Debian packaging is hard. I learned to create simple packages from http://faceted.wordpress.com/2011/05/18/howto-build-a-trivial-debian-package-with-dh_make/

deb-packaging-example.sh

NAME=hello-world
VERSION=0.1

# Standard setup
mkdir $NAME-$VERSION
cd $NAME-$VERSION
dh_make --createorig --indep --copyright gpl2 --yes
find debian -type f -not -regex 'debian/\(changelog\|compat\|rules\|control\|copyright\)' -exec rm {} \;
echo "./debian/source/* ./" > debian/$NAME.install

# You should check the copyright file and maybe the changelog at this point.

# Create custom stuff
mkdir -p debian/source/bin
echo echo Hello World > debian/source/bin/hello
chmod +x debian/source/bin/hello
# There's a lot of confusion about how to add symbolic links to deb packages. This is how you do it...
echo bin/hello bin/helloworld > debian/$NAME.links

# Standard finish
dpkg-buildpackage -uc -tc -rfakeroot


# Hey look what I made!
dpkg --contents ../${NAME}_$VERSION*.deb