that I really feel that I have created, being made available to the public at large, which they can then pay money for if they like it. (Not to me, but that's all right. I've already been paid for it.) I certainly do feel a sense of ownership in the books that I had a major influence on through editing and criticism. But that feeling is not the same as being the generative force behind that work.

Heady stuff.

Dialogue from the Japanese version

In fact, being a contract worker was extremely hard on me because I felt hemmed in in terms of the ways I could contribute. On the other hand, I didn't want to contribute to every aspect of the business - I wanted to focus on making a great app. And even though I did contribute beyond the app, sometimes it was frustrating that I was spending my time on peripheral things rather than getting the app itself done. It was an unexpected tension that I basically avoided trying to discuss or resolve.

I'm listening to an audiobook called Critical Conversations, which has some good insights as to why people do really poorly in expressing themselves. I want listen to it again and make an effort to have these kinds of conversations, rather than avoiding them.

At any rate, my next step is to put together a personal site that I may direct all of my adoring fans to. Picking a theme from Google Blogger is, I feel, insufficient. Then I hang out my shingle as an iOS developer for hire. Or something to that effect.

Exciting times.