Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 108

My Take on How the Traditional Publishing Industry Works

This is based off of my research and what I learned from the workshop I attended back in November.

Keep in mind, these are my opinions.

Okay, so last night I was lying in bed trying to sleep when I recalled a comment one of the agents made. "Even if your book is great, if I can't find a spot for it, I won't take it. I need to find a book that fits what a publisher is currently looking for."

There was a person in the audience who asked, "Does that include a book that isn't good?"

And the agent...

Here's the iTunes screen for Getting the MP3 Conversion Set up

Click on the image for the full size.

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Getting a Clear Podcast When Audiobooking

Well, my initial podcasts turned out to have mediocre to horrid sound quality. I've been using Audacity, which is a free program. I'm in no way making a ton of money, so I do have to watch my expenses, esp. since I just hired a proofreader for my upcoming books. (Guess where the money I am making is going? LOL Right back into my books.)

Anyway, I did chapters 1-7 of my book Loving Eliza, and as I was listening to the chapters (and cringing), I figured something had to give here. Either I...

This Format for Smashwords Works if You Want Distribution From Them

I said I would let you know if my way of getting my document ready for Smashwords worked or not, and it did. I have been approved for distribution to Barnes & Noble, Sony, and Kobo (formerly Shortcovers). It looks like Fictionwise has a play in this too, but I don't know if that is something already happening or in the works. If anyone wants to give me information on that one, please do and I'll edit this post.


Here's the link to the post I made about how to format your Word 2003 document f...

Pricing + Ebooks = Money in Author's Pocket

Today I come with hope for self-published authors. Thanks to the January Ezine from The Creative Penn, I found the author I've heard about who made more with his self-published books than with his traditionally published books. I remember hearing about him on a podcast but couldn't remember the name. He's Joe Konrath, and here's his blog: http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/. I recommend following both him and The Creative Penn. If it weren't for resources like this, I'd be stuck where I was t...

Smashwords

Today I decided to give Smashwords another try. I tried back in July and got frustrated since I kept messing things up and couldn't figure my way around. I never made a sale over there anyway. I don't even know if I'll make any now. But since I keep seeing people "talking" about Smashwords, I figured, "What the hey?" The worst that can happen is the ebooks will sit there unnoticed and unbought. This is just one more experiment I'm trying.

While I'm talking about Smashwords, I'm going to ...

J.R. Reardon Speaks on Self-Publishing, Book Promotion, and Her Books

J.R. Reardonauthor of legal thrillers Confidential Communications and DISHONORED

[image error]J.R. Reardon's Website

J.R. Reardon's first book, Confidential Communications, was released on June 16, 2008. In that time, it has received some notable honors. As of January 21, 2010, her book has received 18 customer reviews on Amazon with an average of 4 out of 5 stars. The book was tagged #1 Conspiracy, #1 Legal Thriller, #4 Suspense, and #3 Action-Adventure. On Goodreads, the book has an average rank of 4.44 ...

Maybe These Should Be on the "Do Not Do" List

I'm laughing my head off, but I've just come off of a forum where authors and readers congregate and did it ever show me a couple of things relating to selling yourself as an author, which is why I decided to post this. So, for a quick run through, here's what I noticed.

1. Out of about 400+ comments, 3-4 people kept reposting information about their book. Every time they got a "new" review, they felt the need to plug that and recap on their past comments. There really should be a limit o...

Passion Keeps You Going When You Start To Despair

Once upon a time, I wrote with my family members in mind. I considered what they would want to read or not read, so I left some things out of my books and added others in that I thought might please them. But there was something missing in those books, and I never could get as excited about them as I am about the books I write now. Don't get me wrong. I do like those books. But I don't feel that burning passion for them.

The fact that my family turned out to not care about the books I was...

Thoughts on Audiobooking

Now that I have uploaded four podcasts of my audiobook, Loving Eliza, I have pointed out a couple of things that I want to do differently next time. I am not changing what I already posted up. My philosophy in life is that I learn and move on to make the next project better. I might redo the book a couple of years down the road when I've reached a more professional level, but for now, it is what it is. I have nine other books I want to read, and I'll want to read the ones I continue to wr...