Ceanmohrlass's Blog, page 7

Creating/Formatting E-book

E-book formats I use:

I create in MS Word, save as Word 97-2003 Document

Start with first page to make Title Page/ Copyright/License Notes

TITLE PAGE: Title: Centered Align, Times New Roman 16, Spacing before: 60pt, Spacing After: 24 pt. Single Line Spacing.

COPYRIGHT (and Fiction disclaimer) and PUBLISHED BY and LICENSE NOTES: Center Align, Times New Roman 12. Single Line Spacing

Use Page Break

TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE:

Table of Contents: Center Align, Times New Roman 14

Body: Left Align, Times New Roman 12

I list chapter, about author and other books by here.

Use Page Break

CHAPTER and BODY:

Chapter: Center Align, Times New Roman 16. Indent First Line: 0”

Body: Left Align, Times New Roman 12. Spacing: Before: 0, After 10pt, Indent 0.1”, Single Space, and check: Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style.

Use Page Break at end of chapter.

On about author page I list my links to social media.

On other books I list them but don’t link to them.

Create Table of Contents:

1: Highlight the word/words you want to link to on the table of contents page

2: Insert Bookmark.

3: Type in whatever you want to name the bookmark (ie chapterone) no spaces

4: Go through document and create all your bookmarks giving each its own name

5: When all bookmarks have been created you can link them

6. On Table of Contents page, highlight the word/words in the list to link to

7: Insert Hyperlink- choose Place in this document, select the bookmark you created and click it and okay.

8. Create all your links.

9. Test your links (should all be in blue or whatever color you have your default set to)

That is just what I do for my E-book formatting.

I will post about standard paperbooks in a seperate post.

Hope this helps!

Query Letters… yes/no?

NaNoWriMo completed, completely overindulged in the holiday festivities, check and check. Head cold still in full swing but will dim in time, suck it up buttercup. Time to get back into the swing of things.

Next task-Query letters. dum-dum-dum-dummmm.

How scary can two little words be anyway? Pretty scary when you have never completed one. I am in the position this spring/early summer, to write my first (I am sure of many) query letters to publishers… I have bookmarked dozens of pages on the topic, and will take a few weeks to read through everything. It sure isn’t like the old days thank goodness. No more typing out works and mailing in a pouch. Now it looks like the process is finally electronic as it should be. I know to expect dozens to hundreds of turn down letters for any or no reason, and to know that there will be a ton of unanswered emails. I’m ready for that.

I’ve been advised that February through June is best time to query, and that it won’t be a speedy process. I understand it might take up to 18 months from the time I do get a response (when that happens) before anything hits the shelf. I also have come to understand that even if I get accepted, a number of nightmare scenarios are possible. I’ve heard stories from the clerk who sent the response to send my works in quitting, and no one following up, to the agent working with writer quitting or changing companies, to the editor making writer completely rewrite, or the publishing head changing the title, cover and even the genre to suit the taste of the times. Yikes! Here we go, 2016, time to buckle under, finish the present works, put on my leather skin, and begin the query process… Going to be a wild spring/summer this year I can see! :)

Looking for that perfect card?

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http://www.sensualcards.net/how-did-he-do-it.html

 

2016!

Yeah 2016 is finally here! Great celebration with the family but then dum,dum,dum, dum… The dreaded head cold hit :( no good! Really cuts into my creative groove when the cough never ends LOL Hope everyone is well and enjoying the new year!

Hiatus

Wishing all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I will be on a shut-in writing hiatus until New Year’s Day. Have a safe and happy holiday everyone!

Strike while the iron is hot…

Been hard at it on a new novel. Striking while the iron is hot and the ideas are flowing. I’ll be back soon but for now, dedication is the key! Enjoy the week everyone!

Stories in dreams

This has been an incredible year for my stories. I have been sidelined in the current writes due to a dream. Viewing a photo was the simple catalyst that began this new work. I have pushed the two partially complete scripts to the side for now. This new work is writing itself, I am only holding the pen, and I could no more stop it from evolving than I could stop breathing. I suppose that is a good thing, but like it or not, write it I will. May be a delay in posts until the paper is gorged, but I will return here soon.

Marketing

One of the things that has been the hardest for me is marketing. While I am a social person at heart, learning to utilize all of the outlets available has been tough. Tips and ideas on how to market abound, and it’s overwhelming at times.

When you choose to self publish for whatever reason, writing is the easy part. You have worked for weeks, months, or perhaps even years on your story. You’ve gone over it with a fine tooth comb and it’s spiffed and polished. You find just the right cover to catch the reader’s eye. Now, publish, and wait… Crickets. Nothing happens. No one sees your work in rising sea of options.

Then comes the hard part, you learn that you should have built up your audience, done a pre-release packet, gotten beta readers to send your work to for reviews, then voila – release party.

Oops! So now, the work is out there along with the other hundreds of works that released at the same time yours did. Suddenly, everyone is posting that their work isn’t selling. No one is looking; no one is buying. Now what?

You start researching, for hours…

What I learned from doing things backwards is, get your name out there first. Build your ‘brand’, get your audience, build the following, and then release, and hope there is interest among the masses to allow you a foothold.

Our forums are full of authors giving up, cutting their losses, and moving on. That hurts me to hear that. I think they lost the reason they wrote in the first place – the love of creating a work that will outlive you. I write because I can’t imagine not doing so. I write because the stories flow in my dreams, my thoughts, and my days. I will be writing until no more stories flow.

I may have done things backwards, and I am still learning the ropes, but I believe that in time, things will work out. Rome wasn’t built in a day; my ‘brand’ wasn’t either.

So I followed the tips from the wonderful people that help daily. I have a website, an author page on Smashwords, Amazon, Goodreads, etc. I am on twitter with a thousand followers or so, I have a Facebook author page. I have my blog here as well. I did things backwards, and I am okay with that. I will keep working on marketing and I will keep writing. I hear that until a year or two ago, that was all you needed, but now everyone is in the same boat. So we should support one another, and make friends along the way. We write because we love it and at the end of the day, we rest easy.

Newest Release

I participated in NaNoWriMo this year and survived! LOL

My NaNo book is a Young Adult Fiction work titled Me and My Bacon . 

   Struggling to deal with her mother’s indifference, and the emotional turbulence of being a teen, Mera’s world is hard enough already. Her world is turned upside down by her mother’s abrupt decision to rip her from her fast-paced city life in L.A., to the backwoods of Vermont. Can she find a way to fit in and acclimate to her new world without losing who she really is?

This e-book has been accepted to participate in a campaign for publishing through Kindle Scout. Kindle Scout is Amazon’s reader powered publishing division. If you have an Amazon account and would like to take a look at this novel the link is listed below. If this novel interests you, please click Nominate Me. If my book is published you will receive a pre-release copy to read and review if you nominated.

My campaign is live here: https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/14AGRFIF3D2MU

Thank you for supporting Indie Authors!

Weekend rest

Taking a short break to rejuvenate my mind :) Festival is in town and my pups haven’t had a field trip in far too long! Have a great weekend everyone!