C.J. Cherryh's Blog, page 201

Here's the quick refresher on e-files, downloads and what to do with them.

1. pick a device. Your computer will do. Download the offered file and store it. It's about the size, as Sweetbo pointed out, of an MP3 download.

2. unzip it: just click on it. You will find 11 types of files (I think.) Now…

3. go to our left sidebar and download both Mobipocket Reader and Calibre. Calibre can be useful later.

4. click on the file labeled mobi or .prc (same thing).

5. Mobipocket Reader will automatically open and start displaying the e-book for you.

That's the short version. If...

Link to the free download of A Writer's Life: vol 1.

http://www.cherryh.com/WaveWithoutAShore/?p=951 This is a repost, but the link had scrolled off the current pagelet, so I thought I'd refresh it.

A few notes. 1. This is still the older file. It still has warts. We're busy loading the REAL shelves of our e-store and we actually hope to have it open maybe this weekend. When we do offer a freebie book, we will not offer the abbreviated download file (the minime files have only mobi, pdf, epub) but only the big one: this is due to the...

We have twitter…

CJ: http://www.twitter.com/CJCherryh and Jane: http://www.twitter.com/JaneSFancher. Here's the deal: you can use a twitter 'friend' link to keep up with whether or when we've each last done a blog post, without having to hunt the page down, a big convenience for those of you wanting to follow a thread. So Friend us and twitter away! We are rather new to this, but we are seeing possibilities, like OSG (on the road) being able to reach us with a tweet like "OMG, I think I left the coffeepot...

Would you believe…the Norton fix failed? 4 hours on the phone..

…all the way to their Research division, and it failed. Worse, since they helped, the desktop is having trouble with the net. I want yesterday back.

Jane had so hoped to get to her own manuscript yesterday. We haven't been on the ice in two weeks. We BOTH want yesterday back.

But we are so close, and the site, we think, is pretty.

Learning curve again—but every day's a new world if you're a duck—I found how to…

…eliminate the gappiness in the scanned files, no problem. I was killing myself trying to do it in Namo, and Word Perfect straightened it out like a champion.

My brother sent me the cover sketches that didn't get broken, so we're great with that—one of them nobody's seen, and it may be a cover or the frontispiece. It's lovely to be able to do things like that again.

We've got covers for Heavy Time and Hellburner. We're ready to move with those. And Jane's working on her actual manuscripts—yay!

T...

A person asked—if I take the free download in its slightly scruffy state…

…will I be able to download the improved free file on Closed Circle when it opens?

Absolutely. A free file is a free file. As far as I can figure, the software is going to let you download that as often as you like. Experiment away and get used to the pc/Mac reader-software, conversion software, loading it on your reader, etc. Eventually you can just toss that one and get the cleaned up version from Closed Circle itself.

Today we have…

…(me) completely spell-checked Faery Moon, and gotten it completely composed, all 13 pieces of it, into mobi. File conversion tomorrow.

…(me) completely spell-checked Vol 1, 2, and 3 of The Writing Life, and gotten them into mobi. File Conversion tomorrow.

…(me) gotten chapter 1 of the Faery in Shadow scan into e-book format.

…(me) gotten a little written on the Foreigner book.

…(me) gotten the addy/phone of the chap who custom-farms the small acreage I inherited from my mother, who needs...

Scan progress.

I have finished the master .prc file for Faery Moon. I am working to unite the scanned chapters of Faery in Shadow into a .prc file, and I can report so far the project is going swimmingly. Not a glitch yet. It's futzy: I have to go paragraph by paragraph, and it's just a wee bit gappy, but the eye can ignore it.

I'll have to design a new cover for the old Faery in Shadow: I have no rights to use the original book cover, so I'll think of something. The pretty new covers will go on new...

We have had about 130 people download the free file in the first 24 hours…scroll down if you're looking for the download: it's in the posts.

…bearing in mind that some people visit once a week….

If any of you are hesitating, go for it. It's a little slow in this incarnation: a 4.5 meg file for the first download. In the actual site, we will have that down to 1.5 if you are after a MiniMe file (mobi, pdf, ePub only). If you are uncertain how to proceed, we will walk you through the process.

And if you have troubles downloading or extracting, let us know! That's why we are running this trial. The mistakes are likely to be on our side ...

We have had about 130 people download the free file in the first 24 hours…

…bearing in mind that some people visit once a week….

If any of you are hesitating, go for it. It's a little slow in this incarnation: a 4.5 meg file for the first download. In the actual site, we will have that down to 1.5 if you are after a MiniMe file (mobi, pdf, ePub only). If you are uncertain how to proceed, we will walk you through the process.

And if you have troubles downloading or extracting, let us know! That's why we are running this trial. The mistakes are likely to be on our side ...