Persnickety Publishing People

On to yet another day in the Author Blog Challenge. If you haven't signed up yet, feel free. The link is on the right. And the prompt today goes to...

Did you publish your book as a traditionally printed book, an eBook, or both? How did you come to your decision? Which company(ies) did you use for printing and distribution? How did you select them?

If anyone has been following my blog, you know I'm a self published author. I chose to use Smashwords for my first distribution of The Abigale Chronicles - Book One and by doing so, learned a lot of what to do and what not to do. I went through my experience in an earlier post. Feel free to pop over and take a gander.

Now for the juicy stuff. I did both an e-book and a traditionally printed version for my books. I used Createspace to publish the tangible versions. I learned a lot from putting The Abigale Chronicles up there as well. I'll make a blog friendly list of what to do and what not to do.

Please DO:

1. Take the time to make sure your manuscript is ready to go. Createspace takes longer to look over your stuff with a second submission. Why should they rush when you didn't bother to make sure it was perfect?
2. Use a cover designer that understands CMYK is different than RGB. Let me tell you, some greens and oranges look TERRIBLE when converted. Trust me.
3. Design your cover WITH a bleed. They trim 1/8" off every side. I went into this in an earlier post as well (link below).
4. Make sure your font is easy to read and prints well.

Please DO NOT:

1. Make changes.
2. Design your cover in RGB colorspace. Ugh.
3. Assume you know what you're doing. You don't know what a widow or an orphan is, don't try to. Seek a designer to help you format the inside of your book, please.
4. Use a tiny font (under 8pt).

I am linking to some earlier blog posts of mine that explain a lot of the above. Please go take a look. If you're using a designer, ask them if they know what kerning is and what the difference is between CMYK and RGB (CMYK is the four color process of ink printing on a press. RGB is the colorspace that is created with light - like on your computer). If they know the answers to those questions, they have been to design school.

Kerning Lesson
Printing Lesson
Color Spaces Lesson
Fonts Lesson

I chose Createspace and Smashwords by reading reviews online. I research EVERY company I do business with (so does my boyfriend) and we seek an outside opinion always. I find this to be a good way to expect the unexpected. Be prepared for the worst.

I decided to self-publish for a number of reasons:

1. I queried agents but they couldn't figure out my market so they declined.
2. I wanted control. Yes, I am a control freak (this surprises you? Really?).
3. The artist in me cringed at letting someone else decide on my design.
4. I had the time.
5. It was the best option for me.

Don't forget to enter my Goodreads giveaway for a chance at a free copy of Yassa.

Well, that's all for today, folks. Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Reader Interview

On to the next prompt in the Author Blog Challenge... 

Find someone you know, either online or in the real world, who is a true bibliophile and interview them about their reading habits. Ask questions such as: 

How many books do you buy per month?

Five 

How many do you actually read?

Five 

What do you read?

Mysteries, Romance, Sci-Fi, Historical Fiction, Thrillers, Medical Myseries, Crime Novels, Young Adult 

Where do you buy your books?

Amazon now, I used to be a book club member. 

Who is your favorite author?

Mary Higgins-Clark 

What do you like about the author?

Her storytelling style is less descriptive. She doesn’t go into what color the floors are, grass is, décor style (unless setting an era). 

How often do you attend signings/readings? What do you enjoy about them?

Never. I’m  a reclusive. 

If you could ask their favorite author any question, what would it be?

Do you do any charity work for neglected or abused children? 

Which book has most recently surprised or delighted you?

Yassa. Because it’s historical fiction and I don’t usually read them. It was thrilling and unexpected. Out of the last ten to fifteen books I’ve read, it’s my favorite. I just couldn’t put it down. 

Of everything you’ve read so far this year, what would you most recommend?

I tend to recommend things that are freshest in my mind. So, I would recommend: Yassa by Jo Michaels, Intensity and 77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz, and Exclusive by Fern Michaels.

What I learned from this interview is that people who buy tangible books, read them.

While you're on my blog, go check out the review I wrote for Ashley Howland's Ghostnapped!


That's all for today, folks! I hope you enjoyed reading this one!! Until next time, WRITE ON!


Jo

Book Review - Ghostnapped!

Book Review: Ghostnapped! By Ashley Howland

Get ready for a ghastly, ghost-hunting mystery that will chill the very marrow in your bones! Ashley Howland makes her debut with a sensational spectral adventure that will ‘fright and delight’ kids and teens everywhere. 

My Rating: three out of five stars

Ghostnapped! has a wonderful, weaving plot that caught me after just the first few pages and held me until the end. Trying to figure out what the monster was had me scratching my head and turning the page. This book will resonate with young readers everywhere. Alex’s adventure leads her to understand what it means to love your sibling and the book ends on a happy note. A good lesson for children.

However, there are a few errors in the writing that took me off guard. A few small things could be changed to give the story a smoother flow.

Overall, an enchanting read. I recommend it.

Synopsis:

Ten-year-old Alex loves to explore, but when her younger brother is mysteriously ghostnapped on their camping trip at the beach, it is up to Alex and her trusty Labrador, Thuds, to investigate her brother’s sudden disappearance. 

As she surveys the grassy hills and dangerous rocky cliffs near their camp, Alex uncovers a hidden secret to other disappearances that occurred at the very same campsite – over 50 years ago! 

A chilling mystery that can only be solved by Alex, Thuds, and a ghost girl named Susan, Ghostnapped! explores mysteries of the past, present and beyond the grave.

Ashley Howland grew up in Adelaide, South Australia, where she now lives with her husband, Ross, their daughters, Maddy and Aijay, and her faithful Labrador, Obi. When not writing or spending time with her family, Ashley is busy working for Labs ‘n Life, a non-profit organization that trains Labradors as assistance dogs.

If you'd like to purchase Ghostnapped! here are some links:

Ghostnapped! on SBPRA

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

For other books by Ashley Howland (@AshleyHowland) visit her author page here. To read an interview with Ashley done by me, go here.

That's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Surprise!

There's still time to join the Author Blog Challenge! If you haven't, just do it. Moving right along to today's prompt... 

What has been the biggest surprise about writing/publishing your book? What has been the most enjoyable or most memorable aspect?

My biggest surprise was all the different formats that were wanted by all the different e-book publishers. Why can there not be consistency? Geeze Louise!

I love that Amazon has started to crack down on allowing public works publishing. It clears the market for real books. When I heard that, I did an Emeril Lagassi style, "BAM!" in my head.

Take that, you profiteers of other people's work!

I have enjoyed the people I have gotten to know through my networking efforts. There are some great folks in the publishing world. Many of them can be found here. Yes, that's The Author Blog Challenge participant link. So what if I invited my friends to join as well?

I never realized what a wonderful community writers have formed around the globe. How great is it that I can talk to Ashley Howland in Australia, Lisa Cherry in the UK, and meet people from the US as well? I adore intelligent discussion and giving people a new way to look at things that they may not have considered. A number of them have returned and given back as good as they have gotten.

I enjoy talking with writers because they are almost always open to new ideas and constructive feedback.

I enjoy talking with artists because they have a different view of the world we live in and take the time to paint or draw it.

I enjoy talking with most people on most topics as long as their thoughts are original and not pulled from the main-stream way of thinking.

Many of the people I now know, I would not have met without networking or voicing of my own, rather skewed opinion of the world. I wouldn't trade it.

Since this post is short, I am going to take today to share with you all some of my photography and illustrations. I hope you enjoy the eye candy.

Illustrations shown large, original photograph in icon. First is colored pencil on black canson drawing paper. Second is india ink on hot press illustration board.

In tandem with today's post comes an interview with Ashley Howland, author of Ghostnapped! Tomorrow will be my review of the book.

That's all for today, folks, Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Author Interview with Ashley Howland

 Today, a little something extra for my readers.

Ashley Howland is the author of Ghostnapped! and Obi the Super Puppy and the Mysteryof the Red Mist. Welcome, Ashley! Thank you for stopping by to visit with us today!

You write children’s novels. What attracts you most to that genre?

I write for children because that’s where the pure enjoyment of reading begins. Reading was also so much a part of my childhood, I always loved getting a new book. This is something I have been able to share with my daughters and love every step on this journey.

  

Ghostnapped! is set in South Australia at Rapid Bay. Why did you choose that setting?

I started writing Ghostnapped! on a camping trip at Rapid Bay. A friend and I both wrote stories that weekend, it was great fun to go and explore the local area. When I got home and did some research into the old mine and the local habitat the story just kept evolving.

Where did the idea for your protagonist, Alex, come from?

Alex is a strong girl, she loves to explore and gets annoyed by her younger brother, who like lots of kids wants to be just like their older sibling. She developed along with the story, but there are certainly aspects of her personality that I can relate to.

Obi in Obi the Super Puppy and the Mystery of the Red Mist is patterned after your own dog. What is your favorite characteristic?

Obi is an amazing dog, he has always been a little bit different from other Labradors. He likes to sit and observe, or supervise as we now believe. It is so hard to put into words exactly what he does for the children he works with, but the best think about Obi is that no one gets missed.

You participate in Labs ‘n Life – a non-profit organization that works with autistic children (BRAVO!). How has that interaction shaped your writing?

Labs ‘n Life does so much, we train Labradors as companion dogs for children on the autism spectrum. However we also work with at risk youth to do this training, they are the ones who train the dogs for other families. This way so many people benefit from the training of a single dog. We also have a curriculum that centers on training the dogs, which can provide our students with credit into further study. This curriculum is rich in literacy development and in some ways this has helped shape my writing. I certainly get lots of material from the amazing dogs and students I work with.

Have you ever considered featuring an autistic child in any of your books?

I probably will at some stage, as I am currently writing a sequel to Obi, so it may happen. When I am writing I tend to just see where the book will take me, so you never know.

I see that you published Ghostnapped! with SBPRA. Can you tell us about your experience with them?

To get a book published is an amazing thing, I was very happy when Strategic took on both of my books. I have to thank them for giving me a go, there are some aspects I know other authors find difficult, but I tend to think along the lines of proving myself as an author. That is generally what Strategic are interested in. I have met the basic requirements of both books, in terms of numbers sold, so now I need to prove I can sell more books in order to have my next one published. For some authors this approach may seem difficult, and while it’s not easy I am happy to give it a go. 

 

What methods have you used for advertising your book, Ghostnapped!?

I have an author web page, Facebook page, twitter (@AshleyHowland), blog and a YouTube channel. I also have press releases and a YouTube video that were made by the publishing company. This advertising process is the most difficult, hopefully it is something I will get better at as I work on my writing. The publishing company has provided me with many ideas, it’s just trying to find the time to get things done, and after all writing is a hobby.

Have you considered a giveaway on Goodreads for Ghostnapped!? Why/Why not?

I have only just joined Goodreads, so I guess anything is possible. It is something I will be looking into.

Do you have any events (book signings, meet the author events, sales, etc…) planned?

I am hoping to be available to present some reading challenge medals at a few schools later in the year, this is something I really enjoy. I would also be more than happy to do book signings and meet the author events, it would certainly be an experience.

What types of things do you discuss on your blog?

At the moment I am doing an author blog challenge, so I have used a few of their prompts. This has given me a chance to blog about my writing process, and learn about the processes of others. I will  never claim to be a complete author, just someone who wants to share a story. Most of my blogs outside of the challenge tend to be about the dogs, and the crazy things they do.

Is there a specific message you’re trying to send with Ghostnapped!? What is that message?

I wouldn’t say there were any specific messages, but there were two themes that developed. I enjoyed touching on the natural rivalry between siblings. Now that I have two daughters I will get a lot more material in this area. It’s fun to explore that love/hate relationship brothers and sisters have. The other was an environmental theme that fit into the local area of the beach. 

What are some of the books you’re planning for the future? Where will we be able to find them?

At the moment I am editing two more children’s books. One if for younger readers and I am having a friend do some illustrations. I hope to begin the publishing process with this one towards the end of the year. The other will take longer, as it is more of a teenage novel, but one I am really enjoying. I am also writing that sequel to Obi, so I have lots of writing to keep me busy.

Thank you, Ashley, for taking the time to answer my questions. I wish you the best of luck with your books and look forward to having you back for a visit soon!

A review for Ghostnapped! will be appearing on my blog tomorrow with a synopsis so come on back for that.

That's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

I Challenge Thee... To a Duel!

Day 13 of the Author Blog Challenge. Today's prompt, brought to you by the letters MF... Where did your mind just go? Shame on you! 

What has been the most challenging part of your book process: writing, building the book, printing, distributing, marketing, etc.? What do you wish you'd known before you began? 

Marketing and Formatting have taken the cake for being the most challenging part of my book process. Smashwords also provided some frustrations. Allow me to provide you with a few guides. 

Formatting: Now, formatting an e-book is easy cakes if you've done it before. You understand that you should never ever ever tab at the beginning of a paragraph and every space after a period should be single. You know to compose with a normal paragraph style in word and not to have auto formatting turned on to parse hyperlinks or correct errant spelling errors. That being said, if you don't know those thing to begin with, formatting an e-book is a royal pain in the arse.

Why? Because you have to undo all those things that typing class taught you in high school. Ugh.

Another problem with doing it yourself is allllll the different formats that every e-reader uses. NOOK wants an epub file, KDP wants an html document, and Smashwords wants you to add returns at every page break so the meatgrinder can find where your pages split. If you're publishing a print version? .doc or .docx along with a PDF of the cover file is what you'll need.

Easy steps that I can advise that will take you far:

Make sure your manuscript is ready for publishing. Period. If it's not, don't bother doing any of the things below because you will have to re-do them all if you change something.

Follow the Smashwords Style Guide. You can download it via the link provided. It tells you how to get rid of tabs, apply different formats, create a table of contents and erase errant hyperlinks. Even if you aren't publishing with Smashwords, I recommend you pick up a copy now. It's free, why not?

Install the Calibre e-book management tool. You'll thank me later. It takes an .rtf file and makes it into an epub file with lots of cool options and little boxes to tick check-marks into. 

I know, I know, I'm so informative! It's only because I love you all. 

Now, after you have followed The Style Guide (without the extra returns between paragraphs or little cutesy icons) take your final file from word and save it as:
TITLE_SMASHWORDSFORMAT_JUNE142012.DOC
TITLE_NOOK_JUNE142012.RTF
TITLE_KINDLE_JUNE142012.HTML
TITLE_CREATESPACE_JUNE142012.DOCX 
Make a folder for each site. Mine look like this:
Desktop>BooksWritingsEtc>Yassa>NOOK
and so on, and so forth.
Remember to open the original file every time before saving it out as something different. Obviously, use your title and the current date.

Revise the Smashwords version to be happy with the meatgrinder as instructed. Open Calibre and turn the .rtf into an epub. Save that as:
TITLE_NOOK_JUNE142012.EPUB

Make sure your cover follows each site's requirement for size and save each cover with the same extensions. Let your cover designer know where you are going to publish your book and what size your print version will be.

When/if you upload to Smashwords, go and opt out of distribution to NOOK and Amazon. Now, go upload your files and be HAPPY! 

Yes, it's a lot of work but you're working for yourself and things will be the way you want them to be. No better reward than that, in my opinion. 

Marketing is it's own beast but my best advice is to participate, network, and offer assistance to others. Above all else, have consistency. My name will always appear on my book in the same font, in the same place. Keep that in mind when working with a designer. Make it BIG. Your name is a selling point. No time to be shy now.

Another tool for marketing is Goodreads. I always publish a print version of my work and offer a giveaway on that site because it's just good business sense. You gotta get your book into the hands of people that will read it.

Now, for my frustrations with Smashwords. They took a while to approve me for premium distribution and send The Abigale Chronicles to iBooks and NOOK. I ended up opting out for Amazon distribution and doing it myself just last week. I am impatient. I opted to do both Amazon and NOOK myself in my second release. A little more work, to be sure, but I'm a happier camper for it. NOOK is still not showing the cover for Abigale but iBooks got it quickly after approval and it looks gorgeous there.

Sorry this was long winded but I hope you got some useful information out of it.

That's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Design, Write, Create!

Explaining today the process for cover design. Hold on to your hats!! 

Describe your process for choosing and designing your book cover. Who created your cover? How did you find him/her? What do you love about your cover? What might you do differently next time?

I have a degree in graphic design. Business cards, logos, fliers, mailers, CD covers, banners, ads, and much much more all make up what I know how to do. But, best of all, I can design book covers. My own and other people's. It may or may not surprise you to know I am also an illustrator, photographer, and painter. What the hell, right?

I am a creative. My brain works differently.

My boyfriend (the best one in the world, by the way) and I often discuss how my head works in a different way. All creatives are like that, authors are probably the most browbeaten of the bunch because folks wonder, not only where our worlds come from, but how we can write some of the things we do.

It is precisely this different way of working that allowed me to design my own book covers. I decided on a watercolor cherry tree with a beautiful woman sitting beneath for the cover of Yassa because it's a love story at its heart. Yeah, it goes into murder, betrayal, and law, but it's really the relationship of Temujin and Borte that drives the whole darn thing. So my cover reflects how my heart felt at the beginning and at the end.

I love my cover because it's a piece of me. I put a lot of time into the watercolor illustration and design and I stressed over which fonts to use. It had to say, "Something is different about this book." I believe it does that.

When I designed the cover for The Abigale Chronicles - Book One, I thought about my protagonist and what she would want her diary cover to look like. I then approached a twelve-year-old girl who lives down the street from me and asked her for a handwriting sample. She wrote the word Abigale and I scanned and vectored it for something unique. You won't see that font on ANY other book. It's very personal and feels so much more authentic. I gave her a signed copy of the book for helping me. She'll get one of every new volume as well. It's the least I could do.

I see so many book covers today that could use a tweak or two where lettering is concerned. I have a few lessons on my blog; starting with this one. If you have ever wanted to know what a designer does and how much tweaking they do to your lettering, I urge you to check it out. Your typography is EVERYTHING. It's the first thing people notice. Forget about images or color. Many e-readers are black and white. Your letters count. Go peek at the lessons (there are 4) and you'll see what I mean.

I've considered creating a short book with tips and tricks on cover art design and how to use lettering for impact. We'll see. I wouldn't charge for it, of course (it wouldn't be long), but I think it might come in handy for some who are short on cash and want to design for themselves. I can even have a section of what NOT to do. That way, we won't end up with glaring color oopsies that make our eyes feel like they are going to burn out of our skulls when we look at them. Who knows? I might, I might not. If I do, you can guarantee the news will be HERE first!!

That's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo