I wonder if other writers have the same problem I have. It seems I’m never satisfied with my finished manuscripts.
I know I write fast, furiously sometimes (often). Then, when I’ve come to the end of a novel, I let it sit for a while, understanding full well that it will need a lot of work.
I’m almost always working on more than one project at a time, so when I get back to the first pass of a work, I spend a lot of time fleshing it out.
Most of the time I’m happy with the results but in the back of my mind, there are always the questions: Is it really good enough? Are my characters fully developed? Did I get too far away from the plot? Will the reader like it?
I just put the last period in Sister Death, my second Andrew Atkins novel and before I start formatting it for ebook, I’m going to do some research to see how other writers feel when they add that last punctuation mark to a work.
Any thoughts?
Showing posts with label ebook formatting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ebook formatting. Show all posts
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Monday, June 6, 2011
Print publishing is not dead
Because I publish my work in electronic editions, I frequent the ebook forums and chat rooms and in particular the kindle boards to keep up to date on all topics that focus on ebooks. One of the most talked about topics on these sites is whether or not the publishing world as we have known it is doomed.
Image via Wikipedia
No, I don’t think print on paper, hardbound or paperbound books, will disappear from the face of the earth. I believe the subject can be compared to the music industry.
There was a time (through the 1950s) when a handful of record companies ruled the world of music. If musicians couldn’t get a deal with one of the five or six big outfits, they were relegated to obscurity. Their work was virtually invisible. But with the emergence of rock and roll, independent producers created their own labels to showcase singers who didn’t fit the traditional mold. Then came Motown and the music industry changed forever.
Technology changed, of course, and the 45 rpm record took a back seat to the vinyl LP for a while, then the eight track hit the market only to be overtaken by the cassette, which eventually fell out of favor, replaced by the CD, and now we have the mp3 player. And with the advancements came independent producers and companies.
But, did jazz die? Did classical music become obscure? Did big labels suddenly fall off the face of the earth?
Guess what? Changes in taste and technology aside, the big record companies of the past are still alive. Music is still alive.
I think publishing will follow suit. Tastes will shift; technology will continue to make headway; the dominant publishers will continue to publish and independent publishers will make their voices read.
Image via WikipediaNo, I don’t think print on paper, hardbound or paperbound books, will disappear from the face of the earth. I believe the subject can be compared to the music industry.
There was a time (through the 1950s) when a handful of record companies ruled the world of music. If musicians couldn’t get a deal with one of the five or six big outfits, they were relegated to obscurity. Their work was virtually invisible. But with the emergence of rock and roll, independent producers created their own labels to showcase singers who didn’t fit the traditional mold. Then came Motown and the music industry changed forever.
Technology changed, of course, and the 45 rpm record took a back seat to the vinyl LP for a while, then the eight track hit the market only to be overtaken by the cassette, which eventually fell out of favor, replaced by the CD, and now we have the mp3 player. And with the advancements came independent producers and companies.
But, did jazz die? Did classical music become obscure? Did big labels suddenly fall off the face of the earth?
Guess what? Changes in taste and technology aside, the big record companies of the past are still alive. Music is still alive.
I think publishing will follow suit. Tastes will shift; technology will continue to make headway; the dominant publishers will continue to publish and independent publishers will make their voices read.
Monday, May 23, 2011
A new vocabulary for ebooks
Now that I’ve successfully formatted and uploaded two novels for the Kindle (see the links on the sidebar), I’ve started researching ways to get people to read them. Of course, the first step is to use a search engine to look for advice from other (successful) ebook writers and publishers.
That’s when the first two problems crept into my journey.
Naturally, I expected the results to bring a ton of links to Amazon and the gazillion ebooks already online. These were rather easy to cull.
What I was surprised to find is many references to methods for publicizing and selling how-to publicizing nonfiction works aimed at making money. Too many of these touted affiliate marketing and reselling the rights to tired old manuals.
This directed me to an idea.
Why not call our work:
enovels
efiction
enonfiction
These can be further delineated into subcategories that reflect genre or content. For example:
emystery
esuspense
eromance
epoetry
etextbook
espritbook
ereligiousbook
Now when it comes time to research methods to promote a ebook novel, the engines might be more amenable to returning results targeted at the specific request.
Just a thought.
That’s when the first two problems crept into my journey.
Naturally, I expected the results to bring a ton of links to Amazon and the gazillion ebooks already online. These were rather easy to cull.
What I was surprised to find is many references to methods for publicizing and selling how-to publicizing nonfiction works aimed at making money. Too many of these touted affiliate marketing and reselling the rights to tired old manuals.
This directed me to an idea.
Why don’t we get more specific when we refer to our work?
Why not call our work:
enovels
efiction
enonfiction
These can be further delineated into subcategories that reflect genre or content. For example:
emystery
esuspense
eromance
epoetry
etextbook
espritbook
ereligiousbook
Now when it comes time to research methods to promote a ebook novel, the engines might be more amenable to returning results targeted at the specific request.
Just a thought.
Monday, March 28, 2011
More on the future of the publishing industry
Joe Konrath's latest blog post features an interview with Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords. His comments on the future of the printed book are interesting and his comments about the publishing industry are on target.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
The ebook journey - Part Nine and a Half: The Wait is Over
Let me rephrase the headline for this post.
The wait is almost over.
It took more than 24 hours for The Mine to go live. I downloaded a sample to my kindle and almost cried. The images did not show up!
So it was back to the proverbial drawing board, an hour of searching, and a quick review of where I went wrong. Apparently, when I uploaded the file, the images (a color cover, a black and white cover and a vignette) didn't upload. Actually, I missed that step somehow.
To rectify the error, I had to download the title -- it's comes as a zipped file -- add the images to the to the zipped folder that contains the title, and upload again.
Not a problem except that it will be another 24 to 48 hours before the book goes live again.
As soon as it does, I'll sample it and make sure it's okay before making the final announcement that it's available for purchase.
The wait is almost over.
It took more than 24 hours for The Mine to go live. I downloaded a sample to my kindle and almost cried. The images did not show up!
So it was back to the proverbial drawing board, an hour of searching, and a quick review of where I went wrong. Apparently, when I uploaded the file, the images (a color cover, a black and white cover and a vignette) didn't upload. Actually, I missed that step somehow.
To rectify the error, I had to download the title -- it's comes as a zipped file -- add the images to the to the zipped folder that contains the title, and upload again.
Not a problem except that it will be another 24 to 48 hours before the book goes live again.
As soon as it does, I'll sample it and make sure it's okay before making the final announcement that it's available for purchase.
The ebook journey - Part nine: Waiting
It took a bit longer than 24 hours for The Mine to pass the review stage on Amazon's Kindle page.
I believed the review process would be the final step but apparently there's one more -- publishing. The novel has been in that stage for about the same 24-hour time period and my sense of dread is growing. Those people who live in my head are having nonstop anxiety conversations.
Then somebody up there chimed in with a totally unrelated question: "What's the correct way to spell ebook (eBook, Ebook, EBook)?"
Think I'll take the day off and work in the yard.
I believed the review process would be the final step but apparently there's one more -- publishing. The novel has been in that stage for about the same 24-hour time period and my sense of dread is growing. Those people who live in my head are having nonstop anxiety conversations.
What if there's a mistake? What if she missed a typo? What if it doesn't look like an ebook? Are you sure the cover is going to be sufficiently attractive? What if it gets stuck in the publishing stage? Did she miss a step along the way? How is she going to promote this baby? And finally, the worst question: What if nobody buys the darn thing?
Then somebody up there chimed in with a totally unrelated question: "What's the correct way to spell ebook (eBook, Ebook, EBook)?"
Think I'll take the day off and work in the yard.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
The ebook journey - Part eight: Uploading to kindle
Surprise!
The uploading of The Mine to Kindle
desktop publishing went through with just one minor problem.
It seems there’s a blank I “forgot” to fill in. I say “forgot” because I never saw the blank in the initial form.
What was missing? Something called Additional Contributors.
Well, I’m the only person who contributed so why would have to list any additional names?
Don’t know. Just have to.
I just filled in my own name and clicked the save button and the minor problem disappeared.
Now it's a waiting game while the folks at Amazon go through some review process.
The uploading of The Mine to Kindle
desktop publishing went through with just one minor problem.It seems there’s a blank I “forgot” to fill in. I say “forgot” because I never saw the blank in the initial form.
What was missing? Something called Additional Contributors.
Well, I’m the only person who contributed so why would have to list any additional names?
Don’t know. Just have to.
I just filled in my own name and clicked the save button and the minor problem disappeared.
Now it's a waiting game while the folks at Amazon go through some review process.
The ebook journey - Part seven and a half: Images
Okay, so I guess the real answer to getting everything right the first time around is simple: Read the directions!
But, being adventurous, I usually don't resort to that when all else fails.
And, of course, previewing The Mine on Amazon had me upset because my images didn’t show up … so all else failing, I read the directions – and there are tons of them.
Seems images don’t show up in the preview.
But, being adventurous, I usually don't resort to that when all else fails.
And, of course, previewing The Mine on Amazon had me upset because my images didn’t show up … so all else failing, I read the directions – and there are tons of them.
Seems images don’t show up in the preview.
Monday, March 14, 2011
The ebook journey - Part seven: Finding formatting gliches
Finally!
It’s time to upload the spiffed up, cleaned up, formatted, reformatted, html file of the novel.
Or so I thought.
After following the directions and confirming the coding by searching for and finding several sources, I believed the product was ready to upload and preview.
Hmmm. We know about those “best laid plans.”
Apparently, after fifteen reformats, there’s a problem getting the images to show up in the preview. I’ve used only two – a version of the cover and a little vignette to separate some of the sections in the novel.
Neither image shows in the preview. In fact, there’s some little camera icon with that scary little exclamation point inside a triangle – you know, the one that serves as a warning that you’ve done something wrong.
Interestingly, both images displayed properly in the two ebook readers I used to review my changes.
So it’s back to the drawing board to see if I can figure out what the deal is.
It’s time to upload the spiffed up, cleaned up, formatted, reformatted, html file of the novel.
Or so I thought.
After following the directions and confirming the coding by searching for and finding several sources, I believed the product was ready to upload and preview.
Hmmm. We know about those “best laid plans.”
Neither image shows in the preview. In fact, there’s some little camera icon with that scary little exclamation point inside a triangle – you know, the one that serves as a warning that you’ve done something wrong.
Interestingly, both images displayed properly in the two ebook readers I used to review my changes.
So it’s back to the drawing board to see if I can figure out what the deal is.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
The ebook journey: Part six- cover design
I've made a mock-up of the cover for the novel I've been putting into ebook format.
How does it look?
Friday, March 4, 2011
The book journey: Part two - formatting your ebook
A few years back (Please don't ask how many.), I decided to do an online newsletter at work. Using Microsoft Word as my platform, I created the content then exported it as html.
Let me tell you, the output was outrageously complicated, not so much in the look in feel of the copy as in the editing phase. The html code looked like an ancient foreign language.
This lead me to research html for beginners. Thankfully, the web was (and still is) filled with instructions for html coding. I dug in, opened my file in Notepad, and began deleting all the extraneous Word stuff in the coding. Trial and error, undo and save, hit and miss, start anew ... eventually the newsletter made it to the web in (almost) perfect coding.
Remembering all this made my decision not to format my ebook directly from Word easy.
What made it even easier?
I came across a nine-part post by Guido Henkel titled Take pride in your eBook formatting. Suddenly, the task is turning from a dark and stormy night to a breezy, sunny day. If you haven't seen the post, take a look at it and you'll understand that the task of formatting doesn't have to weigh you down.
Henkel recommended some editing software but I've been using a free and extremely easy program called html kit, which I found back then, so I'm using that.
Granted, the conversion will take time, but right now it's looking up.
(For those who need an even tighter, more thorough look at formatting for Kindle, check out this book.)
Let me tell you, the output was outrageously complicated, not so much in the look in feel of the copy as in the editing phase. The html code looked like an ancient foreign language.
This lead me to research html for beginners. Thankfully, the web was (and still is) filled with instructions for html coding. I dug in, opened my file in Notepad, and began deleting all the extraneous Word stuff in the coding. Trial and error, undo and save, hit and miss, start anew ... eventually the newsletter made it to the web in (almost) perfect coding.
Remembering all this made my decision not to format my ebook directly from Word easy.
What made it even easier?
I came across a nine-part post by Guido Henkel titled Take pride in your eBook formatting. Suddenly, the task is turning from a dark and stormy night to a breezy, sunny day. If you haven't seen the post, take a look at it and you'll understand that the task of formatting doesn't have to weigh you down.
Henkel recommended some editing software but I've been using a free and extremely easy program called html kit, which I found back then, so I'm using that.
Granted, the conversion will take time, but right now it's looking up.
(For those who need an even tighter, more thorough look at formatting for Kindle, check out this book.)
***
(See Part One of the journey)
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