Want a wonderful formatting tip? (Many thanks, Vickie!) Check out the Smashwords Style Guide by Mark Coker, founder, available for free on the Smashwords site. To get the book, go here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52.
This one thing solved my recent yet long-standing "unfixable" design problems when previewing my PubIt! upload.
TIP:
If the hidden MSWord codes are making your chapter styles erratic during upload, try this trick. Copy your whole novel and paste it into Notepad (found in your Accessories folder within Programs). BEWARE: It is now stripped of all manual coding, like bold, italics, the other crazy hidden stuff we cannot see and swear we did not put there, etc. Yet, in my case, the styles still survived.
Copy the Notepad version, paste it into a new MSWord document and give it a new name, like Novel.v2. And here's the fun part (not): Now put the bold and italics and other formatting back in. Instead of reading the book in toto, I just searched the previous version for italicized wording to save me time.
I don't use bold in my novels, except for when a chapter style is applied, so that was one step I didn't have to fool with.
Then look for all your chapter headings. Even though I used styles with automatic numbering, I was a little surprised they survived the "stripping" process. So when I hit my preset chapter style, instead of the existing one being centered with a larger font, I ended up with two chapter headings. Delete one, so long as the remaining header maintains all your elements: center, consecutive numbering, bold, bigger font, whatever.
Then I applied my page-break styles for my back matter.
If you have charts, bullet points, indented quoted material, or other such whatnots, go fix it.
Yes, a little tedious. But in my particular example, I had already spent forty-plus irritating hours fighting with my chapter headings to make them consistent after each "fix" and another upload--and I was using styles within MSWord.
So what's another two hours when my document is FINALLY acting like it should during Preview, after a successful upload?
And you just cannot appreciate the feeling of getting one
recalcitrant collection of two-hundred-fifty pages under control again.
NOTE: Oh, yeah. Remember that PubIt! has both the regular Nook and the Color Nook now, so your previews can be seen in one or the other. I opted for the regular Nook preview since I figured it would translate "up" better for any Color Nook user, IMO.
Good luck, formatters!
Denise Barker, author + freelance copy editor
Good Ole Boys, a love story
A Copyediting Checklist for Novelists
Showing posts with label Nook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nook. Show all posts
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Friday, March 23, 2012
Manuscript Formatting Tips Before Uploading to Nook
Let me say up-front that I have not yet conquered the beast, but wanted to share some tips with fellow Indie authors. Even though I already have five e-books online at B&N, this particular one I am uploading now is longer, a novel, which compounds the errors to be fixed as I preview my work.
1. Because I recently upgraded to 2010 MSWord, I ended up with my fiction document in "compatible" mode as I tried to upload to B&N. I found hitting "convert" saved some time and left me with less formatting snafus than from my previous tries.
2. Beware of the default within the PubIt! site that lands you in the COLOR Nook preview. Because my offering has no color, except for the cover, and since I'm guessing there are more black-and-white Nooks in use right now than color, I'm working off the older Nook version and will so state in my Description. Although once I get the first "publication ready," then I may see if it simultaneously aligns within the color Nook as well.
3. Styles. Use styles within MSWord. It was the only way I could get a Page Break to stay put so my chapters all ended up on a new page, along with my back matter.
4. Extraneous spaces. I found that a paragraph ending with a period or question mark or closing quote followed by any extra spaces and then the return paragraph symbol lent all sort of havoc to my uploaded preview of my MS. Just a warning here.
And just to be clear, the resulting problem showed up pages before, pages after, no rhyme, no reason.
5. FYI: On one of the LinkedIn communities, I saw a comment that the first paragraph of every chapter should be flush left with the large initial cap on the first word. Yes, this does show up in many of the paperbacks I have in my personal library, no matter which traditional publisher. But, it shows up indented in regular type in others also.
In my freelance copy editor life, I work for a large NYC publishing house with well over thirty individual lines and each one has a particular look (design) assigned to it. Some repeat. Some are different. Some are flush left, large initial cap. Some aren't. I guess I said all that to say this: I'm not sure where I sit on this particular fence. Whatever you decide, make it consistent throughout each of your books.
For now, I'm just trying to get my debut e-novel uploaded to PubIt! without one single glitch. And still working on it. Afterward, I may think about pretty-fying my work with some design elements. Hey, I made all my chapter headings bold, so I'm getting there.
6. Another LinkedIn community complaint was about the double space between sentences. I learned to type on a manual typewriter therefore, yes, I continue to put the double space between sentences when I type anything--a blog, a novel, a letter, a recipe, whatever--and having a dickens of a time untraining myself.
I had to go back and delete the extra space at the end of each sentence in this very blog talking about it. Grrr.
I know. Times have changed. I also know because, as a freelance copy editor, I am very familiar with the Chicago Manual of Style. Per CMS 2.12: Line spacing and word spacing. . . . A single character space, not two spaces, should be left after periods at the ends of sentences . . . .
I'm really trying on that one.
Hopefully this helps you and saves you the hours of frustration I have dealt with every other day this week. The days in between were to regroup.
Should I find out more, I'll report back.
1. Because I recently upgraded to 2010 MSWord, I ended up with my fiction document in "compatible" mode as I tried to upload to B&N. I found hitting "convert" saved some time and left me with less formatting snafus than from my previous tries.
2. Beware of the default within the PubIt! site that lands you in the COLOR Nook preview. Because my offering has no color, except for the cover, and since I'm guessing there are more black-and-white Nooks in use right now than color, I'm working off the older Nook version and will so state in my Description. Although once I get the first "publication ready," then I may see if it simultaneously aligns within the color Nook as well.
3. Styles. Use styles within MSWord. It was the only way I could get a Page Break to stay put so my chapters all ended up on a new page, along with my back matter.
4. Extraneous spaces. I found that a paragraph ending with a period or question mark or closing quote followed by any extra spaces and then the return paragraph symbol lent all sort of havoc to my uploaded preview of my MS. Just a warning here.
And just to be clear, the resulting problem showed up pages before, pages after, no rhyme, no reason.
5. FYI: On one of the LinkedIn communities, I saw a comment that the first paragraph of every chapter should be flush left with the large initial cap on the first word. Yes, this does show up in many of the paperbacks I have in my personal library, no matter which traditional publisher. But, it shows up indented in regular type in others also.
In my freelance copy editor life, I work for a large NYC publishing house with well over thirty individual lines and each one has a particular look (design) assigned to it. Some repeat. Some are different. Some are flush left, large initial cap. Some aren't. I guess I said all that to say this: I'm not sure where I sit on this particular fence. Whatever you decide, make it consistent throughout each of your books.
For now, I'm just trying to get my debut e-novel uploaded to PubIt! without one single glitch. And still working on it. Afterward, I may think about pretty-fying my work with some design elements. Hey, I made all my chapter headings bold, so I'm getting there.
6. Another LinkedIn community complaint was about the double space between sentences. I learned to type on a manual typewriter therefore, yes, I continue to put the double space between sentences when I type anything--a blog, a novel, a letter, a recipe, whatever--and having a dickens of a time untraining myself.
I had to go back and delete the extra space at the end of each sentence in this very blog talking about it. Grrr.
I know. Times have changed. I also know because, as a freelance copy editor, I am very familiar with the Chicago Manual of Style. Per CMS 2.12: Line spacing and word spacing. . . . A single character space, not two spaces, should be left after periods at the ends of sentences . . . .
I'm really trying on that one.
Hopefully this helps you and saves you the hours of frustration I have dealt with every other day this week. The days in between were to regroup.
Should I find out more, I'll report back.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Read Any Good Books Lately?
I have. Two. Yesterday. Having finished one copyediting job and awaiting the next, I had some time to myself. I should have been formatting my debut novel, Good Ole Boys, for Nook but for whatever blasted reason, the last ninety pages are giving me unexplained and as-yet-uncorrectable problems. The first one-hundred-forty pages contained few formatting snafus, easily fixed. Anyway, I set aside all that and decided I needed to escape into someone else's book--preferably someplace with laughter.
So I read (first) A Tale ofTwo 3 Witches by Christiana Miller and Barbra Annino. I loved the quirky cast who came to life really fast and the lighthearted tale. This is a shorter read, taking less than two hours which is great for even 9-to-5ers who get home at 7ish, eat dinner and can finish this funny paranormal tale instead of watching TV, getting to bed before midnight. I will definitely read other offerings from these two entertaining authors.
Making full use of my downtime, I read another. This next one was longer, taking five to six hours to read and I read it nonstop until 2:00 a.m. this morning. The book was Pink Slipper, "a Fun, Flirty Novel" by Gina Robinson. The tag line says it all. Plus I would add that I laughed out loud in three places, which is not usual for me. The whole idea of Leesa, our main character, looking for a job was rather current, useful info for these days, huh? The author's writing style was witty with graceful turns of metaphors. Loved her voice and must read more of her.
IMO, both of these books would garner a PG rating, with very little violence in the first and none in the second. So a wide audience range could enjoy each.
Happy reading, all!
So I read (first) A Tale of
Making full use of my downtime, I read another. This next one was longer, taking five to six hours to read and I read it nonstop until 2:00 a.m. this morning. The book was Pink Slipper, "a Fun, Flirty Novel" by Gina Robinson. The tag line says it all. Plus I would add that I laughed out loud in three places, which is not usual for me. The whole idea of Leesa, our main character, looking for a job was rather current, useful info for these days, huh? The author's writing style was witty with graceful turns of metaphors. Loved her voice and must read more of her.
IMO, both of these books would garner a PG rating, with very little violence in the first and none in the second. So a wide audience range could enjoy each.
Happy reading, all!
Saturday, December 31, 2011
For Me, It Is Indie All the Way - P.S.
One thing I was surprised to hear about was the shelf life for paperback books. One month. Or less. Hardly time to gather a readership for a new name on a book cover. I don't begin to understand this aspect of traditional publishing. From what I gather, the books are "remaindered"--their covers torn off and returned to the publisher. What a waste!
Just another great side effect of going Indie. Those e-books have an infinite shelf life. What I upload this month, should be generating more sales as all twelve months of 2012 tick off the calendar.
I do have plans to publish paperback versions of my e-books down the road. At this point, CreateSpace within Amazon would be the first place I'll investigate. When I'm more actively pursuing that avenue, I'll have more to share.
Plus audio books. I definitely am interested in that medium as I particularly like them while I'm spring cleaning. Since I'm totally in author-plus-freelancer mode again these last couple months (and beyond), I'm not in my car or that would be a great use of driving time as well. Still, this is on my horizon for later.
For me, there is no downside to Indie as I love all the myriad creativity involved. I'm 100% Indie. But you can be 50% Indie if you want, too.
Isn't it great? We have options. There is freedom in having choices.
Just another great side effect of going Indie. Those e-books have an infinite shelf life. What I upload this month, should be generating more sales as all twelve months of 2012 tick off the calendar.
I do have plans to publish paperback versions of my e-books down the road. At this point, CreateSpace within Amazon would be the first place I'll investigate. When I'm more actively pursuing that avenue, I'll have more to share.
Plus audio books. I definitely am interested in that medium as I particularly like them while I'm spring cleaning. Since I'm totally in author-plus-freelancer mode again these last couple months (and beyond), I'm not in my car or that would be a great use of driving time as well. Still, this is on my horizon for later.
For me, there is no downside to Indie as I love all the myriad creativity involved. I'm 100% Indie. But you can be 50% Indie if you want, too.
Isn't it great? We have options. There is freedom in having choices.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
The Amazon Lending Library, One Author's Perspective
I uploaded my debut e-novel, Good Ole Boys, to Amazon, exclusively to the Lending Library for three months. Although I have four other e-books live on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble, this is my first fiction work I have released. While my Amazon sales exceed my B&N sales, maybe it would have been more evenly matched had I offered only e-novels.
But with the knowledge at hand, I opted to enroll this first e-novel of mine in the Lending Library. Obviously that precludes any strictly Nook readers for a season--although they could download a copy to their computer via the Kindle for PC buying option. Still, at the end of the ninety-days of exclusivity, Good Ole Boys will also be offered at B&N.
Plus I plan to put up (soon) my next e-book, "Good Ole Boys: The Prequel," at both online stores.
Granted my initial Amazon enrollment was done midmonth, so I missed an opportunity to be the single free read chosen for December by many Amazon Prime Members just by the later timing of my upload. Still, my baby was not ready until the seventeenth. I'm happy with what went up on that date. Anything before that would not have been "right" enough.
However, there are two things working for me. One, some people are getting their first Kindle under the Christmas tree this year, so I'm expecting further activity December 25 on. Two, as another new name among the throng of beginning and established authors, this is a marketing tool.
Being free to the reader, it remains a cash cow for me. Granted a fluctuating cash flow, much like the stock market, being diluted as more authors opt-in, but alternatively being increased as more of an author's books are borrowed. Gives new meaning to the word "free" from an author's perspective.
Remember, too, that enrollment in Amazon's Lending Library does not preclude a normal sale. It just gives our readers a choice. Those in the Amazon Prime program have a subset of all the book offerings online that are offered to them for free, while they can buy those they wish from the bigger pool of authors.
So, as my experiment continues, I'll report back with any other revelations I garner.
Please keep in mind, this is new to us all--Amazon, the authors, the readers. So if I've misinterpreted anything herein, forgive me. I'll correct any such errors in later posts as my data indicates.
Also note that your e-book, once enrolled, is set to be automatically enrolled for the next ninety-day period unless you uncheck the box. I believe I found that in my Bookshelf, clicking on the Enrollment data/info area and then snooping around there. Just FYI.
In the meantime, keep reading and writing. A well-written entertaining book is a treasure forever.
But with the knowledge at hand, I opted to enroll this first e-novel of mine in the Lending Library. Obviously that precludes any strictly Nook readers for a season--although they could download a copy to their computer via the Kindle for PC buying option. Still, at the end of the ninety-days of exclusivity, Good Ole Boys will also be offered at B&N.
Plus I plan to put up (soon) my next e-book, "Good Ole Boys: The Prequel," at both online stores.
Granted my initial Amazon enrollment was done midmonth, so I missed an opportunity to be the single free read chosen for December by many Amazon Prime Members just by the later timing of my upload. Still, my baby was not ready until the seventeenth. I'm happy with what went up on that date. Anything before that would not have been "right" enough.
However, there are two things working for me. One, some people are getting their first Kindle under the Christmas tree this year, so I'm expecting further activity December 25 on. Two, as another new name among the throng of beginning and established authors, this is a marketing tool.
Being free to the reader, it remains a cash cow for me. Granted a fluctuating cash flow, much like the stock market, being diluted as more authors opt-in, but alternatively being increased as more of an author's books are borrowed. Gives new meaning to the word "free" from an author's perspective.
Remember, too, that enrollment in Amazon's Lending Library does not preclude a normal sale. It just gives our readers a choice. Those in the Amazon Prime program have a subset of all the book offerings online that are offered to them for free, while they can buy those they wish from the bigger pool of authors.
So, as my experiment continues, I'll report back with any other revelations I garner.
Please keep in mind, this is new to us all--Amazon, the authors, the readers. So if I've misinterpreted anything herein, forgive me. I'll correct any such errors in later posts as my data indicates.
Also note that your e-book, once enrolled, is set to be automatically enrolled for the next ninety-day period unless you uncheck the box. I believe I found that in my Bookshelf, clicking on the Enrollment data/info area and then snooping around there. Just FYI.
In the meantime, keep reading and writing. A well-written entertaining book is a treasure forever.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
2011 NaNoWriMo Stats
These are courtesy of the NaNo blog at http://blog.lettersandlight.org/post/13851021182, but partially recited here because I had mentioned wanting these numbers in an earlier posting of my own. Here's the pertinent scoop:
General Stats Round Up!
For NaNoWriMo main [does not include Young Writers Program]:
- 256,618 participants, up roughly 28% from 2010’s total of 200,530 writers.
- We wrote a total of 3,074,068,446 words, up 7% from 2010’s collective word count of 2,872,682,109.
- This averaged out to 11,979 words per person!
- We had 36,774 winners, giving us a 14% win rate!
Top 50 NaNoWriMo Cities (according to Google Analytics, based on number of November visits from these fine places)
- New York 77,947
- London 62,286
- Seattle 55,205
- Toronto 46,413
- Sydney 46,390
- Los Angeles 45,806
- Chicago 42,720
- Melbourne 40,588
- Portland 38,898
- Denver 37,972
- San Francisco 36,808
- Minneapolis 28,521
- Austin 28,095
- Houston 25,863
- Washington 25,812
- Brisbane 23,033
- Calgary 22,294
- Edmonton 21,618
- Ottawa 21,583
- San Diego 19,815
- Helsinki 19,793
- (not set) 19,435
- Phoenix 18,556
- Salt Lake City 18,347
- Vancouver 18,082
- Boston 17,850
- Philedelphia 17,664
- Columbus 17,558
- Tucson 17,551
- Kensington 17,262
- Ballinger 16,159
- Dublin 16,022
- Dallas 15,761
- Albuquerque 15,069
- Perth 14,949
- St Louis 14,910
- Auckland 14,873
- Edinburgh 14,575
- Montreal 14,260
- Singapore 13,993
- Colorado Springs 13,933
- Indianapolis 13,680
- Manchester 13,549
- Adelaide 13,477
- Sacramento 13,256
- San Antonio 13,170
- Atlanta 13,065
- Grand Rapids 12,939
- San Jose 12,925
- Madison 12,650
- United States 3,605,003
- United Kingdom 508,260
- Canada 385,383
- Australia 160,936
- Germany 99,752
- Netherlands 66,174
- Finland 51,164
- France 44,186
- Sweden 41,244
- New Zealand 32,109
- Norway 21,368
- Ireland 21,365
- Philippines 20,333
- Spain 18,887
- Denmark 15,888
- Japan 15,859
- Singapore 14,007
- South Africa 13,861
- Austria 13,436
- India 12,828
- Belgium 12,494
- Mexico 11,762
- (not set) 11,483
- Brazil 11,170
- Italy 10,820
- Portugal 10,261
- Poland 9,711
- South Korea 9,685
- Switzerland 8,956
- Indonesia 6,918
- Malaysia 6,618
- Israel 6,014
- Hungary 5,945
- Latvia 5,303
- China 4,665
- Romania 4,454
- Greece 4,262
- Russia 3,943
- Hong Kong 3,799
- Croatia 3,135
- Argentina 3,067
- United Arab Emirates 3,021
- Puerto Rico 2,949
- Thailand 2,719
- Estonia 2,655
- Taiwan 2,457
- Turkey 2,089
- Ukraine 1,974
- Czech Republic 1,914
- Malta 1,850
How fun was that?!? We’ll be adding top wordiest regions by total word count and by average words written per Wrimo, too.
- - -
I look forward to seeing the wordiest regions stats and will report them here when I know.
NaNo is a force. A power. A blessing. And lives on past November each year.
Monday, October 3, 2011
No e-reader? No problem . . .
For those without a Kindle or Nook or other such e-reader, do not despair. You can download for free the computer version from Amazon or Barnes & Noble and read e-books on your laptop, via the "Kindle for PC" and the "Nook for PC" options.
P.S. Then when you purchase books therefrom, your e-book selections should be for the PC reader and another window post-purchase will connect you to your computer-resident collection. Thereafter, you can access your library of e-books via the icon that will appear on your desktop.
P.S. Then when you purchase books therefrom, your e-book selections should be for the PC reader and another window post-purchase will connect you to your computer-resident collection. Thereafter, you can access your library of e-books via the icon that will appear on your desktop.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
I Have a Theory . . .
I am not an expert. I am only speaking from my own experience and data gathered as a result of the inquisitive right hemisphere of my brain. So keep that in mind as you read on.
First, I currently have three nonfiction How-To e-books on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The first two were uploaded March 27, 2011. So none have been posted for three full months yet. Still, I see some cause-and-effect events already.
Per my intuition, I need six books offered to increase sales as this number seems to perpetuate itself. Granted, I am not yet living this theory to test it, but look at Joe Konrath for one example. Check out his A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing blog at http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/. And of course there is Amanda Hocking. A quick search of Amazon.com shows ten books by Ms. Hocking.
Alternatively, Lisa Turner’s debut novel A Little Death in Dixie remains at the #1 spot in Kindle e-books even with the $0.99 sale price now upped to $9.39.
But I’m comparing apples to oranges here, with those novels against my nonfiction. With one novel gaining success as versus my theoretical six needed. Still, I maintain most authors will do well with six.
Somehow I think novels sell better than nonfiction but don’t ask me how I “know” this—my gut just tells me it is so. Still I AM selling my nonfiction, even in this depressed economy. However, I am anxious to launch one of my “finished” novels. I just need a couple uninterrupted months’ time to give it the extreme polish of a final edit. Don’t we all.
Okay. So now to the nuances of e-publishing.
After eight sales, I noticed my rankings within my particular genre (self-help, entrepreneur, etc.) may have been lower—due to more e-books being uploaded daily for sale—but that my overall ranking with each purchase within the Kindle Paid Store made my rankings climb higher. It seems that the eight-sales-mark graduates the author into the next tier, if you will.
If you will check out Author Central on Amazon, it states there are over 750,000 books in the Kindle Store. Some other articles I found via an internet search indicate there are over 950,000 books offered in the Kindle Store. Regardless, making just eight sales seems to put my rankings in the top one-third of the lesser total of 750,000 books. Not bad.
Then there is the 1,000-sales club offered within Amazon/Kindle that seems to cause its own promotion of your book within Amazon. Great! Any time Amazon wants to market my books for me, I am ecstatic. I look forward to the day when I can report ALL my books have exceeded the 1,000 mark in sales.
The Amazon site does offer avenues for self-promoting with its Kindle Boards and other routes. I’m focusing on my writing and excluding all but the bare basics of marketing at this point. I call it the Grand Experiment.
So, what should you get from all this?
First, becoming published is just a matter of YOU deciding. You can upload your JPEG cover and your Word document within a few hours (allowing you time to preview your Kindle conversion and fix any bad page breaks or strange symbols found). Yes, even your first one should be done, depending on the book’s length, within three to five hours.
Second, only eight sales pop you from the newest-addition-to-the-as-yet-to-be-sold Kindle books to the top thirty-three percent sold.
Third, as you get other books converted and available for purchase, you ARE self-promoting just by the sheer number of titles that carry your name. More chance of you being found via a search engine outside of Amazon even.
Fourth, the more time you let pass, the earnings seem to creep up (at first). From a few authors’ articles on Indie publishing, it seems around months six to nine is when they broke through to compounded sales—either via ramped-up marketing efforts or a drop in the price from $2.99 to $0.99.
So, finish those books. Decide you are not only an author but a publisher and upload to both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Validate your writing by e-book sales. Let them percolate along for a few months, cooking up a growing readership for you.
Then share with all of us how you did it!
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