You've got to admire the do-it-yourselfers.

Take David Dorris, a retired Ralston-Purina employee who wrote a book of advice called "Life is Too Short" last year, expanded and updated from an original version he published in 2003.

His publisher suggested he attend as many book fairs as he could find. He went to one in May in Adel, Iowa, enjoyed the experience and began looking for more, but he couldn't find any - especially locally.

A member of the Midwest Writing Center, he asked why they didn't sponsor a book fair.

"They said it was because they couldn't find a volunteer," Dorris said.

Guess who immediately volunteered for the position?

After just a couple of weeks' work, Dorris has found a date - May 8 - and a location, the Figge Art Museum in downtown Davenport. It will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

There also will be book-related events that night at Modern Woodmen Park during a Quad-Cities River Bandits game. A couple of ideas already batted around are having a couple of authors throw out the first pitch or having a mini-presentation on different books throughout the game, with a copy given away to someone in attendance.

Dorris already has 11 authors lined up.

He's also spending months looking for those who would be interested. Any authors who are can call him at (563) 324-8282 or send an e-mail to dwd525@aol.com. (The Midwest Writing Center will be involved with the project, but it does not want to be contacted about the festival until the turn of the year, he said.)

Dorris is taking steps to learn how to market his book and finding it more difficult than he imagined, especially since his is a "print-on-demand" product.

He's having trouble getting in one bookstore chain because of its national policies.

"Marketing is hard and/or very expensive is what I'm finding out," he said. "You could probably write the best book in the world that anybody ever wrote and you couldn't get it in a bookstore and it'd be hard to sell is what I'm finding out."

Dorris wrote his book as an expansion of the guidance and advice he gave to the Dads Club softball players he coached through the years.

Being persistent and finding your own path must be two of the qualities he's passing along.

David Burke can be contacted at dburke@qctimes.com. He blogs at Quadsville.com and can be followed at Twitter.com/entguy1.