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Recording the adventure of being an indie authour. |
Still trying to get my book into paperback. The person I hired for the formatting failed miserably. So, learning how to format it myself. Lesson learned. Never use anyone on Fivver who isn't a Level 1 or 2. |
Lying on the floor yesterday, learning how to format for a paperback (through trial and error), the flame relit. The excitement of knowing that once I've figured it out, learned how to balance text at the end of each page, where I want the chapter heading to begin on the page, etc., the next book will be so much easier, and I won't have to even think of hiring anyone to do the job. But it takes persistence, a never surrender - never give up attitude to win. Doing my own formatting is giving me a feel for the whole process of being an Indie authour. Experiencing my book straight through the final processes is both challenging and exciting. Sure, I wish my book was already out in paperback. It's annoying to customers who keep asking for the paperback edition. And perhaps the longer they have to wait, the greater the chance they'll decide not to buy. But I'm trying to involve them in the process, so they'll understand. So, far, I think it's working. :) |
Yes, it would be faster to hire someone to get my book up in paperback, but since I already lost 5 days hiring someone from Fivver and it was a disaster, I'd rather do it myself - even though it's going to take longer. This afternoon, I got OpenOffice uploaded onto my RCA, along with the template offered by Amazon for a 6 x 9 book. Once I uploaded the manuscript into the template it became a wild learning experience. It's all about planning what happens next, because every move you make is going to affect how the manuscript looks on each page. Right now, I'm focused on separating paragraphs that magically grouped together on upload. Once that's done, I'll upload the images. I imagine they'll throw things off a bit, so saving that one for tomorrow. One step at a time. :) |
Shortly after I published my book on Kindle, I got an email saying I could use the same doc to make a paperback. That was a relief because now I didn't have to format it for a paperback. I uploaded the doc, and it was rejected. I tried again - another rejection. I waited again until today. I uploaded the same doc and it was accepted. lol Finally! My book will be in paperback. Nope. When I hit the preview, I discovered it had deleted all the front and back matter, along with all the inside photos. Back to square one. I don't have Word, and I don't want it. So, I downloaded OpenOffice to use with the Kindle template for a 6 x 9 book, and GIMP to work on the photos. The photos I used previously for the Kindle edition were fine, but apparently not for the paperback. My guess at this point is it'll be a couple more days before I can make another attempt to upload my book for a paperback. But, I'm determined to do this on my own, especially after wasting money on Fivver. We'll see how it goes. :) |
Yesterday, I downloaded yTimer (spacejock software) to help me stay focused while writing. I set the timer for 25 minutes of non-stop writing, and 2 minutes for exercise. Rinse and repeat. This afternoon, I put the plan into action and really covered a lot of ground. The tough part was writing non-stop without editing. :) Anyway, at the rate I'm going, I just might have the rough draft of my story written by Thursday, rather than Friday. :) |
The past couple weeks have been a bit tough. Haven't felt well, slowed down using the Perfect Day Formula, and as a result, I didn't accomplish near the amount I could have. PDF keeps me focused. Without it, and Nina Amir's, "How to Blog a Book," I wouldn't have gotten my ghost book published on Kindle. On the bright side, I'm using Simon Haynes, yWriter, to write the Pickles and Piper series. It's making writing much easier by helping me focus more on scenes, rather than chapters. Plus, I love the simplicity of having the "play" button to click and let it read the story to me. It's a great way to find left out words and bumps in the flow. |