Phew, another great day and 6,400 words written. The story is really gaining momentum now and ideas are coming thick and fast. I've found the same thing with the last two books. Getting started is hard, but once I'm into my stride things start taking a life of their own. Scene's in the next chapter/section and even at the end are turning up in my head constantly. The corkboard is filling up nicely with notes.
It is hard work though. I'm putting in 10 or 11 hour days. This morning, for example, I started at 8.00 am (I didn't exercise) and only stopped at 6.00 pm due to it being Karate day. There was only a half an hour break for lunch as well. Saying that, it does feel fantastic to be making such good progress.
I have to admit, I was distracted for about 15 mins by twitter. Jewel Strait posted something about Fleek. I had no idea what it meant, so I had to look it up. Turns out it means good, I guess. An old girlfriend of a friend of mine had a degree in English and became an English teacher. She used to moan about people not using 'proper English'.
This always bugged me. Language changes and evolves over time and not much time either. Look at how far we have come from Latin. We only codified English in the last couple of hundred years. The first English dictionary was published in 1604 and not a lot of people had access to it. So hello to Freek, if it survives in common usage, welcome to the English Language.
I took delivery of the soundtracks from Guardians of the Galaxy and Pacific Rim today. From what I heard today, they are good albums. Pacific Rim seems just right for me as writing background. I find dramatic music really lifts me when I'm writing.
Oops, I need to get to Karate.
Total now at 48,000 words.
Wednesday 28 January 2015
Tuesday 27 January 2015
Revolution For Vengeance, Revenge and Empire Magazine
A great day today. 6,000 words written, though it was a push and I
won't be going to see Taken 3 tonight. Partly because it is gone seven
and I've only just put dinner on. By the time I cook, east and do the washing
up it will be too late. It's mainly though as I didn't exercise this
morning. I'd like to say it's down to my muscles aching from yesterday or
the background head ache I had all morning. None of that is the
truth. It's really beacause I couldn't be bothered. Oh well.
Try again tomorrow.
SPOILERS TO TV SHOW REVENGE
Since I wasn't going to exercise, I watched last night's episode of Revenge instead this morning. Last week we saw David Clarke standing over Emily's sleeping form and when he hesitated I thought he recognised her. This made me excited to watch the next one. What would he say to Victoria that she is pitting him against his own daughter?
Needless to say I was disappointed at first when it all seemed to go back on track for Victoria. Then came David's big reveal to the Police, Emily's emotion at seeing her father alive, keeping them apart and then the press conference. You could see where it was going by then. I just hope they don't string it out too much.
I love Revenge because the characters aren't stupid. They don't do things because the story needs to be delayed or stretched out. If things go wrong it is due to forces outside their control.
For Emily, seeing her father isn't difficult and convincing him she is his daughter maybe a struggle, but all it would take is some real details from childhood, particularly with Nolan backing her up. I'm not sure what Jack's up to. If they don't do that in a reasonable amount of time, it's going to ruin it for me.
Speaking of ruining and Taken 3 earlier, for some reason I looked up Empire Magazines review and saw it had two stars, the same as Taken 2 and I could understand that. I enjoyed Taken 2, but it didn't really bring anything new to the table. What shocked me was the Review for Taken. They gave it one star and one of the worst reviews I've ever read. Mostly they complained about how the film makers portrayed Europe as being too dangerous for Americans, with every single person a crook or corrupt. That describes every Thriller and Action film/TV show out there. It's kind of the whole point. A lone hero against the world.
It's the same in 24, Die Hard, the Bourne films, Bond, etc, etc. I do have different tastes to Empire, it's true. Where I see an enjoyable film worth a couple of hours of my time and money, they slate it because the acting’s pour and the story is uninspired. Sometimes I just like to see lots of things blow up.
Anyway rant over and dinner's almost ready - Total now a 42,000 words.
SPOILERS TO TV SHOW REVENGE
Since I wasn't going to exercise, I watched last night's episode of Revenge instead this morning. Last week we saw David Clarke standing over Emily's sleeping form and when he hesitated I thought he recognised her. This made me excited to watch the next one. What would he say to Victoria that she is pitting him against his own daughter?
Needless to say I was disappointed at first when it all seemed to go back on track for Victoria. Then came David's big reveal to the Police, Emily's emotion at seeing her father alive, keeping them apart and then the press conference. You could see where it was going by then. I just hope they don't string it out too much.
I love Revenge because the characters aren't stupid. They don't do things because the story needs to be delayed or stretched out. If things go wrong it is due to forces outside their control.
For Emily, seeing her father isn't difficult and convincing him she is his daughter maybe a struggle, but all it would take is some real details from childhood, particularly with Nolan backing her up. I'm not sure what Jack's up to. If they don't do that in a reasonable amount of time, it's going to ruin it for me.
Speaking of ruining and Taken 3 earlier, for some reason I looked up Empire Magazines review and saw it had two stars, the same as Taken 2 and I could understand that. I enjoyed Taken 2, but it didn't really bring anything new to the table. What shocked me was the Review for Taken. They gave it one star and one of the worst reviews I've ever read. Mostly they complained about how the film makers portrayed Europe as being too dangerous for Americans, with every single person a crook or corrupt. That describes every Thriller and Action film/TV show out there. It's kind of the whole point. A lone hero against the world.
It's the same in 24, Die Hard, the Bourne films, Bond, etc, etc. I do have different tastes to Empire, it's true. Where I see an enjoyable film worth a couple of hours of my time and money, they slate it because the acting’s pour and the story is uninspired. Sometimes I just like to see lots of things blow up.
Anyway rant over and dinner's almost ready - Total now a 42,000 words.
Monday 26 January 2015
Revolution For Vengeance
On budget for the fifth day in a row, I'm starting to make this a bit of a habit. I shouldn't get blase about it though, 114,000 and 23 writing days still to go. As you may have guessed today is a great day at 6,000 words. I could have stopped at 5.15pm and gone and played Fallout 3, yes I restarted that over the weekend, but I kept going. I'm glad I did.
I listened to a couple of Writing Excuses podcasts over the weekend. The first included Peter Beagle and was titled Getting Into the Writers Mindset. I was looking forward to this, it seemed an excellent subject for a writer trying to make a living out of it like myself. I've got to say, it was disappointing. He rambled. A lot. I'm sure for a longer, more entertainment based forum he would be a fantastic person to listen to. It didn't really work for Writing Excuses. Brandon Sanderson and Howard Taylor did try and keep it on topic, but Beagle pretty much ignored them. It was a shame.
I did take one thing out of it though. Beagle said that when you write for a living it is a job. You get up and sit at your typewriter in the morning and stay there until the end of the day, no matter if you're stuck or not. I'm guilty of this. I can hit a slight bump that throws me off, I can't think of the right word or the story isn't quite there in my head. I'll walk away and do something else, normally non-work related. Beagle said you should stay there until blood is dripping on the pages and I think I get what he's saying. If you're sitting at a desk in an office or digging holes for a living, you can't walk away because something isn't working for you. You have to stay and fix it. How is that any different from writing? So that's my new plan. I don't move from the keyboard.
Hmm, maybe it wasn't that bad an episode after all. It was a bit frustrating to listen to though. Several times I had to refrain from shouting at the computer for Beagle to get on with it.
The second episode - Hiding the Open Grave was excellent, some of the tips are certainly being used in Revolution. It even gave me a good idea for a fresh angle on an old story.
For motivation I've found little goals with rewards are quite useful. At the moment I've set myself a goal of half an hour exercise and 5,000 words for today and tomorrow. If I meet that, and I have today, then I get to go and see Taken 3 at the cinema. It's silly, but I do feel really good about having reached the halfway point.
Total now at 36,000 words.
I listened to a couple of Writing Excuses podcasts over the weekend. The first included Peter Beagle and was titled Getting Into the Writers Mindset. I was looking forward to this, it seemed an excellent subject for a writer trying to make a living out of it like myself. I've got to say, it was disappointing. He rambled. A lot. I'm sure for a longer, more entertainment based forum he would be a fantastic person to listen to. It didn't really work for Writing Excuses. Brandon Sanderson and Howard Taylor did try and keep it on topic, but Beagle pretty much ignored them. It was a shame.
I did take one thing out of it though. Beagle said that when you write for a living it is a job. You get up and sit at your typewriter in the morning and stay there until the end of the day, no matter if you're stuck or not. I'm guilty of this. I can hit a slight bump that throws me off, I can't think of the right word or the story isn't quite there in my head. I'll walk away and do something else, normally non-work related. Beagle said you should stay there until blood is dripping on the pages and I think I get what he's saying. If you're sitting at a desk in an office or digging holes for a living, you can't walk away because something isn't working for you. You have to stay and fix it. How is that any different from writing? So that's my new plan. I don't move from the keyboard.
Hmm, maybe it wasn't that bad an episode after all. It was a bit frustrating to listen to though. Several times I had to refrain from shouting at the computer for Beagle to get on with it.
The second episode - Hiding the Open Grave was excellent, some of the tips are certainly being used in Revolution. It even gave me a good idea for a fresh angle on an old story.
For motivation I've found little goals with rewards are quite useful. At the moment I've set myself a goal of half an hour exercise and 5,000 words for today and tomorrow. If I meet that, and I have today, then I get to go and see Taken 3 at the cinema. It's silly, but I do feel really good about having reached the halfway point.
Total now at 36,000 words.
Friday 23 January 2015
Revolution For Vengeance
That is the first good week of writing complete and man, am I tired. I can tell as I just had to type first five times before it was right! How bad is that?
6,000 words completed today and that is a great day. That puts me a full day ahead of schedule and at 20% for Revolution For Vengeance. Of course I don't know precisely how big it is going to be, but I have a mental number, line in the sand if you will of 150,000 words per book for the first draft. That was much easier for the first two. If I still had more story to tell, I simply put it off to the next one. I can't do that here. I have to make sure I wrap everything up neatly.
I'm not saying this will be end of stories in this universe, only it will complete Valerie's story arc. After all, that's what it is all about.
When I'm in full flow while writing, I don't want to stop in case I lose the momentum. An example of this happened earlier, I had an idea for something to help promote my books. It was right in the middle of a scene that was going onto the page nicely, with the next bits all lined up in my head. Then out of nowhere pops this idea. Previously I've gone off and explored them and when I come back to carry on writing, I've lost it. This time I jotted it down and I'm going to play with it in a minute. Hopefully I haven't lost the thread on that like I do the writing.
I think that is the hardest thing being self-published. You need to balance the product with the marketing perfectly. For instance, you can have the best, most exciting, well written story and edited perfectly, but it no one knows about you're nowhere. It's the same for marketing. Your cover and book description can be spot on with listings on all the right sites and people talking about it, but if your novel is pants you're lost.
As a writer, I want to write or if I have to edit. I want to do something that directly relates to what in my heart I believe to be the most important thing, the story. That of course is wrong, if I don't do the marketing, like writing this blog, I might as well not bother.
On a completely unrelated note, I was looking through my comics yesterday for a particular story which I thought contained something I could use for inspiration in a fight scene. After going through every single box, marking a lot of stuff to read and finding it at the back of the very last one, it didn't have what I thought it did. It had been a while since I last read it. The comic was an issue run called Batman: Family. It's one of the first I picked up when I got back into it full time over ten years ago and I think, still one of the best.
DC created this great enemy called Athena who had seven supporting characters, much like Batman does with Robin, Batgirl, Nightwing, Huntress, etc. It was a fantastic, colourful, fully realised set of villains and they've never been seen again, despite it being left open for them to return. A big shame, I'd love to see Batman go up against them again.
Anyway, that was a rather long post. Time to go and do that marketing thing I thought of.
Total now at 30,000 words.
6,000 words completed today and that is a great day. That puts me a full day ahead of schedule and at 20% for Revolution For Vengeance. Of course I don't know precisely how big it is going to be, but I have a mental number, line in the sand if you will of 150,000 words per book for the first draft. That was much easier for the first two. If I still had more story to tell, I simply put it off to the next one. I can't do that here. I have to make sure I wrap everything up neatly.
I'm not saying this will be end of stories in this universe, only it will complete Valerie's story arc. After all, that's what it is all about.
When I'm in full flow while writing, I don't want to stop in case I lose the momentum. An example of this happened earlier, I had an idea for something to help promote my books. It was right in the middle of a scene that was going onto the page nicely, with the next bits all lined up in my head. Then out of nowhere pops this idea. Previously I've gone off and explored them and when I come back to carry on writing, I've lost it. This time I jotted it down and I'm going to play with it in a minute. Hopefully I haven't lost the thread on that like I do the writing.
I think that is the hardest thing being self-published. You need to balance the product with the marketing perfectly. For instance, you can have the best, most exciting, well written story and edited perfectly, but it no one knows about you're nowhere. It's the same for marketing. Your cover and book description can be spot on with listings on all the right sites and people talking about it, but if your novel is pants you're lost.
As a writer, I want to write or if I have to edit. I want to do something that directly relates to what in my heart I believe to be the most important thing, the story. That of course is wrong, if I don't do the marketing, like writing this blog, I might as well not bother.
On a completely unrelated note, I was looking through my comics yesterday for a particular story which I thought contained something I could use for inspiration in a fight scene. After going through every single box, marking a lot of stuff to read and finding it at the back of the very last one, it didn't have what I thought it did. It had been a while since I last read it. The comic was an issue run called Batman: Family. It's one of the first I picked up when I got back into it full time over ten years ago and I think, still one of the best.
DC created this great enemy called Athena who had seven supporting characters, much like Batman does with Robin, Batgirl, Nightwing, Huntress, etc. It was a fantastic, colourful, fully realised set of villains and they've never been seen again, despite it being left open for them to return. A big shame, I'd love to see Batman go up against them again.
Anyway, that was a rather long post. Time to go and do that marketing thing I thought of.
Total now at 30,000 words.
Revolution For Vengeance
It was an OK day yesterday with 4,500 words written. That was a shame as I really wanted to get to 25,000 words and get a full day ahead of schedule. In that vein I've started early today with a solid target of 6,000 words. I think that's achievable. While cooking dinner last night I had an eureka moment and came up with a great idea for the next chapter. My whiteboard is full of notes.
Well it was a great idea last night, I think it's a good one but the initial passion and ardour for it has dampened in the cold light of a new day. And it certainly is a cold light, there is heavy frost on the ground. I'm glad I don't have to go out, the car looks like it'll need a some work defrosting.
Total now stands at 24,000 words and I'd better get on with this writing malarkey.
Well it was a great idea last night, I think it's a good one but the initial passion and ardour for it has dampened in the cold light of a new day. And it certainly is a cold light, there is heavy frost on the ground. I'm glad I don't have to go out, the car looks like it'll need a some work defrosting.
Total now stands at 24,000 words and I'd better get on with this writing malarkey.
Wednesday 21 January 2015
Revolution For Vengeance
A good day today, a solid 5,000 words written. I'm happy with that. I could have continued and done more, but it's Karate day so I'm off in a minute to that.
Two of the words I struggled with today were pursuers (found under chase) and skewers (I thought it started with squ so thank you Google, it came up after I typed Kebab s).
My biggest challenge when writing is the hook at the start of a scene/chapter that sets it all rolling. I worked on two scenes today. The first I started yesterday and that was easy to continue and finish. The second was a completely new start. I knew roughly what was going to happen, but not quite how certain pieces fitted together. It took me about two hours to get that straight in my head.
Of course it wasn't helped when I realised I had five groups of people on four different worlds and I had to check when they arrived. That took quite a bit of working out distances, speeds and timings. Fortunately I was just about spot on with my initial finger in the air guess. I only had to switch two chapters round and they were unrelated so it didn't make any difference. Of course I didn't have to do that. There is no map included in the book and don't I list out all the timings, but know that I do have a map and all the distances have been worked out.
I wrote something completely new today, a car chase scene. I'm quietly positive about the result. Hopefully I'll feel the same way when I do the read through in the morning.
Total now at 19,500 words. Making progress and I know what I'm writing tomorrow so fingers crossed I'll be able to more of the same.
Two of the words I struggled with today were pursuers (found under chase) and skewers (I thought it started with squ so thank you Google, it came up after I typed Kebab s).
My biggest challenge when writing is the hook at the start of a scene/chapter that sets it all rolling. I worked on two scenes today. The first I started yesterday and that was easy to continue and finish. The second was a completely new start. I knew roughly what was going to happen, but not quite how certain pieces fitted together. It took me about two hours to get that straight in my head.
Of course it wasn't helped when I realised I had five groups of people on four different worlds and I had to check when they arrived. That took quite a bit of working out distances, speeds and timings. Fortunately I was just about spot on with my initial finger in the air guess. I only had to switch two chapters round and they were unrelated so it didn't make any difference. Of course I didn't have to do that. There is no map included in the book and don't I list out all the timings, but know that I do have a map and all the distances have been worked out.
I wrote something completely new today, a car chase scene. I'm quietly positive about the result. Hopefully I'll feel the same way when I do the read through in the morning.
Total now at 19,500 words. Making progress and I know what I'm writing tomorrow so fingers crossed I'll be able to more of the same.
Tuesday 20 January 2015
Revolution For Vengeance
My writing speed has been a bit pants recently, hence the lack of posts. Friday was particularly bad, so bad I think I might have been banging on the door of depression. Fortunately an excellent weekend with my daughter and down to Essex to see the family perked me right up. Either that or I got a decent bout of fear of failure. Whatever works.
Since my last post on Wednesday, I managed 2,000 Thursday, none Friday, 2,500 yesterday, but today it was all different. A stonking 6,000 words written. I'm confident I could have added another 1,000 to that, but I had to stop to see my daughter. She had a bit of a tantrum by the way because her mother took her dummy away. Her mother asked which pyjamas she wanted to wear and when she refused to answer removed the dummy. Quite rightly I'd say, she needs to learn she can't have everything her way.
After getting back from there, making dinner, eating dinner and doing the washing up it was 9.30 and too late to continue. I mean it's 10.00 pm and I'm working by writing this post.
One of the things I find interesting about writing is the words. Often I'm in the middle of a sentence and I can't quite get my head around the next word. I have the sense of the word right there in my brain, I know it exists and what it feels like, but no actual letters to put it together. Sometimes it can be a bit of an investigation to find it. For instance I wanted to use ethereal, after a bit of thinking I looked up wraith in my thesaurus and there it was. Before seeing it, I couldn't even tell you what letter it started with. Another was benefit, not an unusual word, but it had somehow slipped out of my head. I can't remember where I found that one.
It has been a great day's writing, I know what I'm going to write tomorrow so I'm off to watch TV for a bit before bed.
Total for Revolution For Vengeance - 14,500 words.
Since my last post on Wednesday, I managed 2,000 Thursday, none Friday, 2,500 yesterday, but today it was all different. A stonking 6,000 words written. I'm confident I could have added another 1,000 to that, but I had to stop to see my daughter. She had a bit of a tantrum by the way because her mother took her dummy away. Her mother asked which pyjamas she wanted to wear and when she refused to answer removed the dummy. Quite rightly I'd say, she needs to learn she can't have everything her way.
After getting back from there, making dinner, eating dinner and doing the washing up it was 9.30 and too late to continue. I mean it's 10.00 pm and I'm working by writing this post.
One of the things I find interesting about writing is the words. Often I'm in the middle of a sentence and I can't quite get my head around the next word. I have the sense of the word right there in my brain, I know it exists and what it feels like, but no actual letters to put it together. Sometimes it can be a bit of an investigation to find it. For instance I wanted to use ethereal, after a bit of thinking I looked up wraith in my thesaurus and there it was. Before seeing it, I couldn't even tell you what letter it started with. Another was benefit, not an unusual word, but it had somehow slipped out of my head. I can't remember where I found that one.
It has been a great day's writing, I know what I'm going to write tomorrow so I'm off to watch TV for a bit before bed.
Total for Revolution For Vengeance - 14,500 words.
Tuesday 13 January 2015
Revolution For Vengeance
Getting back into writing is not easy. It takes time to get into the
right frame of mind, even with the practice stuff I've been doing over the last
couple of weeks.
I started Revolution For Vengeance properly yesterday and managed a measly thousand words. Today was better with three thousand words and chapter one completed. Of course I did spend about an hour yesterday working out painted symbols for the Crew's armour. Today a similar amount of time was spent researching Blue Hyper-giants.
A friend of mine post the below video on facebook and it really captured my imagination.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEheh1BH34Q
It is mind blowing when you see how small our Sun is in comparison to a lot of stellar bodies out there. After watching it, I had to include one of them in the book. Nothing too much, just a random star they visit for a rendezvous. I will admit astro-physics has been sacrificed in the name of story-telling. Blue hyper-giants aren't that close to Earth and there is no way one would exist a mere three light years from an inhabited system.
Of course that is part of the fun of being a writer and hopefully it'll get someone who reads it, to look them up.
Total for Revolution for Vengeance - 4,000 words.
I started Revolution For Vengeance properly yesterday and managed a measly thousand words. Today was better with three thousand words and chapter one completed. Of course I did spend about an hour yesterday working out painted symbols for the Crew's armour. Today a similar amount of time was spent researching Blue Hyper-giants.
A friend of mine post the below video on facebook and it really captured my imagination.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEheh1BH34Q
It is mind blowing when you see how small our Sun is in comparison to a lot of stellar bodies out there. After watching it, I had to include one of them in the book. Nothing too much, just a random star they visit for a rendezvous. I will admit astro-physics has been sacrificed in the name of story-telling. Blue hyper-giants aren't that close to Earth and there is no way one would exist a mere three light years from an inhabited system.
Of course that is part of the fun of being a writer and hopefully it'll get someone who reads it, to look them up.
Total for Revolution for Vengeance - 4,000 words.
Monday 12 January 2015
Notes on a cover for a self-published novel.
This isn't going to be nearly as long as my formatting note.
First of all, find yourself a good artist, like Matt Hubel (matt@matthubel.com). I would suggest starting at www.deviatart.com, no there is nothing deviant about it. A lot of artists publish their work there, many are just starting out, probably college age and take commissions. Make sure you specify the size you want so it fits the front of a book nicely and ask for space for title, name, etc.
With the art work in hand download a free to use image editing program. I use Phoxo and it is easy to use and does everything I need. Give yourself a day to do this the first time. I can now sort a cover in a couple of hours, but it does take a bit of messing around to get the hang of.
For Createspace, download the cover template correct to your final page count from their site. Open it in Phoxo or whatever program you decide to use and build it from there. One little trick I learnt was to build a new layer with the lines of the spine and margins included. I work in black as my main colour on my book cover and I couldn't see the template. With a layer with white lines that I delete at the end, it made it much easier.
Finally make sure you save the file in it's workable format, not just the JPG or TIFF formats. I did that the first time so when I needed to make an amendment, I had to start from the beginning. Very annoying.
That's it really. Nothing else to it
First of all, find yourself a good artist, like Matt Hubel (matt@matthubel.com). I would suggest starting at www.deviatart.com, no there is nothing deviant about it. A lot of artists publish their work there, many are just starting out, probably college age and take commissions. Make sure you specify the size you want so it fits the front of a book nicely and ask for space for title, name, etc.
With the art work in hand download a free to use image editing program. I use Phoxo and it is easy to use and does everything I need. Give yourself a day to do this the first time. I can now sort a cover in a couple of hours, but it does take a bit of messing around to get the hang of.
For Createspace, download the cover template correct to your final page count from their site. Open it in Phoxo or whatever program you decide to use and build it from there. One little trick I learnt was to build a new layer with the lines of the spine and margins included. I work in black as my main colour on my book cover and I couldn't see the template. With a layer with white lines that I delete at the end, it made it much easier.
Finally make sure you save the file in it's workable format, not just the JPG or TIFF formats. I did that the first time so when I needed to make an amendment, I had to start from the beginning. Very annoying.
That's it really. Nothing else to it
Thursday 8 January 2015
Notes on formatting for self-publishing a novel.
Well it's done. Crusade For Vengeance has been uploaded to all of the
relevant sites and it is starting to become available for sale.
This is now the third time I've gone through this process, so I thought it would be a good idea to type up my thoughts.
I publish using Word 2010 and six different sales channels:
Amazon
Smashwords
Kobo
Nook
Createspace
Huffier
To start, make sure you download and read Amazon's Building Your Book for Kindle and Smashword's Style Guide. They are both free. Read them thoroughly and they will save you a lot of heartache.
Once you've done that it's time to actually get on with it. Start with Smashwords Nuclear method, it gives you an excellent base you can build all the other formats from. Work your way through that and save the file. I have a folder purely for each book's publication documents, you'll need a file for each of the channels.
Take the Smashwords file, resave it for Amazon. Remove the Table of Contents Smashwords told you how to set up and replace it with Amazon's version. Save the file.
Kobo is easy, you can just use the Smashwords version (removing the published by Smashwords at the front of course).
Nook finds it's own chapters so you need to change the file slightly. Using either the Smashwords or Amazon, change the Page breaks between chapters to Section breaks. This is on Word 2010 under Page Layout - Breaks - Next Page. Make sure you get them all.
Createspace is a bit trickier. Download the template of the size you want from their site. It's a little tricky to find, but it is there. You could cut and past your entire manuscript into the template, but that made my spine crawl. I went through the template and jotted down all the important information from Page Setup. You need everything from Margins, Paper and Layout.
Unlike the others you need to worry about font, size, indent and line spacing. Have a look through your favourite novels and pick what works for you. My biggest advice is to have line spacing set at Exactly a given value. I use 12 pt. It spreads the lines about on the page a little more without looking like your trying make the book bigger. This is where the Smashwords Style Guide really comes in to it's own, it has already covered how to do all of this, if like me your a complete novice to Word's more advanced features.
When you have all of that, take the Nook version and input all the changes. I use the Nook version as you want to use Section Breaks with Createspace. This way you don't have page numbers and author/book name in the header on the first page of a chapter. It looks neater and is how most publishers do it, though it is down to personal preference really.
When finished, upload the file and use their digital viewer. Have a good look through for anything that is not how you want it. One particular thing to be on the look out for is a little square box at the end of chapters. I have no idea how Word does this, you can't see it in Word itself. To remove, use the Track Changes function to find it (again Smashwords tells you about Track changes), highlight and copy to the Search function, whatever it is will still be invisible. Go through and delete. I had 43 in Crusade. Reload the file and it should pass through their checks without a problem.
For Huffier they need epub, mobi and pdf files. I convert my Amazon file using a free program called Calibre. A great little tool and easy to use.
That's it. I managed Crusade in about five hours. If it's your first attempt, give yourself three days to work through it. You'll be rejected several times, but don't let it dishearten you, learn and move on. Mostly, take your time. If like me you've spent 250-300 hours writing and the same editing, it's worth taking the time to get the formatting right. It's how people will actually see your work after all.
I'll do a separate note about covers tomorrow.
This is now the third time I've gone through this process, so I thought it would be a good idea to type up my thoughts.
I publish using Word 2010 and six different sales channels:
Amazon
Smashwords
Kobo
Nook
Createspace
Huffier
To start, make sure you download and read Amazon's Building Your Book for Kindle and Smashword's Style Guide. They are both free. Read them thoroughly and they will save you a lot of heartache.
Once you've done that it's time to actually get on with it. Start with Smashwords Nuclear method, it gives you an excellent base you can build all the other formats from. Work your way through that and save the file. I have a folder purely for each book's publication documents, you'll need a file for each of the channels.
Take the Smashwords file, resave it for Amazon. Remove the Table of Contents Smashwords told you how to set up and replace it with Amazon's version. Save the file.
Kobo is easy, you can just use the Smashwords version (removing the published by Smashwords at the front of course).
Nook finds it's own chapters so you need to change the file slightly. Using either the Smashwords or Amazon, change the Page breaks between chapters to Section breaks. This is on Word 2010 under Page Layout - Breaks - Next Page. Make sure you get them all.
Createspace is a bit trickier. Download the template of the size you want from their site. It's a little tricky to find, but it is there. You could cut and past your entire manuscript into the template, but that made my spine crawl. I went through the template and jotted down all the important information from Page Setup. You need everything from Margins, Paper and Layout.
Unlike the others you need to worry about font, size, indent and line spacing. Have a look through your favourite novels and pick what works for you. My biggest advice is to have line spacing set at Exactly a given value. I use 12 pt. It spreads the lines about on the page a little more without looking like your trying make the book bigger. This is where the Smashwords Style Guide really comes in to it's own, it has already covered how to do all of this, if like me your a complete novice to Word's more advanced features.
When you have all of that, take the Nook version and input all the changes. I use the Nook version as you want to use Section Breaks with Createspace. This way you don't have page numbers and author/book name in the header on the first page of a chapter. It looks neater and is how most publishers do it, though it is down to personal preference really.
When finished, upload the file and use their digital viewer. Have a good look through for anything that is not how you want it. One particular thing to be on the look out for is a little square box at the end of chapters. I have no idea how Word does this, you can't see it in Word itself. To remove, use the Track Changes function to find it (again Smashwords tells you about Track changes), highlight and copy to the Search function, whatever it is will still be invisible. Go through and delete. I had 43 in Crusade. Reload the file and it should pass through their checks without a problem.
For Huffier they need epub, mobi and pdf files. I convert my Amazon file using a free program called Calibre. A great little tool and easy to use.
That's it. I managed Crusade in about five hours. If it's your first attempt, give yourself three days to work through it. You'll be rejected several times, but don't let it dishearten you, learn and move on. Mostly, take your time. If like me you've spent 250-300 hours writing and the same editing, it's worth taking the time to get the formatting right. It's how people will actually see your work after all.
I'll do a separate note about covers tomorrow.
Tuesday 6 January 2015
Crusade For Vengeance
I got back the last edit from my friend on Saturday. I spent all Sunday and today adding the amendments. It was a bit scary in a way. I'd done two more, what I thought were comprehensive edits since I gave it to him and he still found places I'd missed commas. I think about a third of his stuff I'd missed. I thought it was going to be much better than that. Oh well, it shows how much difference completely fresh eyes makes.
He also made a couple of word change suggestions, which were frankly brilliant. They definitely got included.
I recorded a few kids films over christmas. Partly for my daughter, but mainly for myself. I had her all day yesterday and she wasn't interested in the films. She just wanted me to play with her and her toys.
So, I recorded Puss in Boots, Madagascar 3, Pirates, an adventure with Scientists, Muppets a Christmas Carol and Toy Story 3. I haven't seen the last two yet, or with Muppets, recently is more accurate. The first three were all very good, Pirates in particular was laugh out-loud funny with very clever humour for all ages. I'll be getting them all at some point for my daughter.
For Crusade for Vengeance, those last amendments are complete and I've done the final spellcheck. Tomorrow morning I start on the formatting. If it goes as well as when I re-released Reason, then it should all be uploaded tomorrow and available for sale Friday. Fingers crossed.
He also made a couple of word change suggestions, which were frankly brilliant. They definitely got included.
I recorded a few kids films over christmas. Partly for my daughter, but mainly for myself. I had her all day yesterday and she wasn't interested in the films. She just wanted me to play with her and her toys.
So, I recorded Puss in Boots, Madagascar 3, Pirates, an adventure with Scientists, Muppets a Christmas Carol and Toy Story 3. I haven't seen the last two yet, or with Muppets, recently is more accurate. The first three were all very good, Pirates in particular was laugh out-loud funny with very clever humour for all ages. I'll be getting them all at some point for my daughter.
For Crusade for Vengeance, those last amendments are complete and I've done the final spellcheck. Tomorrow morning I start on the formatting. If it goes as well as when I re-released Reason, then it should all be uploaded tomorrow and available for sale Friday. Fingers crossed.
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