Tag: Amazon Kindle

Sunday Scoopful and #ROW80

by Linda Nelson, posted in ROW80, works in progress, writing

On Saturday, November 9th, we had another speaker for our NH Chapter of Romance Writers. We meet in Bow, NH the second Saturday of the month from September to June. Each month we have a speaker to give us tidbits on what they found worked best for them as in writing or promoting.

So yesterday, we had a visit from none other than – wait for it – wait – Marie Force. That’s right. She was our speaker.

What she brought to us was tidbits on being a hybrid author. You see, she is not only traditionally published but she is a self-pubbing author as well. If you ever get the chance to hear her speak in person than take it, she has a lot of insight into what comes into factor for being a hybrid author.

She spoke mostly about the importing things a self-published author needs to know before hitting the mighty publish button.

  1. Write a book that is not just good – but great. Make sure your plots are sound and your characters are likeable.
  2. Have your book professionally edited. It is costly but well worth the money spent. That is copy-edited for the most part. They are the ones who pick up on a lot of grammar problems and spelling problems, maybe a proofreading error or two.
  3. Use a professional designer to make your book covers. Book covers do have a huge impact on whether your book is going to attract a reader.
  4. Make sure your manuscript is properly formatted. If you can’t figure out how to format your book then pay someone to do it for you. Lots of times sites like Smashwords will tell you to try again if the formatting is not correct. But if it takes you more than five tries and you still don’t get it or all your hair has been pulled from the top of your head then you really need to seek out a formatting service to take care of your manuscript properly for you.
  5. Even eBooks do need front matter. This is where you put the name of the book followed by author name then published by and so on. Smashwords has good examples of this in their style guide that is free for everyone to read and use.
  6. Every book needs an ISBN. Or should read, every different format of you book needs its own ISBN. That means that an eBook needs its own for ePub and Mobi, PDF and so on. Right down to making sure that you have a separate one for you paperback. You can’t use the same ISBN for all the books under that same title. Each one has to have its own.
  7. You need to distribute your book. This can be done by setting up an account with the various venues like Amazon Kindle Direct, Barnes & Noble Nook Press, Kobo Writing Life and so on. Or you can do the one shoe fits all and use Smash words for you distribution needs. (Note: you still need a separate account for Amazon Kindle Direct when using Smashwords unless you are a bestselling author, otherwise, if you are not a bestseller, Amazon will not open their distribution gate for your Smashwords file. So it is best to work with amazon direct in the beginning.)
  8. Promoting your book. Marie found that Facebook was the best social media avenue when it came to promoting your book. This is without posting multiple posts about your book. Just engage with your readers and treat them the way you would love to be treated and word of mouth about your book and how nice you are really makes a difference in how well your book sells. Readers love to say my friend – so and so – Facebook link – wrote a book that I loved. This is so good for you and your reader. Let them have at it. Friends are some of your best readers. Believe me; everyone wants to be someone’s friend.
  9. If your book is not selling, revisit it and take a peak to see why. If the cover needs to be improved than change it. If your formatting is not good enough than fix it. Update your books periodically so they can keep pace with the ever changing face of technology.

If you need help with your self-published book Marie has a solution for this as well. She runs a service called
Formatting Fairies. They do everything from formatting to copy editing and book cover design. She also has a self-pub loop at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/selfpublish/

ROW80 Update: My NaNo Work in Progress

It has been a couple of weeks since I last checked in or maybe just over a week. I’ve been working on a Nano project for this month. It will be interesting to see how far I can get with this WIP. I missed two days this week and fell short on word count on one day too. As of yesterday my word count sits at 7k words. I might be done after the first of the year. (LOL)

I have to keep telling myself that the best I have done is writing a first draft in 90 days. That is still not too bad. So if I don’t make the NaNo deadline I will not beat myself up over it.

Next weekend Sunday Scoop: Monadnock Writers’ Group

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Where would I be without my Computer?

by Linda Nelson, posted in ROW80, writing, writing and poetry

What a good question.

I don’t think that this would have been a problem four years ago before I started writing. I may have missed the online communities, but I would have gotten over that problem.

My computer has become the center point for all my writing. It’s my tool. I don’t think I would adjust well to switching back to a typewriter. The correction tape is such a thing of the past. I remember using it back when I was in high school, or the eraser pencil from way back then that tore holes into your page if you scrubbed that type to hard. I don’t miss typewriters at all.

Have you ever used one? If you have it shows your age. – he he he

But if you think about it – where would you be without your computer? Or tablet for that matter?

Would you be able to survive?

Five years ago, in southern NH we had a bad ice storm that wiped out power to a good portion of the state. We went without power in our home for 12 days. It was a nightmare. Back then we didn’t even own a woodstove. We quickly rectified that problem.

But not only was our power gone, our phone was gone too. I had to take my cellphone to work just to keep it charged in case of emergencies.

Now we own a generator. (Thank God)

If I didn’t have my computer I would be lost. The internet would be gone. My ability to create those amazing covers of mine would be gone. I would be reduced to using a typewriter and having holes in my manuscript from the eraser pencil. Spell check and grammar check would be gone, and I would be forced to mail – mail my manuscripts to a publishing house. I wouldn’t be able to self publish. Oh No!

Yup – my computer has become the center of my writing life.

What do you think? Do think you could survive in this day and age without your computer or tablet device?

 

ROW80 Update:

My goal for this month is to reestablish my blogging. I have been to lazy for quite sometime. I need to get back into the habit of posting twice a week.

What I’ve been up to: For the past few weeks I have been busy preparing Along Came Neil to hit the Kindle shelf. That is done.

Now I am going through each of my previously published works with line edits. I think I have seen an improvement. I just finished up the edits on my Teen Contemporary Series. My Orgarlan Series is up for the edits next. Once those are done I will be able to begin the next book in that series. (I can’t wait)

I am dying to get back to my fantasy world. I’ve had enough of the drama in a teen drug crazed world for now. If you’ve ever known an addict you would know what I’m talking about. It does get to you after a while. Fortunately my books are pretty tame to how they really are in the real world.

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