I started with a perfectly reasonable idea: build an online store.
Something creative. Something fun. A little project outside my regular work.
That project now has an LLC, supplier stories, a book, and a paperback edition moving through Amazon’s publishing process.
Apparently, I do not know how to have a hobby without giving it deliverables.
First came the store. Then came the evidence.
Building Dopamine Alley gave me plenty to write about.
If you want the beginning of that story, start with I Started a Jewelry Store Because Apparently I Don’t Know How to Relax.
There were product descriptions that technically contained words but lacked any evidence of a personality. There were tools that appeared to solve different problems until I looked closely at what I was paying for. There were moments when “Draft” became less of a setting and more of a deeply held belief.
The store has kept evolving since then, including a sharper approach to sourcing and material documentation.
And there was ChatGPT, helping me think, write, organize, and occasionally move fast enough that I needed to remind both of us what we were actually trying to accomplish.
I’m a technology leader. I understand systems, processes, and the value of asking a few questions before pressing a button.
I also enjoy a good idea.
Those two parts of my personality spent this project negotiating.
Eventually, I turned the experience into I Was Bored So I Built a Store—a funny, practical account of what happened when I decided to launch an e-commerce business with ChatGPT.
The book includes the messy parts, the lessons, and a reader toolkit. If someone else is about to turn a small idea into an operation, they might as well have somewhere to write down who approved it.
Then my family entered the production meeting.
The original publishing plan centered on an ebook.
Then I thought about the people in my family who would absolutely want a physical copy.
Something they could hold. Something they could put on a shelf. Something they could point to while explaining that, yes, Crystal really did turn this into a book.
Fair enough.
How much more work could a paperback be?
You would think I would recognize that sentence by now.
A paperback needs its own interior layout, binding margins, page numbers, and a cover that includes the front, back, and spine. The digital file does not simply become a physical book because you believe in it enthusiastically.
There were more settings.
There were more previews.
There was a moment when the manuscript ended up in the cover field, and Amazon quite reasonably objected to my attempt to wrap an entire book around the outside of itself.
We corrected that.
The pictures needed their personality, too.
Black-and-white printing came up as a way to keep costs down.
Then I looked at the storefront images.
Dopamine Alley has a very specific relationship with color. Asking those pictures to explain the brand without it felt like asking someone to describe a disco ball using a spreadsheet.
The cover would print in color either way, but the pictures inside mattered, too.
So we chose a color interior.
Once the book was laid out at six by nine inches—with readable text and room to use the worksheets—it came to 74 pages. That made standard color an option and helped keep the printing cost manageable.
A small victory, but I was happy to take it.
At this stage, “the numbers work and nothing is in the wrong upload field” counts as a satisfying evening.
It still feels a little strange.
The store was real while I was building it. The decisions were real. So were the mistakes and the time spent figuring out what had happened.
But seeing those experiences arranged into pages, with a title and a cover, gives them a different weight.
I can look back and see where I moved too quickly, where a better question would have helped, and where a simple process finally made something easier.
I can also see how much I enjoyed making it.
Enough, apparently, to write it down and make copies available to relatives.
The paperback gives the toolkit a practical home, too. Readers can work through the decision audit, compare the AI tools they’re paying for, repair a prompt, or plan a launch with a pen in hand.
I would love for someone to reach one of those pages before their own “quick little project” requires an emergency meeting.
The book may explain how the store happened. New Dopamine shows what all that decision-making actually produced.
Coming soon
I Was Bored So I Built a Store is moving through Amazon’s publishing process in Kindle and color paperback editions.
For the first 90 days, the ebook will be exclusive to Kindle through KDP Select, with Kindle Unlimited access included. Hollow & Alley will point readers to Amazon during that launch period.
I’ll share the buying link as soon as it’s live.
For now, the manuscript is uploaded, the cover is in the correct place, and my family’s request for a physical copy has become an actual publishing format.
I should probably find a relaxing hobby.
Preferably one without an ISBN.
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