Part Four. On Writing: My Journey with The Airshipmen.
The next thing I had to deal with was editing, line editing and proofreading. I had my daughter assist me with this. She is the most well-read person I know and a great editor—another super-smart person who really ‘gets it’. Formatting became an important issue. I had to learn about both for Kindle and the paperback version.
I decided to include a few illustrations in the book to help readers visualize some of the scenes from those bygone days and worked on adapting photos for that purpose. As you know, novels don’t have photos, only nonfiction books do. Therefore, with help of a good friend, I found some old photographs and made them into pencil-like drawings. I was pleased with the result.
The next step was to create a website. This in itself was a lot of fun. I spent a couple of weeks on this with my daughter-in-law, who is good at that stuff. So, with the book cover, the text and some nice reviews I’d received, the website was up and running. Any new writer who wants to market their books would be well-advised to do this.
Once all this was done, I signed up with Createspace and uploaded the book. On there, you can see your book as it will appear when printed. If there are any errors you can make revisions and re upload. The next step was to order a proof copy. Writers will tell you that receiving your book in print form for the very first time is a magic moment. I can tell you, it’s true.
With the hard copy now in print, it was time to go to work on the Kindle version and with more help from a fellow first-time writer, we completed that formatting task and uploaded the Kindle version on Amazon.
The next phase, the one I am in now, is marketing on Amazon. This, I’ve found to be quite fascinating—addictive at times. I still have much to learn and I have found the folks at Amazon, CreateSpace and Goodreads (another great Amazon company) are helpful and nice to deal with. Goodreads is a huge social site with lots of interaction like Facebook, but dedicated to book-lovers. I still have much to learn about Goodreads and have been reading 'Goodreads for Authors: How to Use Goodreads to Promote Your Books' by Michelle Campbell-Scott. I found this book helpful as a new writer stumbling around on a site with more than 40 million members rather like a bull in a china shop. Michelle’s book also pointed me towards Cheryl Kaye Tardif’s book, 'How I made $42,000 in One Month Selling My Kindle Books'. That book has useful information for writers new to marketing.
Then came the business of reviews. Since publication, I’ve been struck by how varied peoples' tastes are! Some said it was too long. Others said they were sorry when it ended. Some said they didn’t like the politics (I studiously tried to keep politics out of it and tried to be fair), one person said I’d taken the good airship/bad airship approach—and in that regard I’d meticulously sort out problems and faults with both airships, as well as crewmen, officers and government officials. Some said the book was too heavy—not much I could do about that except make it into a three-part series! I could of course advise such folks to read it on Kindle! I’m sure there are some people who might say ‘The Godfather’ or ‘Gone With the Wind’ or ‘The Devil in the White City’ were boring. The truth is, you can’t please everyone—and perhaps that’s a good thing. Still, I struggle not to take comments personally! But I must say that when you receive a five star review it’s like shot of something magical in both arms—especially when the reviewer is a woman! Why do I say that? ‘What woman is going to read a book with a title like The Airshipmen’, people kept asking me. 'It's about people and the cards they are dealt,' I told them. 'It's about life.'
I decided to include a few illustrations in the book to help readers visualize some of the scenes from those bygone days and worked on adapting photos for that purpose. As you know, novels don’t have photos, only nonfiction books do. Therefore, with help of a good friend, I found some old photographs and made them into pencil-like drawings. I was pleased with the result.
The next step was to create a website. This in itself was a lot of fun. I spent a couple of weeks on this with my daughter-in-law, who is good at that stuff. So, with the book cover, the text and some nice reviews I’d received, the website was up and running. Any new writer who wants to market their books would be well-advised to do this.
Once all this was done, I signed up with Createspace and uploaded the book. On there, you can see your book as it will appear when printed. If there are any errors you can make revisions and re upload. The next step was to order a proof copy. Writers will tell you that receiving your book in print form for the very first time is a magic moment. I can tell you, it’s true.
With the hard copy now in print, it was time to go to work on the Kindle version and with more help from a fellow first-time writer, we completed that formatting task and uploaded the Kindle version on Amazon.
The next phase, the one I am in now, is marketing on Amazon. This, I’ve found to be quite fascinating—addictive at times. I still have much to learn and I have found the folks at Amazon, CreateSpace and Goodreads (another great Amazon company) are helpful and nice to deal with. Goodreads is a huge social site with lots of interaction like Facebook, but dedicated to book-lovers. I still have much to learn about Goodreads and have been reading 'Goodreads for Authors: How to Use Goodreads to Promote Your Books' by Michelle Campbell-Scott. I found this book helpful as a new writer stumbling around on a site with more than 40 million members rather like a bull in a china shop. Michelle’s book also pointed me towards Cheryl Kaye Tardif’s book, 'How I made $42,000 in One Month Selling My Kindle Books'. That book has useful information for writers new to marketing.
Then came the business of reviews. Since publication, I’ve been struck by how varied peoples' tastes are! Some said it was too long. Others said they were sorry when it ended. Some said they didn’t like the politics (I studiously tried to keep politics out of it and tried to be fair), one person said I’d taken the good airship/bad airship approach—and in that regard I’d meticulously sort out problems and faults with both airships, as well as crewmen, officers and government officials. Some said the book was too heavy—not much I could do about that except make it into a three-part series! I could of course advise such folks to read it on Kindle! I’m sure there are some people who might say ‘The Godfather’ or ‘Gone With the Wind’ or ‘The Devil in the White City’ were boring. The truth is, you can’t please everyone—and perhaps that’s a good thing. Still, I struggle not to take comments personally! But I must say that when you receive a five star review it’s like shot of something magical in both arms—especially when the reviewer is a woman! Why do I say that? ‘What woman is going to read a book with a title like The Airshipmen’, people kept asking me. 'It's about people and the cards they are dealt,' I told them. 'It's about life.'
No comments have been added yet.
