Monday Mentions is the mash-up-day of all the neato-torpedo links and blogs and writer-icity crappiocca collected over the past week. To start off the blog right (or is that write?), I’ve two books to feature of the pet persuasion.
My colleague Bernadette Kazmarski has published her first book Great Rescues Calendar that sings the praises of the many cats she’s met over the years. As an artist specializing in cats, Bernadette certainly has a purr-fect eye for feline beauty. She writes, “It falls under the category of things created via feline muses. I’d hardly have published this, or done all those portraits that are in it, or done any artwork at all in fact–who knows what I’d be doing–if it weren’t for my cats and their guiding, inspiring presences in my life.” Each picture includes the cat’s rescue story, year the portrait was done, artistic medium and size of the finished portrait. For instance:
Bernadette captures the essence of cat-ness in her illustrated calendar.
Bernadette continues to do feline portraits so AFTER you purchase her gorgeous calendar, see about contacting her for a portrait of your special feline friend (maybe it’ll be included in a future book!).
I met Robert Scott–virtually met him–over at KindleBoards and Smashwords while bringing my backlist pet care books back to life as Ebooks and POD. Folks, pets touch us all in many marvelous ways and the legacy they leave behind can be powerful indeed. You can read about Robert’s journey that lead him to write about losing his beloved canine companion and perhaps his book will help others going through the same experience.
Today’s list of Mentions covers all kinds of furry, weird and writerly topics, so browse and enjoy. And remember, those who have a new book, blog, article, fill-in-the-blank that might be a fit, please email me (amy AT shojai.com) with the particulars of your book/work and I’d love to feature you on a future blog. Hey, it’s all about helping each other out, right?
I suspect thriller writers (including those with an artistic or spiritual bent) appreciate some of the biting tidbits in today’s blog. Enjoy and share.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
My colleague Sara Basore has been named Editor-In-Chief of G.IS.G Heavenly Publications. She writes, “We are taking submissions for an anthology called Spiritual Awakening: Stories of Praise and Redemption. We want a variety of stories from all genres, from Young Adult to Nostalgia to Horror to Romance and all in between.” She also says her cat Ginger will help by walking across the laptop keyboard.
Another of my favorite artists, Kim Santini, offers portraits of dogs, cats, horses, cows–you name it–and even has a newsletter Painting A Dog A Day, check it out.
Cat Wisdom 101 blog from my colleague Layla Morgan Wilde covers all-things-cats, from book reviews and SQUEEEE! lovely kitty pictures, to interviews with experts, rescue matters, and a variety of fun to serious subjects. Check it out–tell her I sent you!
Like kitty TV? Sally Bahner’s awesome Exclusively Cats blog kibbles about the good, the bad and the so-so meowy programming.
Welcome to my series with tips based on my DIY Kindle-ization Journey. For those who just found this blog, you can take a look back at previous installments: Why Do It? and The Challenges. Tuesday Tips #4 covered the various platform options and what’s required for each. Formatting For Kindle was followed by Picture This! a how-to primer on including photos, tables and illustrations in your Ebook.
If you’re like me and write nonfiction, chances are you have photos, illustrations or boxed/tabled information included in your format. And last week covered–well, the cover in The Cover Story. Last week’s #8 installment covered the upload of your book to create your Kindle edition AND some insights on indy publishing from an amazing panel at Thrillerfest. Today’s installment applies to self-published as well as traditionally pub’d books. Everybody’s gotta self promote!
[caption id="attachment_1826" align="aligncenter" width="309" caption="Hold everything together . . ."
"It makes me wanna SHOUT!"
REVIEWS, REVIEWS…did I mention REVIEWS!?
Reviews really do drive sales. This chicken-egg challenge proves daunting for every author, though. As mentioned in previous blogs in the series, for re-published backlist books it’s valuable to ensure the updated version becomes “linked” to the first edition and its positive reviews. About half of the current reviews for Complete Kitten Care imported from the original New American Library edition, and that garnered readers and more reviews for the updated Kindle and POD book. The Cutting Edge book had even more.
For new books/authors it can be even more challenging. The book content MUST be good–you won’t get a second chance–but to drive eyes to your work think outside the kitty-litter box. Most writers/authors hang out with other writers and authors and while they may be part of your audience, a world of readers exists that has no interest in the intricacies of publishing and writing.
They just want good stories and great content.
For nonfiction authors, some of these readers may find you if your “platform/presence” allows for google searches on your particular niche. For fiction authors, don’t expect the world to google your name to find a new novel to read and review. YOU must go to the READER. And once you find readers who might be interested in your work, do NOT give ‘em a hard sell–instead, become part of the community, show what you have to offer as an individual, be real, be likeable, be accessible. Your book isn’t you–it’s an afterthought that these potential readers want to find out about AFTER they realize what a neato-torpedo-kewl person you are!
There are several places readers hang out. These are just a few that I’ve found productive, and others’ milage may vary.
www.KINDLEBOARDS.com
This board primarily serves READERS–authors must remember this or they’ll get wrist-slapped pretty quickly. Various forums discuss published books, offer opinions, include reviews of Kindles and aps, and — well — LOTS of indy authors as well as traditionally pub’d authors hang out and promote books on the forums. There are a couple of specific threads that allow this, with restrictions of posting once a week per book, to prevent spamming.
Fact is, every post you make on Kindleboards promotes your books–all of them–without you ever having to say a word. All you need to do is include the appropriate signature with each post. The signatures include thumbnails of your book titles with hot-links to the amazon sale page. Have a mystery that features a knitting maniac? Join a thread discussing needlepoint and readers who see your fantastic book covers on a subject near/dear to their hearts just may give you a click.
Amazon.com topic/forums
RED FLAG WARNING HERE! Yes, these threads attract readers but they are VERY intolerant of any sort of self promotion. Consider yourself warned.
http://www.KUForum.co.uk
This is the UK version of Kindleboards and also has a specific thread that allows weekly book bumps. In my experience, this board is not quite as active as the US version, but I do have moderate sales from the UK and maintain a presence there.
FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs
Social networking today replaces book tours and print advertisements. Think about it–why spend huge $$ schlepping physical books and author-bodies around the country to kissy-face with fans UNLESS that author already has a huge following? A virtual book tour with a blog-hop created by fiction authors also worked great for my senior pet books nonfiction blog tour and it stays LIVE forever as a promotion. And–it was FREE.
You’ll want to learn the right way to blog to build your brand and following, though. Kristen Lamb, the Wizard of All-Things-Blogging offers a fantastic book and blog on the subject you NEED in this writing journey. Trust me on this. You won’t be sorry.
Most folks have a presence on Facebook (please like me!) and this site has great potential for promotion and for time-suck-isity. Know the difference and what you want out of the place. For me, it’s bidness. I will flat-out BLOCK your ass-terick should you post porn, games, spam, virus-links . . . . and I will LOVE-LOVE-LOVE and promote/LIKE/share and sing your praises to the world when you offer great content. I don’t post advertisements on other folks’ “walls” and resent it when they do it to me–but when I see something you’ve posted that’s fantastical-jump-up-and-shout-keen, I will explode fireworks on your behalf.
THAT’S how Facebook works. You get back what you give. TWITTER works the same way. Kristen Lamb has terrific info on maximizing Twitter as well so I won’t repeat it here.
LinkedIn works a bit differently. I’m no expert but have made progress thanks in large part to LinkedIn genius Jenny Hansen. You’ll want to subscribe to her Needs More Cowbell blog for more fantastic de-mystification (is that a word?) of techie stuff like should writers use Excel. You’ll want to check out the first blog in the series that includes LOTS more helpful links valuable to self-pub’ing authors and writers of every ilk.
New to self-pub'ing? Learn as ya go ...with help from friends.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Some folks have asked me to continue with the “Kindle-ization Series” but really, I don’t have a lot more to say. Guess I should give you a ballpark on my sales success so you can better judge whether to follow this advice or not. I could lie–but I’m not a JA Konrath selling thousands or making 6 figures. Yet. Self pub’ing sales start slow and grow, so I’m happy with the progress. Currently I’m selling about 100 Kindle copies a month at $5.99 each and it goes up each month–that doesn’t take into account other Ebook platforms or POD. I just got a royalty statement from my awesome publisher WhoDaresWinsPublishing with lovely news. These books were dead–and now have a new audience and based on reader response, the info has saved dozens of pet lives/relationships. So it’s worth it to me.
Tuesday Tips will go on–next week I’ll post video from Thrillerfest panels with some great writerly insight on the craft. And down the road there may be future Tuesday Tips about cat behavior. Or dog health care. Or stained glass crafting. Or who-knows-what.
It’ll be a surprise!
Here’s the deal, folks. As writers, we create worlds out of words and use them to connect with other like-minded souls. In today’s world with so much hand-waving ME-ME-ME-LOOK-OVER-HERE! attention-grabbers the stand outs are those who instead take a quiet step back and say–
How can I help YOU?
Think about it. Instead of approaching readers as what they can give to you (buy-my-book-already!), offer them the most valuable gift anyone can provide–yourself. The. Real. You. Connect in a real way, offer real value in terms of information, story, friendship, similar values/shared interests and you won’t sell just one book. You’ll create a relationship.
Relationships are the GOLD of the world who say–”I know and like ——-> (NAME) and so will you, buy his/her book.”
Do that, and you won’t have to “sell” your book. You’ll just need to write the best damn book you can. You can do it. I’m telling you as your *virtual* friend–yes, you can!
Don’t forget the most important part. Pass it forward. No, I’m serious. Send this to every single person you know. I’ll wait . . . some of ‘em are bound to have a cat or a dog, or like furry thrillers. *eg*
Welcome to all the new followers! After last week’s Monday Mentions after the amazing Thrillerfest weekend, lots of folks “discovered” the blog. Turns out that folks who read (and write) thrillers often have a furry muse in the background–and also may be considering the pros and cons of continuing the traditional pub route vs “going rogue.” *ahem* I mean, ‘indy.’
More on specific writer-icity tomorrow as the weekly Tuesday Tips Kindle-lization Journey continues with tips on self promotion. This blog focuses on furry stuff usually on Woof Wednesday and Feline Friday. Monday Mentions–hey, that’s today!–offers a mash up of awesomeness, some of the great blogs, articles and other assorted WOW schtuff that makes me sit up and take notice. So I figure it’ll wag some other writerly tails, too.
To that end, those who have a new book, blog, article, fill-in-the-blank that might be a fit, please email me (amy AT shojai.com) with the particulars of your book/work and I’d love to feature you on a future blog. Hey, it’s all about helping each other out, right?
I suspect thriller writers (including those with a fantastical bent) appreciate some of the biting tidbits in today’s blog. Enjoy and share.
MINI BOOK REVIEW
Got a copy of “the Things That Keep Us Here” by Carla Buckley (Bantam) as a freebie at the Thrillerfest banquet. Started reading on the plane flight home. Couldn’t put it down, read straight through and finished it late that night. OUTSTANDING!
It’s what I’d call a “quiet” thriller, one with such internal tension and driving characterization that you nearly explode waiting to see what happens next. It’s “Hot Zone” meets “Ordinary People” and is awful and heartrending and scary-bad in just the way a thriller should be–with brilliant writing. Oh, and a dog appears in the story with a pivotal role.
Spam Hits Kindle Okay, this is old news to self published folks, but others may not be aware of the latest get-rich-quick scheme to “aggregate” content (legally? illegally?), roll it into a ball and self-pub for big bucks. Uh…nope. IMO readers are smarter than that. But it does create lots of crappiocca.
Where Does Kitty Roam? A study of free-ranging ferals and housecats, covers some amazing ground. All you folks writing about were-cats and suchlike might want to take a look at how real cats do it.
Welcome to my series with tips based on my DIY Kindle-ization Journey. For those who just found this blog, you can take a look back at the Installment #1 Helpful Links, followed by #2 Why Do It? and #3 The Challenges. Tuesday Tips #4 covered the various platform options and what’s required for each. #5 Formatting For Kindle was followed by #6 Picture This! a how-to primer on including photos, tables and illustrations in your Ebook. If you’re like me and write nonfiction, chances are you have photos, illustrations or boxed/tabled information included in your format. And last week covered–well, the cover in #7 The Cover Story. Today’s installment covers the upload of your book to create your Kindle edition.
Before I get to that, just a few thoughts. I’m just back from Thrillerfest--probably the single most amazing writer conference event available today. More than 800 established, best-selling, and aspiring authors gathered in New York for nearly a week’s worth of seminars on craft, and panels on technique as well as industry information. Wherever I roamed–seminars, signing events, panel discussions, the bar, in the hallways–the E-lephant in the room was present.
The Ebook.
The topic came up everywhere. My pet colleagues know that if there are 3 dog trainers in a room, you’ll get 5 opinions on the good/bad/ideal on training and the same applies to opinions on Ebooks. The first thing Friday morning, I attended the only panel that addressed the issue directly: “What’s First, The Chicken or the Egg? Alternatives to Traditional Publishing”
David Hewson was the Panel Master, and started off the session by “banning” the term legacy publishers from the discussion. He also seemed to dislike the term social networking but that was harder to avoid–all this said with good humor, of course.
A.J. Hartley described the unheard of turn-around process of going from “idea” to “published” in less than a year with his book co-authored with David Hewson of “Macbeth, A Novel.” Alternative publishing makes that possible.
Daniel Slater oversees Author and Vendor Relations for Amazon Kindle. He said that Ebooks offered great opportunities for authors, and has “given power to the audience/reader.”
Lou Aronica also was on the panel–click on his name for more on his insights, as he’s a best selling author, former publisher of Avon and Berkley Books and now is president/publisher of The Fiction Studio. On the panel he said, “Virtually all the profits now exist on the digital side,” but that traditional publishers must keep a print presence, and that “they’re very confused.” Traditional publishing has built in constraints that dictate a different pricing model which can tie publisher’s hands in the market. He noted that readers will pay $13 or more for digital bestsellers–BUT that the next crop of bestsellers that come from somewhere else (outside the traditional model) will emerge with different pricing.
He also said, “There’s always been bad books. There’s more now. But in the digital space, that mess is not as visible. Customers figure out how to distinguish the good ones. The whole job has become more holistic than in the past. And authors must dedicate significant amount of time to marketing . . .” to be successful.
Steve Feldberg is Senior Director, Editorial Business Development, for Audible.com and prior to that spent more than 25 years in network TV news. ITW has worked with Audible on The Chopin Manuscript and the Copper Bracelet among other projects. He said, “It used to be the question was can I get published? That’s gone away.” He noted that the marketplace doesn’t make a distinction on how it’s consumed–it’s ALL published.
Joel Fishman is a former Doubleday editor, literary agent and ghostwriter and recently founded an authors’ consortium that will publish his thriller PRIMACY this September. In answer to questions about judging quality of self-published books he said that people have always read what others recommend. Self publishing has opened up opportunities for authors, but also forces authors to do more themselves. He said that you can self publish almost as well as traditional, but it costs [if you want to do it right , noting that a professionally designed book cover easily runs $1000-2000.
So--are you ready to DIY? Traditional publishing takes longer and sales/returns are expected almost immediately--if that doesn't happen, the book goes away. Ebooks publish very quickly and initially sell few with sales that grow over the lifetime of the book. In both cases, author marketing must happen or the book dies.
[caption id="attachment_1732" align="aligncenter" width="356" caption="A book is a book is a book . . ."
Traditional publishing vs alternate--can't we just get along???
KINDLE-IZATION
Amazon has made the process nearly dummy-proof. Here are the basic steps.
Input title, author(s), publisher, edition, rights–YOU can be the publisher or create your own name/publishing entity. If this is a revision of a backlist title, include that you’re publishing a 2nd edition.
Book description (back cover copy/reviews/etc.). This is the information that appears on your book page on Amazon, so get it right–think flap copy, back cover info, what sells books.
Choose territory distribution & royalty rate.
Assert your ownership/permission to pub content; if this is a backlist book, you’ll likely get a message requiring proof of rights reversion (PDF of the letter, etc).
Price the book—depends on book size, and the price dictates the royalty. Remember that Amazon will LOWER your book price if it finds another copy priced lower.
Click “publish”—visible on amazon.com in 2-5 days
Can revise/update anything anytime (price, description, royalty) but takes 2-3 days to update
Does your creativity eat you for lunch--or feed you with love? (copr. Tonya Jensen)
Due to the magic of WordPress, I get to write this EARLY and have it posted tomorrow morning while I’m flying to New York. Can you see my arms a-flappin’ (insert “twack-thwackity-thwack” sound effects)?
I don’t have a lot to say today other than–I’m excited, exhausted, anxious, and thrilled all rolled up in one. Excited because Thrillerfest is the absolutely BESTEST-FUNNEST-INSPIRING-EST conference I attend. Exhausted because I’ve managed to cram a week’s worth of work into two days so I wouldn’t be distracted with (ack) work while there. Anxious because flying ain’t near the adventure it used to be and crappiocca always–ALWAYS–happens (wonder if I”ll be profiled this time?).
And thrilled because I get to see my favorite authors, reconnect with friends and make new acquaintances.
For writers, nothing gives us a goose in the ass-terick like a writer’s conference. We get to schmooze and express our jealousy admiration for all those successful folks; steal all learn the secrets of their success; hang out with cool people in the bar during seminars and find out–
They’re people, too. And they have some of the same angst-icity and writerly challenges that face the rest of us. Oh, and some of ‘em worked for DAYS and WEEKS and sometimes MONTHS before they had an overnight success (I kid…more like years or decades in many cases).
So what’s the most inspiring part of being among people who really understand us–why we bang our heads on the virtual door of publication forever. It’s not that we’re born masochists. Okay, well, some folks are. And it’s not that we’re totally clueless about our lack of talent. Wait–maybe that fellow waa-a-aay over there might be a wee bit . . . never mind. For sure it’s not because we enjoy rejection.
Creative types do it because–it’s who we are, not just what we do. And gathering at a writer conference like Thrillerfest, or at a music festival or Harley Davidson convention, dog or cat show, quilt exhibition, or ComicCon or whatever floats your creative boat FUELS THE MUSE.
I’m already feeling all inspired-like.
What feeds your muse? How do you energize your creative side? When do you feel most in need of a pick-me-up, and where do you find the necessary go-get-’em juice to press on?
I love hearing from you, so please share comments and questions. Do you have an ASK AMY question you’d like answered? I’m nearly ready to record a bunch of new ones, so be sure to get your requests in the comments. Stay up to date on all the latest just subscribe the blog, “like” me on Facebook, listen to the weekly radio show, and sign up for Pet Peeves newsletter with pet book give-aways!
[caption id="attachment_1688" align="alignright" width="181" caption="Revised Ebook & POD cover"
Original cover
Welcome to my series with tips based on my DIY Kindle-ization Journey. For those who just found this blog, you can take a look back at the Installment #1 Helpful Links, followed by #2 Why Do It? and #3 The Challenges. Tuesday Tips #4 covered the various platform options and what’s required for each. #5 Formatting For Kindle was followed by last week’s #6 Picture This! a how-to primer on including photos, tables and illustrations in your Ebook. If you’re like me and write nonfiction, chances are you have photos, illustrations or boxed/tabled information included in your format.
Today it’s all about book covers. EVERYBODY needs not just a good–but an outrageously GOOD cover, especially for an Ebook. Remember, you won’t have a physical presence on the Barnes & Noble’s book shelf for that impulse buy. The book cover is the virtual face of you, the author and what you have to offer.
I’m by no means an expert on designing covers, but can give you the quick how-I-did-it with additional references for you to find more help. I’ve posted the “original” cover with the Ebook “after” versions of my five book-babies as examples.
[caption id="attachment_1690" align="alignright" width="176" caption="Revised Ebook & POD cover"
Original cover
You can cut out all the angst and just hire a designer to do it for you. Talented folks–both amateurs and pros–offer services. I received a tweet yesterday from someone who designs pre-made and custom ebook covers starting at about $30. There are lots of options out there. When your story moves readers to tears, make sure the cover won’t leave ‘em laughing–do it right.
You can find a boatload of DIY book cover designers along with some very fine artists/craftsfolk at the Kindleboards site, for example. Ask for examples of finished books before you hire someone. You can find inexpensive services that start at about $50 and the pricier versions can run several hundred dollars. Jenni Talty has an excellent post on book covers at Bob Mayer’s blog.
SIMPLE WITH “POP”
Ebook covers by design must POP even in thumbnail size. Take a look at the amazon.com list of books and all those tiny covers–which ones appeal to you? Color and contrast, type font size/style and even the cover image must come together to explain your book in an eyeblink. Potential readers won’t be eager to click-enlarge to check out every single cover so it must appeal to them first in the smallest format.
[caption id="attachment_1707" align="alignright" width="170" caption="Revised Ebook & POD cover"
Original cover
Hey, we all want our NAME at the top of the book cover and if you DIY (without those pesky NY editors’ veto) you can schmear your name all over the thing in 2-million-pt font! But should you?
What about the title? Sure, it’s a romance but can that 40-something customer with reading glasses decipher the curlicues in that cursive font–or should I say, “curse-worthy” font? Also be aware that some fonts/styles become almost too popular. You don’t want your book cover looking like every other vampire/sparkly-werewolf/thriller on the virtual shelf.
Image does more for the sale than most anything. Fiction can be tough. They tell us to distill the story into soundbites, but try that without words using an image!
Here’s the deal. If you already have a readership who buy based on your name, make sure that’s emblazoned in bigg-ass letters across the top of the book. Otherwise, get the evocative TITLE out there–along with an image that either shows part of the story or makes readers want to know what the hell it means. The cover’s end-all, be-all is to get ‘em to click on a sample and/or buy the book.
[caption id="attachment_1697" align="alignright" width="181" caption="Revised Ebook and POD Cover"
Original cover
Of course, they CAN get a refund if they don’t like the book so content remains king. But the cover gets ‘em to date your prose; the prose must make readers fall in love, become engaged, and live happily ever after with the AUTHOR (and not just one book).
RE-PUB’ING BACKLIST BOOKS
If you loved your original cover, you may be able to get permission to reproduce it on the Ebook. If you can’t get permission (the original publisher usually owns copyright) or you hate the cover anyway, it’s a do-over. I simply used my original covers as a template, but redesigned and used my own images.
By using the same title and author name/style from the first edition, an author can leverage previous good reviews and name recognition. Amazon.com will “connect” the books so that all print and Ebook formats share one page–and reviews.
Think about a theme. Many Ebook authors plan to write several books in series. For my nonfiction books, the same basic cover format works across the five titles, and I’ve made cat books red, dog books blue, combo green–to leverage the brand. You can do the same with fiction series so that it’s not just an interesting title or your name, but the style of the cover that “brands” and helps you sell books.
You can find lots of “free” and low-cost stock images on the Internet. Again, do homework and try to find something that not only resonates with your book content but also hasn’t been used many times before. Do you really want the same well-oiled, bare-chested cowboy kissing the girl that’s on a dozen other books? Or that same green-eyed-fire-breathing-hamster? Wait. Never mind. That one I’m saving for my own book!
Be sure you acquire the correct resolution and format before creating your cover. Kindle requires jpeg (minimum) 600 x 800 pixels. To get into the Apple iStore, the book cover must be at least 600 px high.
I used Photoshop to create my covers. After choosing the cover image(s) I removed the background, and then layered onto the file. So the background color is one layer, the cat/dog another, the color bands a third, the title a fourth, cover blurb the fifth and author name a final layer. I’m not terribly happy with the ComPETability cover and may rework that but the others turned out reasonably well. And hey–the covers were free!
June sales increased once again. So the covers appear to be doing their job. Part of sales increase resulted from June being Adopt A Cat Month–which brings me to the next topic in the series. I cover pricing and marketing Ebooks in next week’s Tuesday Tips!
Happy Independence Day! The 4th of July brings lots of sky-high sparkles with fireworks, but here in Texas with the drought and burn-ban, such celebrations will be rare. And I figure, most of y’all are out picnicking with family and friends, or otherwise doing FUN stuff rather than reading (or writing) blogs.
Did I mention that I have no life?
Anyway, since few folks will be around to read, today’s Monday Mentions is short. I’m nearly packed for Thursday’s trek to Thrillerfest in New York. So these are MY July 4th sparkles. Ain’t they purty? Hey, I’m easily distracted by shiny objects, what can I say? The “BLING, BITCHES & BLOOD” tag line ain’t just for show, guys.
My colleague and friend Wendy Christensen not only writes beautiful prose, she’s a cat artist–and now also makes fantastic BLING! I’ve been drooling over this piece and finally broke down and got it–since it’ll be the purrrrrr-fect accessory when I travel to Thrillerfest this weekend. A girl can’t have too much sparkles, ya know!
You don’t know? Well, check out some of my Ask Amy videos for furry advice and the “bling parade.” Most folks wouldn’t recognize me without my rhinestone #1-Bitch pin and appropriate glitter. Ahem.
Cat Fur Jewelry might tempt you, too. Nope, it’s not petrified kitty URKS, which was what I feared. The necklaces actually are kinda cool–if you’re not allergic, that is. I’m sticking to the shiny stuff.
Luxury Paw helps you travel in style to 3-star (or better) hotels with your fur-kids. Travel woes over the howl-lidays got you down? If you suffer from separation anxiety when away from Fluffy-kins, this site could really get your tail wagging.
DP Lyle’s Forensic Blog has a neat tribute to Hemmingway–you know, the guy with the many-toed cats? Oh yeah, he wrote pretty good stories, too.
Opinionator has a totally cool blog on “Google’s War on Nonsense” and I’ve been personally impacted by this crappiocca with my Puppies Site which–no brag, just fact–has some quality info compared to the crappiocca stinking up much of the Internet. I applaud everyone’s effort at dialing down stink-icity but I’ve pounded a second head-shape dent in my office wall as a result of the “sexy fallout.”
Writers (readers too) will love Chuck Wendig’s Terrible Minds blog, an irreverent and sometimes blue blog on all-things-writing-and-publishing (and off topic now and then). I like it so much, just added it to my blogroll.
And The Wuc offers a hilarious review? (sorta-kinda-in-a-way) of the latest Mary Poppins incarnation–this is NOT for kids!
Finally, for folks out there wondering about the whole blog-platform question, a nicely succinct recap of some of the more popular ones offered by author C.C.James.
Have a safe, fun, and restful holiday! Oh, and if you’re in a drought-free zone with fireworks in the offing–I HATE YOU!–and be sure your pets stay angst-free with these tips.
If you’re like me and write nonfiction, chances are you have photos, illustrations or boxed/tabled information included in your format. Those incredibly gifted author/artists who create graphic novels need extra help I can’t provide but you’ll find a link with some detailed information on such things in the Helpful Links in Installment #1 listed above.
Everybody–even fiction authors dealing with text-only–needs a book cover and that means pictures. In large part, a killer cover can make or break your book! So today’s installment addresses the basics of Ebook images, and next week I’ll address cover images.
[caption id="attachment_1603" align="aligncenter" width="253" caption="Re-size your photo images for best effect."
Dealing with Ebook images can be a stinker-of-a-challenge!
PHOTOS & ILLIOS & GRAPHS, OH MY!
Just a reminder for those who love text boxes, graphs and suchlike in your nonfiction. Uploading your manuscript to the various platforms typically strips away all but the most basic HTLM coding, and you will not be happy with the result. Trust me on this! To get around the problem, either re-format the information without using tables and graphs, or scan and save as an image file.
You can easily insert images into your WORD document, but it can be tricky to include photo slugs or “center” commands. They’ll “float” and move around as will the text–and the pictures–as your Ereader text font size is adjusted. Some of your picture formatting may be trial and error. Of course, you can always hire somebody else to manage this, but her’s how I did it.
Resize images to lo-rez 72-96 dpi, either .gif or .jpg. While print publishing requires a minimum of 200 dpi for clarity (and higher is better) the Epub platforms will not support and will re-size large images. Better to do it yourself first, and aim for the largest/highest rez possible.
Kindle resizes up or down to 520px by 622 px. Keep this target size in mind when re-sizing images. To do this, simply ensure one side of image is the “maximum” px size
To center, create a 525×640 plain background. Then copy-and-paste your image to the background, center and “save-as” a new image. Now when imported into your manuscript file it will default to the correct size and already be centered.
For captions, embed on the image itself prior to the “save-as” function, so it is part of the image background.
To import images into your manuscript, in WORD click on the “Insert” tab (top left of screen). Position between paragraph breaks to avoid splitting sentence/text.
SAVE your WORD document with the embedded images and keep this as the original so you have a do-over option just in case.
If you wish to offer a PDF version of your book, make sure the manuscript looks the way you want and click SAVE-AS and choose PDF.
"Bundle" the text and image folders in the same "zip" file bed.
To create your HTML file with images, click SAVE-AS and choose OTHER FORMATS–WEB PAGE, FILTERED. This results in the text running across the page in a continuous stream, with the images left-justified. Be sure the images are positioned between paragraph breaks (you can click-drag a bit as needed). With this method you won’t be able to position adjacent to specific sentences but should be able to have your illustration/photo/table image on the same page and/or adjacent to your ideal location.
Once you’re happy with the format, SAVE in a new name (BOOK-NAME-HTML perhaps?) so your original WORD document remains the same. You’ll end up with two files–the HTML-text file (with embedded markers for images) and a 2nd folder with the coded images. To upload the manuscript with the images, create a zip-file that contains both. Using your mouse, highlight both the HTML text and image files, then RIGHT-click, choose SEND-TO, and your book manuscript-with-pictures ZIP file is ready to upload.
Wayne Borean commented in last week’s post that The Document Foundation offers a free download of LibreOffice that does a nice job of outputting HTML code from Microsoft Office and PDF files (thanks Wayne!). I’ve not used this but will look into it for future projects and I’m told will work with Windows, Macs, Linux, BSD, Solaris, OS2 and more.
If you have tips that make the process simpler, better, quicker, or any other …-er, feel free to share in the comments section! Next week’s Tuesday Tips #7 Kindle-ization installment will cover–what else?–the COVER. Until then, happy writing!
Those who read the last Thoughty Thursday blog know I’ve been struggling with my back. I’m not supposed to sit for long periods of time and over the weekend had to focus on creating more puppy-licious behavior content. So I plan to keep the blogs pretty short-and-sweet this week. That doesn’t mean they won’t be chock-full of content, though!
I’ve collected some of my fav blog, article and video posts for today’s shout out. Enjoy! And please post your own suggestions for future Monday Mentions in the comments section.
It’s not just dogs and cats that need rescue. Get your tissues ready–happy ending and AMAZING photos in this horse cruelty case detailed in Sarah K. Andrew’s Zodiac Blog
Let’s end on a happy furry–and WET note with these fun videos, enjoy! Do your cats or dogs love or hate the water?
I love hearing from you, so please share comments and questions–and to stay up to date on all the latest just subscribe the blog, “like” me on Facebook, listen to the weekly radio show, and sign up for Pet Peeves newsletter with pet book give-aways! By the way, I just updated the sidebar (on the right) with direct links to all the pet books–check ‘em out!
Welcome to my series with tips based on my DIY Kindle-ization Journey. For those who just found this blog, you can take a look back at the Installment #1 Helpful Links, followed by #2 Why Do It? and #3 The Challenges. Last Tuesday Tips #4 covered the various platform options and what’s required for each. Today’s gets into the nitty gritty of how to format specifically for Kindle, along with some of the challenges and “fixes” for nonfiction work.
While publishing via the KDP (Kindle Digital Plaform) provided by Amazon works great for text-only (fiction) works, there area number of hoops nonfiction cat-egories must leap. Pun intended. So for all you other DWAA and CWA and other nonfiction authors including all my good friends at OWFI, (maybe even some nonfiction Thriller Writers?) here’s how I did it. I’ll even include some of my mistakes and what I’d do different in future books.
When I write a book, for ease of management I save each chapter as a separate WORD file. So my first step is to “marry” these into a single document. If you have the manuscript already in a single PDF document, you’re a step ahead.
The manuscript will be translated into HTML coding which strips away fancy formats. KDP supports very little in terms of fancy fonts and suchlike, and truly, simple is better. If you wish to have chapter titles in a different/larger font, you can use the styles template “Heading 1″ at top of your WORD creation software to set it apart. For nonfiction with subheads, the “Heading 2″ and “Heading 3″ may also be appropriate. NOTE: In HTML coding, these are represented by the tags <h1><h2><h3>
Hard page (control-enter) at the end of each chapter if you wish the first page of a next chapter to begin on a new page. Otherwise, the text will continuously flow.
Insert any links you wish. In my bio section, I’ve included my other writing venues as well as my website. Throughout COMPLETE KITTEN CARE, any website mentions for products or resources also have live click-able links. The books COMPLETE CARE FOR YOUR AGING CAT and COMPLETE CARE FOR YOUR AGING DOG as well as PET CARE IN THE NEW CENTURYhave been updated and include hot links to veterinary resources, and the experts interviewed for the books in the Kindle-For-PC version, and PDF versions (but are not on the Kindle itself). For that reason I strongly recommend any links be fully “spelled out” if included so Kindle owners benefit from this value of your book.
Remove any tables, boxes of information or other such graphics, headers/footers/page numbers as they will not translate, and format as straight text. Alternatively, scan the formatted tables and input as image files. For authors formatting straight text only without images, you’ve got it easy, you lucky dawgs! You’re nearly ready to Kindle-lize.
Before you convert the finished WORD or PDF document be sure you always save your original document as a backup before moving forward, in case you need a do-over. I’m told that PDF works best if first converted to WORD and then to HTML using the method, below.
To create your HTML document, choose SAVE-AS. From the choices given, select OTHER FORMATS and save as a WEB PAGE, FILTERED. You will lose much of your margins and formatting, but don’t let that scare you. Check throughout for any inadvertent missing paragraph tabs and correct. You can also delete any extra code that’s not needed, such as the <span> commands. HTML is pretty simple once you’re familiar with a few of the most common tags, and you can learn some HTML code basics here.
For those with images including scanned boxes/tables, look for details about images in next week’s Tuesday Tips #6 Kindle-ization installment. Happy writing!
