Working on this was surprising and rewarding. I initially, was concerned that I had nothing to say. Likewise, I stumbled out of the gate with some of the ebook publishing products. I did a bit of online searching and discovered PressBook a product in the family of WordPress. It is cloud-based and subscription based. The user interface is nearly identical to WordPress content management, and so for me, there were just some particulars to learn but an easy transition.
That as well framed the question: what if I use my WordPress content to develop a book. That lead to some toggling back and forth between browser windows and wholesale copy and paste. I was surprised to find both a start of a book in the content and curiosity and desire to work on the project even beyond this assignment.
The web version of the work done thus far is linked, here:
https://rdheathscholarship.pressbooks.com/
I exported the book in both .mobi format and .pdf to see how the publishing would handle the videos that the book draws on heavily. Alas, I was deeply disappointed. Neither embeds the videos nor even creates an image placeholder. Also, WordPress will not upload .mobi files as they potentially represent a security risk. The first link is a zipped directory with the .mobi data, the second an old school .pdf..
Hyperlinked-Life-Homo-Ludens-1512230334
Hyperlinked-Life-Homo-Ludens-1512230588
So, for my purposes and the content of my book leaving the book in WordPress, or the online PressBook makes sense since the material is mostly derived from online sources. PressBook is a great tool nonetheless. My project doesn’t fit well with the publishing capabilities of that tool, but a book driven by more static content would be fine in that environment. Whether my book works ideally in this environment I found learning the tool and working with the content to be inspiring and thought-provoking. As I mentioned I was unsure I had a book in me or my content so that discovery was rewarding.