Published and Available in Kindle Format!

Yes, as you can see, you can now purchase the Kindle version of Just Like Magic!

And if you don't have a Kindle, well, Amazon doesn't want to leave you out. They have free apps that will allow you to read Kindle books on lots of devices including Windows and Mac computers and many smaller devices, too. (Probably not a NOOK. ;) )

In the end, I didn't use Sigil or Calibre. I just kept testing my uploaded MS Word file on the Kindle Previewer, and, eventually, on the Kindle app I downloaded for my iMac. Then when I found formatting errors, I'd tweak it and reload. The main problems were in the formatting of the front and back materials as well as the chapter headings - things not being centered, mainly. I also learned that I needed to remove the table from the table of contents. And I found that putting the bookmarks for the chapters one row ABOVE the chapter numbers made the chapters look better when using the table of contents. I also had to switch all the italics in the book from a specific italic font to using the "italics" button. (Oh, and I changed the font to Times New Roman.) The main thing I learned, though, is that the file needs to be super clean.

Eventually, everything looked good!

And you can now read it for yourself and see. If you do find any formatting oddities that I missed, let me know in the comments here and I'll see what I can do.

I have signed up for KDP select, which means that for 90 days the book is available only through Amazon, and also that I can pick 5 days during that period of time for free promotionals, so stay tuned!

Progress

News on the book front:

1) At last, I have a new computer (an iMac). It should be able to do whatever I want - although I couldn't load my old version of MS Word on it, so I downloaded Open Office instead. We'll see how OO works.

2) I tried using the procedure listed on the Kindle website to easily transform my book manuscript into a Kindle format manuscript. All went smoothly, but when I previewed the resulting file, there were a lot of odd things going on. Random alignment issues and other weirdness. Conclusion - I'll have to do a more thorough editing on my own.

3) I'm going to start that more thorough editing today!

Stay tuned.

eBook delay

Hmmm. I said I'd post about a month ago. Obviously, I didn't. There wasn't much to say.

1) I don't have a new computer yet. But -- I plan to buy one next month.

2) I've lost a lot of steam for the project. There's no pressure to get anything done.

3) I've got some new projects going that have nothing to do with the book.

On the other hand, I did do a little bit of work on the Kindle version. I hoped that I could simply follow the directions given on the Kindle Direct Publishing site to change my book file into a Kindle file. So I worked on the file and then had my daughter download the Kindle previewer on her computer. Unfortunately, when I uploaded my file, some parts worked great (the table of contents) but others needed a lot of fixing. (The stars on the title page all turned into "é." Odd things were happening with chapter numbers and my small caps at the beginning of chapters. And other stuff.) I will really need to do more in-depth editing than Kindle thinks.

 So don't expect more news for a while. A month, maybe? In the meantime, if you're interested in an eBook version of Just Like Magic, leave a comment and let me know which format you would like it in (Kindle? EPUB? PDF?). That will help me make decisions later.

Have a good month!

Happy New Year!

I am pleased to say that I did finish the e-book publishing course. Which means that I took and passed the final exam. I have in no way absorbed all the material or started applying it.

And with a major vacation coming up in two-and-a-half weeks, it's not going to happen soon. I hate to say it, but don't expect any more updates until mid-February. At that point I may have:

1. More time.
2. A new computer? That one depends partly on my tax refund this year.
3. A new head of steam for the project.

We'll see.

If you have read Just Like Magic, I hope you enjoyed it. For those of you nearby, the library has purchased two copies but is apparently still cataloguing them; they aren't available yet. But you can still put them on hold!

Best wishes for 2013!

My plans for the rest of the year

"Now comes the hour to put the game* away,

And greet the joyous season of the year.

The time of Tree and Star is drawing near;

Forget the search* and revel in the day!"

Elizabeth Enright, Spiderweb for Two

* Substitute "blog" for "game" or "search."

Here are my plans for December:

1) Keep up with and finish my online e-book publishing class.

2) Put this blog aside until January 6.

3) Enjoy the holiday season!

I'm getting some good information from my class, but I won't be applying it until the new year. So Happy Holidays, everyone! If you've read Just Like Magic, I hope you enjoyed it. 

My writing plans for next year are, in this order: publish the e-book versions of Just Like Magic, market it, and continue to work on the sequel.

P.S. I got my first royalty payment on Friday!

Still learning...

Learning about e-book publishing, that is.  There are four more weeks in the class and I expect that absorbing and applying it all will not be done until next year sometime, what with the holidays and all...

Frankly, it's been nice to have a break from a heavy writing/editing schedule. I've woven a basket, sorted a drawer, read some books. I'll get back to the publishing and promoting, I promise, but at an easier pace.

Odds and ends

1) I have started my online "Publish and Sell Your E-Books" class, and from what I read in the syllabus, the class should help me get my book out in several formats, not just Kindle. And getting Just Like Magic published as an e-book should help me with marketing, too. Cheaper prices = more people willing to take a chance on it. Right?

2) Just this morning, I had a couple of couple of good ideas for the sequels.

3) I'll be getting a royalty check at the end of the month.

4) It's not a big royalty check.

5) Someone bought a copy of my book without me knowing who it is!

It doesn't take much to make me happy, does it?

It's in the catalog...

The Fort Vancouver Regional Library catalog, that is. They've ordered two copies (yeah!), so go ahead and place your holds now -- if you have a FVRL library card, that is.  ;)

I'm still waiting for the "Look Inside" feature to show up on my book on Amazon.

This week my e-Book publishing class starts. I'll find out if my computer can handle it or if I'll have to use library computers.

This post is late because I was away for the weekend. Sorry!

That's it...

How much does self-publishing cost?

I can't speak for everyone who self-publishes, but here's what it has cost me so far to get Just Like Magic available for purchase:

$29.49   iStock photo credits, for my cover photo. I still have a few credits left, too.
$  7.08   First proof copy from CreateSpace, including shipping.
$25.00   Extended distribution from CreateSpace (optional).
$  7.11   Second proof copy from CreateSpace, including shipping.
$23.40   Five copies of final version for me, at author's discount, including shipping & tax.

Total: $92.08.

Note: Just Like Magic is 198 pages long. Price for proofs and author's copies is based on the book length; my copies are $3.22 each plus shipping and tax. (The second proof copy had two more pages, hence the higher price.) For fatter books, you need fatter wallets.

Buying an ISBN would have cost me from $10 to $250. But I didn't; I used the free CreateSpace ISBN. If I had paid someone to edit the interior or design the cover, that would have cost me hundreds more. But I didn't; I did it myself, with help from friends and family.

Further expenses? Well, marketing. I really haven't done anything about marketing besides this blog and posting about it on my Facebook page. Sending out review copies will obviously cost me for books and postage.

Considering that I don't expect to make a mint from this, I think the cost is reasonable.

But those are just the monetary expenses. There are also time costs: 6 months of my spare time to get it published, and that's considering that I had the whole book written when I started. That 6 months included formatting, designing, rewriting, waiting for proofs, proofing, waiting for other people to proof, and more proofing. Having more experience now, I don't think another book would take me six months.

And there are emotional costs, too, to putting your baby out in front of the public. Cheers, jeers, and silence all take their tolls.

Meanwhile--I have signed up for a (free! through my library) online course entitled "Publish and Sell Your E-Books" which starts in about ten days. I think I'll let what I learn in that course guide me in my attempts to get the e-version out. What research I did this week into publishing for the Kindle led me to believe that 1) it's so simple a child could do it, but 2) you have to be a child with a PhD in HTML. So I think I'll see what I learn in the class before going further with that.

This week--more break time for me! Have a good week, everyone.

It's available! And other thoughts...

Thanks to those of you who have bought a copy of Just Like Magic! I hope you enjoy it. It's a quick, light read complete with humor and a happy ending. If you haven't gotten yours yet, follow one of these links to buy one for your very own:

The CreateSpace eStore
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Amazon (United Kingdom)
Amazon (Germany)
Amazon (France)
Amazon (Italy)
Amazon (Spain)

If you're online searching for the book, I suggest using the title and my name. Otherwise a lot of extraneous stuff will come up.

If you read it and have something to say about it, please consider posting a review to Amazon or Barnes and Noble. I'd appreciate it!

The "Look Inside" feature on Amazon will be added sometime in the next few weeks.

If you're waiting for the Kindle version, I haven't forgotten you -- I'll start working on it soon.

This week has been interesting. I had a post-publishing letdown and didn't even want to think about the book for a few days. I also was bummed because I thought I had spelled the word "Acknowledgements" wrong, because Blogger spellchecker underlined it in red when I used it in last week's post. But turns out that putting that "e" between the "g" and the "m" is an acceptable variant, which is why all my Word spellchecking hadn't alerted me. I feel better now.

(A random thought -- there are eleven consonants in "acknowledgements." Doesn't that seem excessive to you?)

Coming up on this blog -- How to Edit Interior Files for the Kindle! What I Learned About Self-Publishing and What I'd Do Differently Next Time! Marketing and Other Stuff! Why My Blog Title Should Be Changed! And more...

Published!

"It's the last, long, mile..." (That's from a World War I song my mom has sung to me recently.)

This week has been crazy.

Sunday through Wednesday, I continued editing. I fixed the problems I had sticky-noted, then found that I had some serious comma problems and used "of course" too much. (Why did it take me this long to discover this?) I fixed the "of course" issue using the "find" command in Word and did end up removing about half. But the comma issue meant another read-through of the whole manuscript, fun, fun. That took through Wednesday.

Thursday, I thought I was done. I made a new PDF--four times! I kept finding problems, especially the fact that the conversion process occasionally caused those weird hyphenation problems: at the bottom of one page would be a hyphenated word like "Step-," and at the top of the next page it would say "Stepmama." Really odd but I did in the end fix all those (or I thought I had). There were also some extra blank pages put in near the end of the file and I had to change some section breaks to fix that. I also edited the cover file and made a new JPEG.

Friday morning I reviewed the file, fixed more hyphenation stuff, made a new PDF, and uploaded it. I also edited the cover slightly, made another JPEG, and uploaded it. Late that afternoon I got word that the files were printable!

(Does Friday sound a lot like Thursday? Yeah, it was. These final little changes are killers, but I had to keep reviewing the file because I didn't want to kick myself later.)

Saturday morning, I looked over the new file, hoping to find it fine. But argh, I found a spacing error (one measly extra space between words). Well, phooey. I could live with that. But then I found a verb tense error! Oh no, have to redo it and upload it again and go through the review process again!

So--I did. I used Word's grammar checker and found another spacing error and another verb tense error, too. (I also found out that when I grammar-checked the whole book at once, Word crashed and all the changes were lost. So then I had to do it again chapter by chapter! And since I was in there, I also slightly changed the last page, acknowledgments, and author page. Then I made a new PDF and uploaded it and submitted the whole book for review again. Remind me not to be a copy editor for a living.

This morning, the files were again deemed acceptable for printing. I went through the interior file again, and hit the "Approve" button. Because it's time. Yes, there are still errors in there. That's life.

And do you know what I found out when I looked up my title in Amazon? (Btw, it won't be available to purchase through Amazon.com for perhaps a week, but it's available right now here.) Anyway--four days ago, guess what was published for the Kindle? Just Like Magic: A Cross-Dressing Threesome Story of Male Domination and Bisexual Male Submission by Keri Carver. (31 pages.)

"If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane." Yeah, Jimmy Buffet, you got that right.

Armageddon sic a disol book

What? You haven't read The Ship With the Flat Tire by Todd Hunt?*

Moving right along... The second proof arrived on Wednesday.** On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, I read it all again and marked errors. Yes, I'll need to upload both the interior and cover files again. That is all.

I mean it. That is ALL. Once I correct the files and re-upload them, there will be NO third proof copy headed my way. That's right, I have reached the point of Author's Denial, aka "I Refuse To Tinker Anymore." The book isn't perfect. It will never be perfect. I think I've caught the most egregious stuff. There were only a couple of actual typos in this proof; mostly I was moving commas or tweaking words. Much of it still makes me smile, even reading it over for the umpty-umpth time. What more can I ask?

So--this week I fix the files, look over the final PDF and JPEG very carefully, re-upload them, wait for the acceptance, and then PUSH THE BUTTON, BETH. Look for it.
___________________

* You should (if you can find it--it was published in 1967); it's really funny. It also might help you decode the title of the post, although that shouldn't be too hard anyway.

**By US mail, not UPS like last time. Curious.

Second proof

Here's what happened this week:

1) On Monday, I checked over my file for widows and orphans again, made a PDF/X from the interior file, and uploaded it. I was notified right away by CreateSpace that there was one mistake found. I couldn't find out what the mistake was because of my computer's age and inability to run current Adobe software.

2) On Tuesday, I checked my file at the library. The mistake was just a margin error on the title page, easily fixed. However, after I fixed that and made a new PDF, I realized that I had, with editing, added two new pages to the file and my chapter numbers were wrong on the Contents page again. Sigh. I fixed that, but decided to scan the PDF page by page for more errors, which was a good idea, because I found some spacing problems which I then had to fix. (On one page, there was a totally random blank line added for no particular reason. It had showed up on the first proof, but I thought I'd fixed it. Apparently not. I had to delete not only that line but the paragraphs above and below and then retype them to get rid of that stupid blank space.) Yipes. I thought I'd gotten all that before.

3) On Wednesday, I uploaded the PDF of the finally-all-correct-I-really-really-hope interior file. CreateSpace didn't find any problems. Hooray! In the evening, I tried to make my cover file into a PDF (after revising the back cover blurb). It didn't work! Frustration ensued, and I decided to leave it for the next day.

4) On Thursday morning, I did some research and found that the cover file wasn't supposed to be a PDF! It only needed to be a JPEG. Well, whadda ya know. Hey, it was three months ago that I did this conversion before, and I'd forgotten. Anyway, the JPEG was easy to create. That evening, I submitted the new cover file (no problems found) and submitted both files for review. CreateSpace said they'd get back to me within 48 hours.

5) On Friday morning (5:45 am!) I checked my email and wow--my files are approved! I ordered a proof copy. Why? Because even though I don't want to do any more checking, I'd feel pretty stupid if I didn't and some gross error went through. While I was in an ordering mood, I signed up for CreateSpace's Expanded Distribution plan, which includes the "Bookstores and Online Retailers" channel and the "Libraries & Academic Institutions" channel. (In other words, the Ingram and the Baker & Taylor catalogs.) And -- I got notice on Friday night that the proof is in the mail. If it comes as soon as the first proof did, it could arrive tomorrow.

This week: stalking the condo office for possible proof delivery, seeing what else I can do on the CreateSpace website to prepare for publication (though I think I've done most of it), and praying that the proof looks good enough to publish. Keep your fingers crossed, okay?

So near...

I am so near to uploading both my interior and my cover files again.

This week, I read my whole book out loud to myself. That was helpful in finding bits that didn't flow well and continuity errors (Character A was sitting on this page, but standing on the next, with no transition. Stuff like that.) I also tweaked the cover; it didn't need much.

I'm at the point where I don't want to look at the book anymore, but I need to. I had to determine a "reading level" for it for CreateSpace, so I tried to use a reading level function in MS Word. It never worked (guess I hadn't set the settings properly) but I did end up going through the whole book with Word's spelling and grammar checker. And whaddaya know, I found more spelling errors (incorrect compound words, mostly) and some grammar stuff, some of which I corrected and some of which I let stand because It's Just My Style, thank you very much, Word. Oh, and I used an online "readability index calculator" to determine my reading level (7th grade).

This morning I've been messing around on the CreateSpace website, resetting my BISAC code (which tells bookstores how to classify the book), entering the price ($8.99), rewriting my book description (which will also go on the back cover)--it goes on and on. But really, I'm so near...

That's my goal for the week--uploading both files. Once they're approved, will I then order another proof copy? Do I want to? Noooooooo (that's a horrified wail). I just want to push the "publish" button. But will I? We'll see.

I think the inside is looking pretty good.

No, I haven't completely polished the front matter yet. But the body and back matter is corrected, as far as comments that I received from my proofreaders go. Whew! And of course, as I was making those changes I discovered some other areas that needed attention. For instance, my capitalization for "king," "queen," and "prince" was wildly inconsistent when the term wasn't being used as part of their name. (E.g., "The king paced back and forth." To capitalize or not? I had it both ways. And had not noticed it at all until now. Yipes.)

Does chaos theory have something to say about all this? I'm thinking of Jurassic Park, where the scientist (as I recall) assures the park builder that SOMETHING WILL GO WRONG BECAUSE IT'S ALL TOO COMPLEX. Is my book doomed to have some errors, just because? I am starting to suspect so. Still, I'll get all the ones I can.

Next up is the front matter and the cover. Check in next week to find out how close I am to publication!

Back to proofing

I have the proof copy back, and I've started making the changes in my file.

Yeah, that's really about it for this week. I've gotten through the first two chapters.

My goal for the week is to get through the rest of the chapters, fixing any mistakes, poor punctuation choices, or awkward/confusing/contradictory passages that my readers noted. Then I'll need to do one last reading, tend to the front and back material and the cover, decide on the price and who knows what all else, and zowie! Ready to roll.

See you next week.

Writing and waiting

This week, I continued to work on the sequel for half an hour each morning, and I ended up writing some new material, not just editing old stuff. So that was good.

My current proofreader will return Just Like Magic to me on Tuesday. I'd thought I might get it back last week, but my reader needed more time.

My mom keeps asking me when she can buy a copy, though, so I'm still aiming at a late September publication date. We'll see!

Almost ready for the last push

Not much to report this week. I worked more on the sequel, got my book back from one proofer, and passed it on to another.

Yup, that's about it.

It's been so long since I worked much on Just Like Magic (six or seven weeks?) that it all seems distant and vaguely unreal. However, my goal is still to get it published by the end of this month. Which means that I'll have to really get in gear when I get the book back. The Last Push.

Well, except that then there's the e-book formatting push, and the marketing push. But you know. Last Push over the First Mountain.

Goal accomplished

Last week, I said I wanted to transfer what I had written of the sequel into a CreateSpace template and work on it for half an hour every weekday morning.

Mission accomplished!

Yes, I had to get up half an hour earlier each morning. Surprisingly, that wasn't hard to do. (5 a.m. isn't that different from 5:30 a.m.) And I was right about it being easier to write in the morning. I had no trouble writing.

Admittedly, it wasn't first draft writing, it was revising the first few chapters to add elements that I'll need later in the book. But there was a little bit of new stuff, adding those elements. Eventually I'll be ready to tackle writing wholly new chapters.

I have some chapters written that I won't be able to use (because I was heading the plot in a different direction), but I was surprised to find sections in those chapters that I will be able to use. One paragraph made me laugh out loud, which is great, because if it your own writing doesn't make you laugh, why should anyone else laugh? I always want my writing to have... sparkle, life. If it just sits there and goes thud, it's time to get rid of it or revise it. Whether I succeed at that or not is for others to judge, too, but at the very least, I need to like it.

This coming week: 1) I hope to get the proof copy back so I can pass it on to my next reader, and 2) I'll keep working on the sequel.

See you next week!

Looking ahead

I should have ordered two proof copies. Because while someone else is helping proof my book, I can't work on it.

That's the situation now and will be for a couple of weeks. I have one willing victim highly valued volunteer currently reading my book and another lined up for afterwards. Then I'll finish my editing.

But in the meantime -- well, I did take a vacation, but now I'm back. If I'm serious about writing besides publishing this one book, there's plenty I can work on.

For instance: I started writing the sequel to Just Like Magic many years ago, and I have several chapters written. I could insert that material into a CreateSpace template, format it, and generally get inspired to keep working on it.

Then: If I'm going to be writing first drafts, I need to make a regular time for it. That sort of intense writing has never been something I want to do after work, when I'd rather collapse, eat, surf the internet, read, or do something fun. (I actually find formatting manuscripts fun, so I have done a lot of formatting for Just Like Magic in the evenings.) Writing takes more psychic energy (it's scarier), and I'm a morning person. I need to stake out a time each morning to write.

Here's my plan for the week, then. Today I'm going to insert The Wicked Stepsister (that's the sequel's working title) into a template and format it. Monday-Friday this week, I'm going to write from 5:45-6:15 a.m. daily. Half an hour isn't much, but if I also use some of my daily hour of walking to plan how I'll use my writing time, I ought to be able to get a lot done. It all adds up, it really does. Even if I write only two pages a day, five days a week--well, Just Like Magic is about 180 pages long. That's 18 weeks for a rough draft. I can live with that.

Tune in next week to see how it's going!