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<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 <![endif]--> Last week I discovered Miriam Halahmy’s post on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure about using her kindle as an editing tool. Using the kindle in the way she describes is so useful. Being able to change the font size and view your manuscript in a different format highlights many problems. But there is another way to use the kindle as an

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I am currently writing my seventh novel. I have published one novel for adults and three Y.A. and I have one book not yet taken and one which is just about to be submitted. But as Sue Gee, award winning author and Faber Academy tutor once said, "All writers are apprentices all their lives." So this blogpost is about my editing process with my Kindle as a relatively new and developing tool to help me.

Recently someone recommended Rachel Aaron's short ( and cheap £0.77) e-book and I decided to download it and see what there was on offer. I wasn't particularly interested in writing 10,000 words a day but I am always open to new ideas for the editing process.
The one idea I took away from this book was Aaron's recommendation to download your finished manuscript onto your Kindle and read it.
Why?
Because when you read a manu on a Kindle you read it like a reader.




I loved it! I was working on my new book, Behind Closed Doors, (BCD), about two teenage girls who are at risk of becoming homeless, for very different reasons. I downloaded the book, took my Kindle into the living room and sat down on the sofa which is where I read at least half of my books. I was in complete reader mode. This is such a different experience to either reading on the screen - my least favourite way to edit an entire book - or to printing a hard copy of the entire manu. With the hard copy I am much less relaxed. I sit there, pen in hand, scribbling all over the place and I am definitely not reading like a reader.

But sitting on the sofa with a cup of tea and a biscuit, nice and relaxed, each page appearing like a page in a printed book in that pleasing rectangular screen my brain was completely in reader mode. I read the book over a couple of days and then I put it to one side, went out for a long walk came back and wrote a couple of pages of notes by hand and with a nice clear head.

Ok - SNAP! You already do all this, I can hear you say and yes, I would think nowadays, a lot of writers do the same thing.

But then I had a new revelation. I went back to the computer, continued working on my book and finally sent the finished manu to my agent. All done and dusted, feeling pleased, etc.
Couple of weeks later I decide to download and read the manu again.
Groan! Suddenly I see loads of copy edits ( houses instead of house) - not earth shattering, I know, but I am beginning to realise that my Kindle edits could have been so much more.

However, after some feedback from an interested editor, it was decided to alter the last few chapters before widespread submission. This is my chance I think.
I rewrite the chapters - very satisfying job. Then I download onto my Kindle.
But this time I sit at my computer with the manu up on the screen.
I start at the beginning, chapter by chapter and every time I spot the error on my Kindle ( errors I have failed to see on the screen because I'm not reading like a reader and I seem to be much sharper in that role) I scroll down and correct it on the screen.
I catch all those pesky errors ( houses instead of house), feel I have a much cleaner text and press SEND in a much happier mood than before.


When I considered trying out this method I thought it would feel laborious and annoying.
In fact, I found it to be smooth and extremely satisfying.

From now on, I will be downloading in 10 chapter chunks ( I've just done that for the new WIP), reading on my sofa, making notes when I've finished and then working the Kindle and the screen version at the same time to build up to the much more perfected finished product.

Do you have an editing tip you'd like to share?

www.miriamhalahmy.com

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It’s Author Interview Thursday! Yeah! I was involved in a conversation with a friend who was having a few challenges pushing their business to the next level. My 2 cents to their dilemma was that they had to SEE themselves closing deals, winning clients and making bumper sales. I added that they also had to stay in their lane and believe that their daily positive actions would eventually bring the future they desired. I believe this laser-focussed mindset is embodied by our special guest in the hot seat today. She writes in the fantasy genre and aligns her marketing efforts to establish this. I was fascinated by the fact that she co-writes her books with her sister, Toni Burns. I was introduced to her by Sharon Ledwith who was our featured guests several moons ago. I’m so glad Sharon did as she’s an author who generously supports other authors. She has so much good stuff to share with us today. So without further ado, please join me in welcoming Lisa Fender.

 

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and the first time someone complemented you on something you had written.

Thanks David for having me as a guest on your blog! I’m looking forward to meeting some of your followers!

Let’s see, I live in Golden Colorado and love it here. I’m married to Rick, and we’ve tied the knot twice, with each other that is, and he has 3 kids and I have 2. We both have grandchildren, but we were young grandparents. In fact, we are both “big kids”. We love hiking, camping, fishing, and the like, and our favourite relaxation is to go to the hot springs in the mountains and soak and enjoy the fresh air.

The first time someone complemented me on my writing was when I was still a teen. I had written some poetry and read it to a friend of my mothers’ who was an author herself. Her name is Autumn Stanley and she has a famous book in several of the university’s across the country. She was also an editor for Stanford University years ago. She’s a wonderful woman and when I finally published Fable, I sent her a copy, and of course, she sent it back with marks for me to fix. My sister and I had to laugh, we knew she couldn’t help herself, and we fixed most of her edits and republished.

  

What can a reader expect when they pick up a book written by Lisa Fender?

You can expect not your usual story, for one. I didn’t want to write the same type of urban fantasy, or dystopian fantasy that everyone else was. Instead of the “A” typical vamp or werewolf, I decided to do a take-off of the Djinni, but not one in the bottle, but a race of beings in another dimension. These beings keep the balance of both our worlds and are threatened by a faction in their side of the portal, and are threatened by what we are doing to our planet on this side.

For two, we really pride ourselves of trying to make sure that the writing is as good as any traditional published work. We have two critique partners and after we think we have the chapter the way we want it, we send it to a friend of mine who is an author, and he goes over the chapter. Once the book is finished, Toni and I go through it once more before it goes to our professional editor.

We want to make sure it’s tight and an enjoyable read for whomever takes a chance and reads our books.

  

You co-write books with your sister Toni Burns. Can you tell us a unique challenge this situation presents and how you both overcome it?

Actually, the challenge is we are sisters and fight once in a while. But when it comes to writing we are spot on with each other. For some reason we really click and are in each other’s minds when we write. We have a system that works for us. I write the rough drafts, and then go through and clean them up a little. Then she and I go over each line and brainstorm together the way we want the story to go. It works great for us.

 

You write in the Fantasy genre which is very popular and competitive. What advice would you have for someone who wants to write in this genre?

Of course, make sure you put out a high quality book. You need to pay for a professional Editor. It’s the only way. I’ve read quite a lot of self-pub books and the mistakes and head-hopping stick out like a sore thumb, for me anyway. Next, try to come up with something unique. Sure there are going to be certain types of “guidelines” to your story. For example, if you’re writing epic fantasy, there will probably be a type of kingdom, and swords and bow and arrow will be the main source for weapons, but you can still come up with a new angle.

  

What have you found to be a successful way to market your books?

This is one of the toughest parts to being a writer these days. I have pounded my head against the desktop more than once and it can leave you with hurt feelings and misguided advice. I have been studying the social media concept here lately and I believe the best way is through email contacts, either newsletters, or some type of fun interaction with your readers. Facebook used to be a great place, but now they have changed their reach for your fans. These days you’re lucky if more than 40 people see your posts at any given time.

They want you to pay for Facebook advertising and even that doesn’t amount to much more of a reach. Twitter is tough too because you have thousands following you and you them. How many of your followers’ posts do you click on and read? Not too many usually, so probably not too many are reading yours.

This is such a tough business so my advice is to try and set up a way to personally reach your readers.

  

What were some of your favourite books as a child? 

This is such a long list; I don’t know where to start. I was always a big reader. I loved all the Disney classics, Snow White, etcetera, but I also liked the Boxcar Children and the Hardy Boys. I think my favourite was Wild Things and Charlotte’s Web.

 

What three things should writers avoid when writing dialogue?

Dialogue should sound natural. Watch the way people talk with each other and try to bring that out in your writing. You don’t want it stiff.

Two, use more action tags than “he said, she said” tags. Especially if you like to use other words besides “said”. They can take the reader out of the book.

Three, don’t add too much character’s thoughts in between each dialogue speech. It’s annoying.

 

What is your definition of success as an author?

To me success in life is the people who surround you with love, and care about you. I think it’s the same with being an author. I think the more popular you get the more people love you. To have people tell you they love your story is so wonderful! If you can build from there and gain more and more fans, you are successful.

 

What book or film has the best dialogue that inspires you to be a better writer and why?

There are several. I think the Europeans are much better with great acting and writing than we are. Harry Potter had some great acting, as did Lord of The Rings, and even Game of Thrones. Their acting is powerful and believable. My writing couch was English and she taught me the way they are taught across the pond. She really instilled in me the creative writing skills you need to have a clear and tight book.

  

Toy Story or Shrek?

Another tough question…I guess I have to say Shrek. Love him!

  

What three things should a first time visitor to Colorado do?

Go to the mountains and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine. Enjoy a hot springs pool, and if you like skiing then this is a great place for it.

 

What can we expect from Lisa Fender in the next 12 months?

We are revising the second book in our Lorn Prophecy series, Lore. We hope to have it ready to publish by the end of the year…we’ll see. I am also plotting Lore ahead so that I can start writing the rough draft for the third book in the series. I have also written ten chapters in the next compendium for the Djenrye Chronicles, which are side books about our made-up world, Djenrye. It’s been a lot of work, but I love it! We do have one of the compendiums published – Fated. It’s the first in that series.

  

Where can readers and fans connect with you?

I am on the usual hangouts,

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/fablebookI

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/lisafender1

And my Blog: http://www.lisafender.com

We are building our website as we speak and hope to have it up and running in the next couple of months. We will have an interactive blog to get people involved with the story and writing. I’m really looking forward to it! We will be sending out invites to join our email list by the end of the week.

  

Any advice for authors out there who are either just starting out or getting frustrated with the industry?

Just like wine, every good thing takes time. Give yourself a break and just be consistent in what you’re doing to gain fans. It might take a while, but being relentless is the answer.

Thanks again for having me as your guest David! You’re a great host and good luck with your books!

 

Thanks for spending some time with us today Lisa. You really have opened my eyes to a few things I wasn’t aware of. I love the fact that you’re in this for the long haul and are not putting any pressure on yourself to be an over-night success. As Lisa stated in the interview, the best way she considers to reach out to her readers is to have them on her mailing list. If you want to see how she structures her emails and interacts with her audience, click the link below to join her mailing list.

http://www.djenworld.com

You can also read the full description and pick up one of her books at the link below

Lisa Fender on Amazon

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Some people out in the world wide web may have noticed some new clothes on old books, including a name change for my novel, Loathsome, Dark, and Deep. Yes, I took it to the courthouse, filled out the appropriate paperwork, and now it has a new name: The Forest of Ruined Men. Why? It's a bit more marketable. I think.

Okay. I'm not a marketing genius. I'm not even a writing genius, but I write. And revise. And write some more. And re--well, you gather the general idea. What I know is this: since coming back to writing, all my earnings are going to charity. I used to drop a fair bit in the community pot before, but now all of it--all my sales, Smashwords earnings, KDP sales, etc., goes to help the uninsured of Douglas County receive health care.

This reluctant salesman finds it a whole helluva lot easier to ask folks to spend money if I know that money is going to do something positive. The nickels and dimes for which I begged before mean little to me, but my chosen beneficiary, Health Care Access, can do so much good with my money. Why Health Care Access? Why health care for the uninsured? I thought everyone had insurance now?

No.

Health Care Access does good work here at home. It's a cause in which I believe--and it makes it so much easier to spend time and energy selling books. My nickels and dimes can become diabetes treatment for someone without insurance or the resources to purchase it. My nickels and dimes mean early cancer detection so someone can qualify for state aid and treatment. I believe we have a duty to help everyone access quality health care, and I'm starting in my hometown.

So yes. This is what I'm doing.

And here's more of what I've done to help what I'm doing:




It's like they're a happy family now... a series even... and guess what? I'm laying groundwork for a third "Sons of Chaos" novella. It's going to be a cold one.

And you know what? I'd love it if you bought an ebook or read anything I've written--but sending some love to Health Care Access is beautiful, too, and you don't even need an e-reader.

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I'm still busy moving, but this is a feature I've been wanting to start for awhile, and there's an opportunity to share some of my favorite books today, so here goes.

I'm really in love with my Kindle lately.  And one of the great things is that you can get books for a lot cheaper than you can print books.  And although I still love print books, sometimes my pocketbook wins the battle.

I know there's lots of sites out there that you can go to for Kindle Deals.  But as I come across them, I'm going to post some of my own here.  Today there are two titles from one of my favorite authors, Janette Rallison on sale for $1.99 each:

These books are especially great if you like fairy tales.  Don't know how long this deal will last (normally they're $6.99 each) so check them out while you can!

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Crowd-sourcing an iOS publishing venture

Back in January 2009 I published a blog with the title Cellphone Novelists, discussing the new development of authors in Japan using cellphones to write and publish serial novels, some while commuting to work on the bullet train, and occasional total word counts up to and above 100,000 words.

 A similar development had gotten underway in Canada in 2006 when two tech entrepreneurs started Wattpad, a new website service envisioning a mobile reading app and hosting, initially, about 17000 public domain books. However, until the introduction of the iPhone and the Kindle, the Wattpad venture struggled to gain any momentum.   Thereafter, writers began to post original works with the app and it took off (Article by David Streitfeld, NY Times, 3/24/2014; quotes in this blog are from the NYTimes article).  "This is writing re-imagined for a mobile world, where attention is fragmentary," mused the reporter.  "Almost all our writers serialize their content," Allen Lau, Wattpad's chief executive said.  "Two thousand words is roughly 10 minutes of reading.  That makes the story more digestible, something you can do when standing in line."

The Wattpad app allows for reader comments, and for some authors these involve huge numbers, generally complimentary, since the author can moderate comments before they are published and can use the delete button to eliminate any brutish trolls.  For a conscientious author trying to keep up with responding to comments by fans, the task can be staggering.  One author reports 14000 unread messages pending in her Wattpad inbox.

One of the most popular Wattpad authors is Ali Novak, a 22-year old Wisconsin writer who has serialized four mobile novels.  Ms. Novak has been forced to limit her own involvement with her fans, some of whom apparently would like her to read samples of their work:

I am no longer taking reading/interview/trailer/cover requests, so all related messages will be ignored.  Sorry, but I just don't have the time.

A pullback that is quite understandable.  Ms. Novak's biggest hit, My Life With the Walter Boys--about a girl who moves in with a family of 12 sons--was published this month by Sourcebooks in revised and edited form as a paperback.  Ms. Novack reflects:

Since I was little, I've been obsessed with reading and collecting books.  I always dreamed of seeing my book in Barnes & Noble and picking it off the shelf and holding it in my hands.  That's one thing I could never do with Wattpad. 

Yes, there's something magical about hefting that physical, material thing that you've imbued with something of your own imagination, and to know it will continue to sit safely on your bookshelf even if your computer becomes obsolete, or the internet implodes into a black hole.

My recent e-book publication

Nonetheless, some accomplished authors have begun to publish exclusive e-book offerings. These authors have already made their mark in the traditional hard-copy publishing world, and include writers like Stephen King, and Neil Gaiman; consequently, I have been intrigued by the development.  Anyone who has gone down the road of submitting countless query letters with catchy hooks, brilliantly honed synopses or summaries, and sample pages, to literary agents or traditional publishing houses, whom these days may or may not even choose to acknowledge your submittal, might perhaps view the e-publishing opportunities as a liberating development.  The traditional gate keepers may have been displaced.

Of course, perhaps only a portion of what is e-published may have true literary quality, but the voting audience is much larger now, and one can hope that the good books will just as readily rise to the top.  I like the e-publishing idea and decided to give the experience a try with my most recent coming-of-age fiction, Leaving Major Tela.  It is already up in Kindle format at Amazon.  Click on the link in 'My Publications' at the top right corner of my blog for a visit to the Amazon page and a look inside the book.  I'll have a hardcopy edition ready at the same location shortly.

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How can it possible be true? The Children's Book Review has turned 6! To celebrate and thank our loyal readers, we are giving away a Kindle Paperwhite (value: $119). Be sure to enter daily to maximize your chance of winning.

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Little did we know that my Kindle trouble recently was the start of a Kindle Rebellion at my house.

Bookman, who rarely turns off his electronic devices, decided Friday that he would turn off his computer and his Kindle. Saturday morning his Kindle would not turn back on. I saw him go through the Kindle frustration cycles just like he watched me do when I took the drastic step of zapping my Kindle back to its original factory settings. I had hoped to swoop in like he did with me and save the day. It was not to be. I couldn’t get the Kindle to turn on either.

I suggested that perhaps Bookman had let the battery run too low (he often does) and it just needed to be charged. So we plugged it into his computer. He had to go off to work. Hours later I noticed his Kindle still was not charged. I plugged it directly into the wall instead. But it still wouldn’t charge. The light remained orange and I noticed it kept flashing on and off like there was a loss of connection or something. But everything was fine as far as I could tell when I wiggled the cord.

Saturday night Bookman came home and the Kindle that had been theoretically charging all day still did not show us the green light and continued to refuse to turn on. Unfortunately, you can’t just buy a new battery. After a few more attempts to get the Kindle working on Sunday we declared Bookman’s Kindle dead and pulled the plug.

He has the day off today and decided to shop for a new ebook reader. He considered a Nook and a Kindle Paperwhite but in the end went for just the basic no frills e-ink Kindle. He ordered it.

A little while later he picked up his dead Kindle to remove the cover and it was on! And working! Like nothing ever happened!

He decided to not cancel the order for the new one, just in case.

But now I am wondering if this is a Kindle ploy to build the Kindle army in our house. Such gullible humans! We will soon have three Kindles and we two homo saps will be outnumbered. If this is the beginning of a Kindle uprising I wish I could count on Waldo and Dickens to help us out. Waldo is a good hunter, at least we think he is. Since he doesn’t go outdoors all he has ever hunted are spiders, centipedes and dust bunnies, but he is very good at it. And Dickens is Houdini reincarnated. He can open doors and dresser drawers and boxes and storage bins with clasps. Between the two of them they could save Bookman and I should worse come to worst. But can one ever really trust a cat? Sure, they act like they love us, but one never really knows whether it’s true love or they’re just looking for a warm lap.

So I am getting this message out while I can, before the Kindles block my internet and keep me from communicating with the outside world. Beware the Kindle Rebellion!

Filed under: Kindle

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Amazing offer right now, children’s humorous fantasy only £1.99 on Kindle for a limited period. Winner of The Book Awards, February 2014!
Click here for offer.

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My Kindle and I have been having an ongoing argument. I mentioned our disagreement back in November when it appeared that Kindle was developing an opinion about what I should and shouldn’t read. I thought we had come to an understanding after the incident since things went on in a friendly way for the next book or two. But January brought a few hiccups and February almost came to a melt down.

Now over the weekend I felt like Kindle and I were in the knife fight from Beat It except without the cool dance moves.

I finished reading David Copperfield and was queuing up my next book only Kindle refused to cooperate. It either kept trying to take me to the Amazon online store or would not let me page through my books to the one I wanted to read next. No amount of restarting helped. Amazon troubleshooting and forums all said restart and all will be well. Liars!

Finally I decided to take the nuclear option. I saved all my books onto my computer since most of the books on my Kindle are from Project Gutenberg and I didn’t want to have to download them all again nor did I want to lose my highlights and notes. Then I reset Kindle to its original factory settings. Zap!

But Kindle refused to bow down in submission. Resetting it also deregistered it from Amazon which means the few books I have bought were inaccessible and I couldn’t borrow an ebook from the library if I wanted to. When I tried to get to the settings menu to re-register Kindle, it refused to allow me to go to the page.

Kindle and I circled around each other, waving our knives. While Kindle was silent, I was not. Bookman became alarmed. Let me help you he pleaded. There is nothing you can do! I snapped. I was sorely tempted to break Kindle in half against the edge of the table and be done with it once and for all. But Bookman swooped in like Michael Jackson in the video, randomly pushed buttons, and suddenly Kindle decided to dance! I registered, plugged Kindle into my computer, copied all my books back to it and held my breath. Success!

Today I began reading Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin and Kindle continues to behave. We’ll see what Kindle will do when I am done with the book in a few weeks. Will it let me read another book without trouble? Time will tell. But for now we are getting along again.

Filed under: ebooks, Kindle

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Today I had the privilege of being a reader at a local elementary school.  I got to read one of my favorite books, The Bee Bully, and talk to the kids about being an author.  The energetic kindergartners made me feel very welcome and I really enjoyed spending some time with them.  We talked a little bit about what it means to be a bully and how important reading is.

Three reasons why reading is important to young children:

1).  Reading exercises our brains.  That’s right, our brains need a workout too.  Reading strengthens brain connections and can even create new ones so pick up a book and help your brain exercise.

2).  Reading improves concentration.  Kids have to focus when they read which can sometimes be a difficult task.  The more you read the longer you can extend that concentration time which will continue to improve.

3).  Reading helps develop imagination.  When you read your brain translates what is read to pictures.  Did you know you can create a movie in your head while you read?  We become engrossed in the story and we can connect with the characters.  We can sympathize with how a character feels and reflect on how we would feel in that same situation.

Now go grab a book and BEE A READER!

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Bernard Beckett’s Genesis is 1.99 on Kindle today. It was one of my favorite reads of the year a few years back:

After plague and war decimate the human race, a small group of survivors build a protected, isolated island community called The Republic, modeled on Plato’s vision of the perfect society, but rigidly totalitarian. We learn about the history of The Republic via the oral examination given by the somber members of the esteemed Academy to Anax, an earnest young scholar who has prepared long years for this event in hopes of admission. Anax’s subject of specialty is the revolutionary, Adam Forde, whose subversive actions brought down The Republic many years before. A serious and captivating aspect of Adam’s history is his relationship with a robot possessing highly advanced simulated-consciousness technology, and their discussions about the nature of consciousness are incredibly gripping and thought-provoking.

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…that a whole slew of Dorothy Sayers mysteries are $1.99 on Kindle today. (Sixteen, to be exact.)

And a giant bunch of other books (it’s their big Cyber Monday sale) including:

my beloved Muriel Spark (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie among others)

Lois Lenski (Strawberry Girl and others)

Jean Craighead George (Julie of the Wolves is $1.99; some of her American Woodland Tales are only .99!)

Patricia Reilly Giff

Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Pearl S. Buck

Mary McCarthy (I recently read The Group and would like to read more of her work)

a lot of Rebecca West (Family Memories and many more—some are $2.99)

James Herriot

Alice Walker

Walker Percy

Mr. Popper’s Penguins

a bunch of Boxcar Children books

several Tomie de Paola picture books including Early American Christmas, Fin Mc’Coul, and some of his saint books

some Barbara Pym, whom I have not yet read!

and a gajillion more.

Note: the above are affiliate links, which means I’ll earn a few cents on each book you purchase. TO SPEND ON MORE BOOKS.

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Halloween is just around the corner.  Soon we will be surrounded by ghosts, witches and maybe even some monsters.  Your little monster is sure to enjoy this picture book about family and parents.

Age Level:  0-6

Have you ever wondered if monsters have mommies and daddies? It turns out monsters families are a lot like our families. This monstrous tale about parents and family is perfect for children aged eight and under.

On sale for only $.99 this weekend, September 27th though September 29th (normally $2.99).

 

 

Related articles

• Halloween Countdown & Monster High Catty Noir (2wired2tired.com)
• Feed the Monster (birthdayinabox.com)
• Ideas for Creating Halloween Spirit (segmation.wordpress.com)
• All Five Monsters Cereals Will Be Brought Back For Halloween (laughingsquid.com)

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it’s $2.99 on Kindle today.

(I admit I’m of two minds on this. On the one hand, graphic novels and comics look absolutely gorgeous on an iPad or Kindle Fire. On the other hand, I’m still of the school that prefers to give print editions to kids. Especially little’uns like Rilla. Time enough for reliance on screens later in her life.)

Related post: Rilla in Oz

P.S. Lots of other enticing stuff on sale for Kindle today. Poisonwood Bible, This Band Could Be Your Life, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, A People’s History of the United States, Wonder Boys, a Louise Erdrich title I haven’t read yet, several others. An Uncommon Education by Elizabeth Percer, which I thought I had queued but don’t seem to after all. Have you read it? Do I want it?

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Here’s an interesting infographic from Kite Ebook Readers, which specializes in making children’s ebooks and apps.

This infographic is from kitereaders.com.

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Need a few more books to read during summer vacation? All Evernight Teen titles, including my YA mystery, Unraveled, are on sale for a week on Amazon.

Check them all out: Evernight Teen Amazon Kindle books:

Disintegrate by Christine Klocek-Lim
Phoenix: The Rising by Bette Maybee
Shrapnel by Stephanie Lawton
Elysium by Sylah Sloan
Unraveled by S.X. Bradley
Slayer for Hire by P.E. Cunningham
Blood Hex by Erin Butler

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Being a writer affords me the liberty of creating characters who mean something to me and have characteristics that I like to see. I love getting to know them, then standing back and letting them tell me their story.

Here is some insight into the men of Unraveled:

Caedon Keene: the hot blackbelt who is interested in Autumn. He's sensitive, but deadly which makes him even more alluring.

Eduardo: Autumn's Taco Bell loving cousin. He's her partner in crime and modeled after Tommy Lee of Motley Crue:

Papi: Autumn's father. He's a baker, and an honest hardworking man. He doesn't understand Autumn's math gift, but believes in her talent.

Now for the cool stuff 

What’s up for grabs on my blog?

A FREE E-book of Unraveled

How to enter? Answer this question in the comment section below:


What's your favorite mystery novel?

What’s up for grabs on during the Blog Hop?


• One lucky hopper will win a KINDLE PAPERWHITE eREADER sponsored by Evernight Teen.
• Every book blogger/reviewer site is giving away one free eBook from Evernight Teen (winner’s choice of any eBook from Evernight Teen’s website).

• Plus, each author offers their own unique prize! So visit each blog hop stop for a host of fabulous prizes to win.


Be sure to leave your answer and your email address in the comments below to be eligible to win an eBook of Unraveled.




Continue hopping to the next stop!

Here is the Link so you can go on to the next blog for a chance to win more prizes.


Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list...

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A cat says ________.
A dog says________.
A skunk says______. (We don't know!) Watch this video to hear a skunk, a ground hog, a bison and more.

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My picture book, WISDOM, THE MIDWAY ALBATROSS is now available as in iBook. To access it, you must go to the iBook app on your iPhone or iPad. Then, search for the iBook. Or, click here to be taken to the page on iTunes.

Do you want your book to sell as an ebook? Here are some of the things you must consider.

Ebooks on Multiple Platforms

First, there is an industry-wide ePub standard. But almost no one goes by it. This means that you can put your book up as an ePub, but you’ll have to tweak the files for each and every platform you want to put it on.

The easiest method is to work with Smashwords, which allows ePubs now, or has a MeatGrinder to convert files. You will most definitely want to read Smashwords owner Mark Coker’s Smashwords File Guide. It is a simple explanation of the variables involved in formatting your book. Smashwords has multiple distributions and many people just upload it here and let Smashwords take care of distribution to these platforms: Sony, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Amazon, Apple, Diesel, Page Foundry, Baker & Taylor Blio, Library Direct, Baker & Taylor, and Axis 360 . But others prefer to move on to other platforms themselves.

Nook: You can upload your ePub documents to Nook at pubit.barnesandnoble.com.
Their process has a built in viewer so you can see what your book will look like on these devices.

Kindle: Go to the kdp.amazon.com program and set up an account to get started. Kindle formatting is not ePub and you must convert your files. KDP allows for distribution on Amazon stores in multiple countries: Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and India. Of course, if you want it in different languages, you must translate it yourself, then upload the translated files.

Kobo: Not a new player, but one to take notice of now, Kobo recently signed a deal with the Independent Booksellers to make Kobo the preferred platform in your local indie. They are working together to promote books in new and fresh ways. The Kobo App is available on almost any platform. You can get on Kobo through Smashwords, or by directly uploading to them. They accept an ePub format and will convert it as needed to their format.

Apple iBooks: The strange thing about Apple’s iBook platform is its limitations. iBooks is an app for iPhone or iPad, but there’s no app for Android, desktop Macs, or other platforms. Sales go through the iBookstore, which is part of iTunes. Some argue that iBooks won’t take off until they pull the books out of iTunes. The real advantage of Apple is their international reach, which allows you to put your book into 52 different countries. Again, you must translate yourself; if you only put up English, you may get some sales, but it won’t take off. Apple provides free software, IBookAuthor, which allows you to embed audio and video and is generally touted as a boon to textbook writers. Of course, that just increases your copyright headaches, as you must make sure you have permissions for all images, sounds, music, video, multimedia, etc. But it’s totally cool to include video. I put an introductory video on the new Wisdom iBook. If you have ePub files, they may work on Apple’s platform, but you can’t get around the requirement that you use a Mac Computer to upload at iTunesConnect .

There are other platforms, of course. Vook touts their video-embedded ebooks, while other platforms have other specialties.

PDF Ebooks. Technically not an ePub, but still often referred to as an ebook, are pdf versions of your book. You can sell these from your website through a sales management site such as ejunkie.com. It allows you to upload your files, then handles the transaction and sends a notice to the buyer when the financial transaction is finished, so they can download their file. Goodreads.com also allows you to sell pdf

Software to Create EPubs

What a tangled web there is when you consider converting your book to ePub!
First, most of the major platforms will convert for you. But you’ll want to create the ePub first. Here are some options.

Adobe Indesign. The premiere book/publishing layout and design software from Adobe has made it easier than ever to convert to an ePub. Indesign CS6 allows for flexible layouts, so you can create both portrait and landscape versions of your book for the tablet requirements. Many magazines use Indesign and create the flexible layouts to publish. You can export in a digital format, too, which should meet ePub requirements. The cost of Adobe products continues to escalate and they update so often that it is outdated quickly; therefore, they now offer a monthly subscription that I am reluctantly moving to.

Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite is not the same thing; it is used more by magazine publishers than book publishers, and by iPad app developers. This is because through this software, you can upload to the Apple App store, but NOT to the Apple book store. Think carefully where you want to sell your product when you choose your Adobe software. Do you want an app (DPS) or an ebook(InDesign)?

Apple’s iBookAuthor. On the other hand, Apple’s price is right: free. iBooksAuthor is one of the easiest, most-intuitive programs to use, but it comes with a major disadvantage. When you create an ebook with this software, you may sell it on Apple’s iBookstore and no where else. This means you will probably do a separate version just for them. The biggest advantage of Apple is that you can sell to 52 countries. And Apple seems to me to be a sleeping giant: if they ever decide to push ebooks, like they do music and video, look out.

Sigil. Open software, Sigil lets you look at the inside of your ePub and–if you are brave and knowledgable–make changes.

Calibre. A desktop ebook reader and editor, Calibre allows you to edit the metadata, add a book cover and convert to some formats. A free, open-source program, it’s useful to have around.

My Workflow

Well, to be honest, it changes every time I get ready to do this, because the development of software, platforms and everything about ebooks changes so rapidly. But in general, what I’ve done is to layout a book in InDesign, then export as an ebook and as a pdf. In Sigil, I can change anything I need to on the “guts” of the ebook. I use that for Smashwords, Kindle, and Nook. I’ll use it for Kobo next time, too, since their connection to Independent Bookstores has raised their profile. I use the pdf with ejunkie.com to sell on my own site.Then, I do a completely new version in iBookAuthor for Apple. Such a pain. Hard to keep track.

At times, I have also hired someone to convert to the standard ePub, then done any tweaking needed for a different format. I’ll be so glad when everyone abides by a given standard! Right now, the biggest drawback to ePubs is the fragmented platforms and their individual requirements.

Helpful books

Elizabeth Castro rocks. Essentially, an ePub is a set of images and text that are put into an html file, controlled by a CSS (cascading style sheets) file, and then zipped into one file. This means that if you mess with the guts of the ePub, you need advice from someone who understand html and css and can explain it in relatively simple terms. Elizabeth Castro has a suite of books that does just this.

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This is by no means the only things you can use to format and convert your manuscript to an e-book, it is just to give you an idea of the some of the things out in the market you can use. The Kindle, the Nook and the iTunes Bookstore (which services both the iPhone and iPad) now stand out as the most common targets for e-books. This has helped the e-book boom has helped consolidate formats a bit, but there still isn’t a single gold-standard editing product that guides users through the whole workflow and helps them check their results.

You probably will want to format your e-book for a varity of readers –  it helps to support as many of devices as possible. The Kindle, for instance, is notorious for not supporting ePub format files.

So here is a little information about the most common e-book formats and their drawbacks, so you can decide what to use to format your manuscript and create an ebook.

HTML:

If you are looking for only one fromat, HTML is more or less it. For one, it’s ubiquitous; almost every text-processing program can generate or read HTML. It also supports many features e-books will use: hyperlinks, font control, section headings, images, etc. Downside not everyone knows HTML.

But if you’re starting with a Microsoft Word or Open Document Format document, your best bet is to export it directly from the source application into HTML. Word users should do a “Save as…” using the “Web Page, Filtered” option, which strips out most of Word’s generated left over junk (cruft).

Exporting to HTML from your source program helps preserve the most crucial formatting and usually preserves sections and chapters: outline headers are turned into h1/h2/h3 tags, which most conversion programs correctly recognize. Some are even able to auto-generate tables of contents from those tags. Word typically does a good job generating TOCs without problems.

Microsoft Word (DOC or DOCX)

If you’re dealing with an original manuscript, odds are it’s probably going to be in Microsoft Word format. Almost every device on the face of the Earth can read or write Word documents. And the format has native support for most everything you could think of: formulas, chaptering, footnotes, indexes — anything that might show up in an e-book.

Word documents are best as a starting point for an intermediate conversion format, most likely HTML, rather than a format that can be converted directly into an e-book. In fact, most e-book conversion programs don’t accept Word natively as a source document type. They may accept Word’s sibling format, RTF, but that is already at least one stage of conversion away from the original and increases the chance that certain features might not make it through the conversion process. For example, RTF does support features like sections and footnotes, but the Calibre e-book creation suite, for one, doesn’t process them correctly.

OpenDocument (ODF)

OpenDocument is the format used by OpenOffice.org. Microsoft Word also supports ODF as one of it’s formats. it reads and writes.) Third-party OpenOffice offers extensions that let you export directly to e-pub formats. There are also a number of standalone applications, such as ODFToEPub. If you’re already used to creating your documents in ODF, your path to creating a finished e-book may be  shortened, slightly.

ePub:

An open, non-proprietary format. Uses XHTML as the basis for its document format. ePub is widely supported as an output format by various e-book production applications. iTunes only accepts ePub as a source format, so it couldn’t hurt to render a copy of your product as ePub no matter what other formats you use.  Books that require PDF-style page fidelity won’t work well in ePub.

Mobi and Kindle:

After Amazon bought Mobit, it made it into the basis for the Kindle reader’s own e-book format. Mobi supports digital rights management, but unencrypted Mobi documents can be read on the Kindle without issues.

PDF

PDFs can be read as-is in the majority of e-book readers, including the Kindle. It is best used when you want to maintain absolute fidelity to page layout — images, typefaces, etc. But this is the very feature that makes PDFs a problem in some scenarios. Other e-book formats are designed to work independently of any particular device resolution, so pages reflow automatically for each device. This is one of the reasons the Kindle didn’t make use of page numbers at first, since the page numbering for a particular book depends on what device or screen size you are using.

PDFs reproduce the formatting of the original page, no matter what the size of the destination device, so a PDF formatted at a certain size may be readable on a large display, but look cramped on a Kindle or Nook. If you plan to use PDFs, you may want to consider exporting your document with different page sizes for people using e-readers with small screens.

Calibre:

http://calibre-ebook.com/  Calibre is a free and open-source application marketed as a personal e-book management solution. It can be used as an e-book conversion utility.  It is powerful and may be the best place to start, especially if you want to distill output for multiple e-book formats. The program can accept ODF, RTF, ePub, Mobi, PDF and HTML. Calibre can also reformat documents unwrapping plain text that has too many line breaks or insert chapter breaks by looking for certain text structures (such as a line break, the word “Chapter” and then a number).

It doesn’t support DOC or DOCX documents, so anything coming from Word, so you will have to save it in another format first.  Serdar Yegulalp, a computer techology author says, ”Saving in either ODF or HTML from Word seemed to do the best job of preserving formatting and features, including things like monospaced formatting for code examples. Doesn’t process footnotes correctly.”

Sigil:

http://code.google.com/p/sigil/ Sigil is a multi-platform EPUB ebook editor – free open source. It’s an editor that exports to e-books (has a built-in document editor) it includes various tools for collating and assembling a finished e-book (such as a table-of-contents editor). Sigil’s main drawback is how it handles importing – only accepts HTML, plain text or existing ePub files as input documents.

Jutoh:

http://www.jutoh.com/ Accepts OPL files and has slightly more robust editing options. The cost is $39.

Adobes In Design is a full blown publishing solution, but it requires a lot more work and knowledge to generate a finished product than a simple conversion utility. Second is the price tag: It starts at $699.

TIP: Include a Table of Contents

An e-book that isn’t properly chaptered is difficult to navigate. Going to an arbitrary point in a book is not as easy as it should be. The Kindle, for instance, has no touch screen, so jumping around in a book without a table of contents is a chore.

If you have gone through the process of formatting and converting your own ebook, we loved to hear what you chose.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Filed under: demystify, How to, Process, Publishing Industry, reference Tagged: ePub, Formatting an e-book, itunes, Kindle, Mobi, Nook

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Flashy Fiction and Other Insane Tales volumes 1 and 2 are now available in a bundle! Not only do you get both books together, you save 25% too!

 

Flashy Fiction and Other Insane Tales (Bundle Vol 1 & 2) 

by Jen Wylie and Sean Hayden

Anthology Bundle

Published March 17 2013

Price: 2.99 (save 25%)

Available at [Amazon]

IT’S THE BEST OF BOTH BOOKS!
Okay, technically it’s just BOTH BOOKS in ONE seriously funny and scary easy to read, purchase only once, compendium of the deranged! And you save almost a WHOLE DOLLAR! Do we rock or do we rock?

An anthology of the strange, bizarre, and just plain weird.

Zombies, vampires, ghosts, and …crickets? Try a taste of writing from two very different fantasy authors. Flash stories are super short and perfect for when you ‘just have a minute’. This anthology contains 15 stories from authors Sean Hayden and Jen Wylie. Run the rampart of emotions in this exciting mix of tales. From humor to twisted, there is something for everyone.

Unicorns, zombies, devils, dark whispers, teddy bears, and …fireflies? Try a taste of writing from two very different fantasy authors. Flash fiction stories are super short and perfect for when you ‘just have a minute’. This anthology contains 15 stories (both flash and longer short stories) from authors Sean Hayden and Jen Wylie. Run the rampart of emotions in this exciting mix of tales. From humor to horror, sweet to twisted, there is something for everyone.
~*~

Note: Some stories contain adult language.

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A doozy! You guys! The Betsy-Tacy Treasury (that’s the first four books in the series) is $2.99 on Kindle right now!

Here’s an older post of mine about the books.

Sorry so brief today. Busy busy day! We took the kids to the mountains to see snow. Was Huck and Rilla’s first encounter with it. Oh my little Southern California children.

But I finished re-reading Ballet Shoes for the Streatfeild read-along and I should be able to get a post up about it tomorrow afternoon. Are you reading? Are you ready?

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The Narnia books are $1.99 each on Kindle today.

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