Ask yourself this question: how often do I visit my local library? Yes, I know there’s a pandemic and many businesses are either closed or have restricted hours, but many … Continue reading Let’s Visit the Public Library!
Tag: publishing
It’s Indie Author Day!
Welcome all of you writers, authors and fans of Do-It-Yourself! Today is November 7, 2020: Indie Author Day. Today is the day we celebrate independent authors and share information in … Continue reading It’s Indie Author Day!
NaNoWriMo Success Stories
Next month is NaNoWriMo!! National Novel Writing Month. It’s a great time to finish that novel that you’ve been writing. I’ve had a few inquiries regarding NaNoWriMo and whether or … Continue reading NaNoWriMo Success Stories
Building An Audience Through Free Books
One of my favorite lines from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight is “If you’re good at something, never do it for free.” It’s a line spoken by Heath Ledger’s Joker, … Continue reading Building An Audience Through Free Books
Preparing “The Age of the Daughter”
I began writing the sequel to The Witch of Fulton Lane over a year ago. Since that time, I moved, changed jobs, changed jobs again, and had to deal with COVID 19 (of course all of us are dealing with that). Plus, there were a few other obstacles in my way. Now I can finally say, the book is nearly ready. I’m just waiting to approve the proof from Amazon’s KDP.
While I’m always a little sad to see a project reach completion, I’m happy to see this one come to an end. A finished project means it’s over (the hard part, anyway). But it also frees me to work on something else, and devote some time to promoted my latest work.
The Age of the Daughter has entered it’s final stages of completion. It should be available on Amazon by next week.
PDF vs Word Doc: A Little KDP Tip
In all of the years that I have published books with Amazon’s KDP (formerly Create Space), I have learned many things through trial and error. When it comes to uploading a copy of your manuscript, two of your best choices for formats are PDF or a Word Document. However, I’ve learned this depends on if you’re publishing an ebook or a printed book. So, here’s my advice.
Use a PDF for Printed Books
As long as you have made all of your page breaks, it seems the best format to upload a printed book, is a PDF. There’s a much better chance your book will retain all of its margins if you use a PDF. There’s nothing more annoying than looking at your print preview and seeing one heading on one page begin three or four lines lower than you intended, or seeing the beginning of a chapter start on the end of a page instead of the beginning. Also, when it comes to page numbers, you may want to have them start from a bottom margin of at least 1.3. You can try 1.2, but that’s pushing it.
Use a Word Doc for Ebooks
It’s been my experience the good old fashioned Word Doc works just fine for ebooks. I’ve tried using PDF’s in the past, and even Amazon’s KDP advises against them. When it comes to ebooks and PDF’s, it seems the two just can’t get along. Your best bet is to upload your manuscript as a Word Doc. Even if you’re using Google Docs, download your manuscript as a Word Doc, then upload it.
Goodbye, Microsoft Word
No one likes to see a relationship come to an end. Especially a long-standing relationship. But, you know the old saying: “All good things must come to an end”. I’ve had a relationship with Microsoft Word for YEARS. I’m pretty sure it started sometime during my middle school years. We’ve been good friends. Then, something went wrong.
My nine-year-old Dell laptop was on its last leg, in terms of battery life. The battery lost the ability to hold a charge, and the laptop would only function if it was plugged in. Plus, my version of Microsoft Word, was horribly outdated. I finally broke down and purchased a new laptop: a Chromebook, by Acer. There’s just one problem: it didn’t come with Word. Apparently, this is a trend among tech manufacturers. Laptops used to come with Word, and other Microsoft programs. Now, those programs need to be purchased separately. Plus, this is a Chromebook we’re talking about, so I understood. But, even the HP and Dell laptops I looked at, didn’t have Word. My new laptop was only $149…I wasn’t about to shell out an extra $200 for Word. The $149 had already set me back. Instead, I did two things:
- Got a subscription to the Word App via Google Play, so I could continue to open my Word files at home.
- Forced myself to become acclimated with Google Docs.
Word cost me $7.61 a month ($6.99 plus tax). Sales from my online store were taking care of that plus the cost of hosting each month, so W.E. was basically paying for it’s own services. However, once I got into Google Docs (I mean, really got into it), I decided, maybe it was time to say goodbye to Word. So, I did. The cord has been cut.
Of course, I still download my work from Google and save it on a flash drive, but its nice to know everything is available to me online, whether I’m at home or on a computer at work. Of course, some of the margins I use for the manuscripts of the books I publish needed to be adjusted, but hey: nothing worth having is ever easy to obtain.
10th Anniversary of “Fortune’s Wing”
If you’re an indie author, one of the most exciting moments in your life, is the day you get to see something you wrote, make it into print. Publishing a … Continue reading 10th Anniversary of “Fortune’s Wing”
Anatomy of a Song: The Real Story Behind “Come For The Wake, Stay For The Funeral”
Yeah, that title is long, isn’t it? Sorry about that. But let’s dig in. One of my favorite elements of the Our Lady of Righteous Rage series, is the inclusion of song … Continue reading Anatomy of a Song: The Real Story Behind “Come For The Wake, Stay For The Funeral”
April 5th and “Rock N Role Model”
After months of writing, re-writing, editing, and struggling, at last, I have published my 25th book. Rock N Role Model is the latest addition to the Our Lady of Righteous Rage franchise. … Continue reading April 5th and “Rock N Role Model”
