The Formatting for Paperback Saga

Time for another round of Writerly Tasks that do not involve writing.  Today's topic: the Formatting For Paperback Saga*.  

I know I mentioned something about this a couple months ago, but my paperback formatting was all fudged up and I didn't even think to check it until recently.  I assumed (ASS-umed) that when Amazon took over Createspace that all of my books would be just as well-formatted as they had been when I originally did all that crap with CS.  Nope nope nope.  Oh, the internal stuff seemed like it was fine.  The covers, however, were a disaster.  

And the thing was that all my covers appear to be fine at first glance.  I scroll down the list and they all look hunky-dory.  When I go into the paperback setup portion and scroll down there, they looked pretty okay, too.  Until I noticed that the graphic was only showing the front cover and it was the cover for my ebook.  Ummmmmm.  Then I'd go into the preview thing and the covers were farqed up.  Blerg.

Now, this wasn't really a pressing issue because I don't get more than one or two paperback sales a year.  Then it occurred to me that anyone wanting to purchase a paperback would look at the preview and plainly see the cover was toast and then not buy, because who wants to chance paying for a book when the cover is fucked.  

Even then, though, I dragged my feet.  It takes about ten minutes per cover to just get it uploaded.  Then I was running into fresh hell after uploading my cover PDF.  It would be the exact same file I used for Createspace, but Amazon wasn't sizing it down to fit, so my preview would show like one CORNER of the whole cover as the whole cover.  Back out of that, go into the cover creator, upload the cover again (another ten minutes), work with all that, and then finally submit.  Lather, rinse, repeat - 17 times.  Frankly, it was more of a hassle than I was ready to deal with.

Until yesterday.  Yesterday, I sat down here and got to work.  I got all but the genie books done.  Those will get done sometime today, good lord willin' and the internet doesn't go down entirely.  

So, anyway, it'll get done.  Once it's done, and all my books get approved by Amazon, I'll be back in business.  For now, though, I'd hold off on buying paperbacks from me.  (Except for Accidental Death, Natural Causes, Project Hermes, and Song of Storm and Shroud - I did those back in June and they're good to go.)

I think I said this before, but it bears repeating - if you trusted on the transition from Createspace to Amazon to go smoothly, check your books.  They might be fine.  Then again, they might be tragically un-fine.  Either way, it's worth a look.

*Please bear in mind that you experience is probably not as much of a PITA as mine because I'm guessing you have better internet than I do.  

Sunday Update 9/15/24

 It's Sunday and I'm actually awake before 6.  Winner winner.  

This week in writing was fairly uneventful.  I only wrote once for a total of 1539 words.  This is what falling off the writing horse looks like.  Derp.  I only edited a couple of days, too.  I'm up to 16% on my edit notes.  I need a good ass kicking and I'm just the gal to do it. :shrug:  We'll see.  I'll need a lot more coffee before I can accomplish anything more than talk.

I didn't do much in the way of marketing until yesterday.  Natural Causes is free right now, so I did posts in all the FB groups.  I moved 41 copies so far.  I need to wait until after 7am to do another round because I did not get up any earlier than that yesterday.  Which kind of has a wave effect making every day's posts a little later until I just end up doing one night post and missing a day.  With the marketing I've been doing since June, I've made about double what I made from January to May.  So I've got that goin' for me.

No reading.

I don't think I talked about baking last week, but I've been doing a lot of it.  Week before last, I made applesauce bars (meh), and breaded pork chops (yum), chocolate cookies (yay), and pizza (woohoo).  This past week, I made applesauce bread (yum) and oatmeal jam bars (yum).

Activity... Well, I did the window washing thing.  That was a lot of work and I paid for it.  I also walked three times for a total of 3.2 miles.  Weight... blerg.  You cannot lose weight, even if you're walking a lot, if you're also baking a lot.  Suffice it to say, I'm up almost three pounds.  :eyeroll:  I'm not really at a point where I'm really giving a hoot about how much I weigh, but if I keep adding poundage, I'll reach that point extra quick.  I gain weight and my legs start hurting and my back starts being a turd and my frontal area expansion gets problematic.  Best to worry about the weight now than face the consequences later.

Oh, oh, oh... one thing I did was something I've been procrastinating about for months.  I loaded my graphics software onto this computer.  I was so afraid of it not working with Windows 10, I didn't even try.  Long story short, it works fine.  I mean, as fine as it did through the last couple of operating system upgrades.  Which is fine enough for what I need.  So, yay.  I can start making graphics and book covers again.  Woohoo. 

Oh, another happy thing... I had somebody actually buy a paperback copy of Project Hermes.  Well, she asked for a copy of BloodFlow because she was looking at old marketing materials and I took one to her because I don't have any paperbacks of Project Hermes on hand right now.  It all worked out.  She was happy to get it and I was happy to get it to her.  I really need to create new marketing materials - which I can do now that I have the software loaded.  Squee.  

Another thing of note, we have a young armadillo hanging around the yard.  I have name him Aloysius. Aloysius Q. Armadillo.  He's all new looking.  Fresh off the factory floor, so to speak.  And so cute.  I hope he stays out of the road.  Around here, I see a lot of armadillos creamed alongside the road, so fingers crossed little Al doesn't meet the same fate.

The fawns are getting big.  The does are getting impatient.  The bucks are losing their velvet and starting to spar.  The rut is fast approaching.  Which leads to hunting season.  As always, I hope none of our deer regulars get harvested.  The herd needs to get culled, but I'd miss Sissy and Sonny and Lumpy.  

I think that's about all I have to talk about this morning.  Besides, I need another smoke and more coffee so I can greet the day with more than a sneer.  

How are things in your world?

Saturday Reading Wrap-up 9/14/24

Here we are at the Saturday Reading Wrap-up.  Wee.  Unfortunately, not a lot to talk about from the past two weeks.  I've been using my Kindle and my brain-power to work on my own fiction, so not a lot leftover for reading other people's.  

No new books.

Books Read:

22) Biker Funeral by Jamie Mason (8/31/24)  - Hard-boiled Crime*# - 5 stars.  New to me and underappreciated.  I picked this up for free from the Reading Deals newsletter.
Review: "Fast paced story with plenty of twists and turns. I really enjoyed it."

No DNFs.

Currently reading... well, nothing really.  I'm deep into edits.  I'll probably grab a hardcopy something and start that today or tomorrow.

What have you been up to reading-wise?

Short Attention Span Theatre

I have a dreadfully short attention span these days.  Well, for anything but writing.  Even then, I can only manage about an hour to an hour and a half before I run out of steam.  I could blame the cats.  They're very distracting.  Except when they're sleeping.  But it's really not the cats.  This is on me.  Oh, I can focus when I need to.  I do have that ability.  If there's a task I need to address, I can give it my whole attention.  When the task is complete, though, all bets are off.  :shrug:

Why do I mention distraction?  Because I can't seem to put together one whole cogent post on a single topic.  Hence the randomosity, this n that posts.  It's probably why I can't sleep either.  My brain is bouncing from one thing to the next and not leaving any time to focus on sleeping.  Boing boing boing... splat.  

Like I said, I am managing to focus on the writing for like an hour at a time.  I could probably do more, but that's about when my wrists and fingers cry uncle anyway.  I say 'okee, fine' and wander off.  

I managed to stay focused on the window cleaning thing for 4 hours.  That was more a matter of 'I want to get this done' than actual focus.  It's also not really brain activity either.  

People might suggest that I have ADHD.  I wouldn't be surprised at that diagnosis.  I just refuse the label.  I'm not really big on labels.  They're itchy and uncomfortable.  I gotta me and I gotta be free.  :breaks into song:

I really do need to find some focus today, though.  I have a list of tasks that I really should've completed already and more new tasks are dropping onto the list every day, while few are dropping off.  So, I'm going to commit to getting the following done today... or at least before Monday:

- Re-uploading the rest of my paperbacks, and fixing the cover files so that the book doesn't look like crap if anyone should ever actually want to buy one.  

Crap, I lost my train of thought, so I can't remember what else I need to get done.  Let's leave it at that for now.  I really really need to finish that project.  I started it in June for petesakes. Get 'er done.  

Oh, and before I forget... NATURAL CAUSES will be free starting tomorrow.  If I remember to market the damn thing, I'll be ahead of the game.

:wanders off:

Thursday This n That

Why is it that when I do anything super-active, the aftereffects don't fully hit me until the day after the day after?  I felt pretty darn good yesterday after Monday's window washing marathon.  Today?  No so much.  Blerg

Monday's window washing marathon... It all started at 8:30 with the thought that since it was cold I could finally tackle that wasp's nest in the window space with the broken screen.  I was just going to pop out the screen and the storm window and knock that thing out.  I had planned on worrying about the cleaning part later.  Then I didn't.  I went after that window and the next and the... well, you get the point.  5 good-sized windows, 4 with screens and storms.  5 window wells that were full of crap  - leaves and dust and dead bugs, etc.  All of it needing a good cleaning.  Then Hubs caught the same bug I had and he did the parts that can only be reached from outside with a ladder.  (These windows are easily 10-15 feet off the ground.)  We finished about 12:30.  That was just the sunroom.  I still have the rest of the house to do.  Not that day.  Not yesterday either and today ain't lookin' too good.  

I derailed on writing this book.  I think I'm thinking too much.  I need to just sit and write, and when I come to something that takes a lot of thought and/or research, I need to skip it and move on.  Maybe tonight that'll happen.  We'll see.

On the bright side, I'm making headway on the first round edits of the other book.  Yay.

As the election approaches, my mood is taking a shit.  Yesterday, I reminded myself that there is nothing I can do about any of it.  I'll vote, for whatever good that'll do, and what happens after that is out of my power.  I need to focus on the things I can do here in my own life and not let all of THAT get to me.

Well, I think that's about all I've got this morning.  Have a great day.

Deep Thoughts for a Tuesday

"If you have to apologize for something more than once, it's a behavior.  Don't apologize, change the behavior," I say to myself as I get ready to type 'I'm sorry' once again for not posting regularly.  Derp.

I'm seeing things around the webz that make me go 'Hmm'.  (And yes, I did have this song in mind when I wrote that.)  A lot of the things have to do with politics.  Some of the things have to do with writing or publishing.  They all make me scratch my head and wonder what the hell is wrong with people.

I saw a funny meme that I wanted to share, but FB had removed it between the time it showed up in my newsfeed and when I went to share it.  Why?  Probably because it actually spelled out the word Fucking instead of replacing the U with a *.  Means the same thing, derpy dudes.  Everyone from like 3rd grade on up knows what the f*cking means, so why be all 'oh my goodness, I need a fainting couch' about it?

Personally, I'm more offended by rampant stupidity than by swearing.  

People who use till to mean until instead of 'til irritate me.  You're shortening a word.  Use the apostrophe - don't add another letter to the end.  =op

Yesterday, I was watching that 'after the first 48' show.  (Not sure of the name, too lazy to look.)  There was this lady whose son was shot down in cold blood.  Her oldest son had been killed the same way a couple years before.  She was actually advocating for the man who murdered her second son to get leniency because she could tell he was really remorseful.  Derp.  Oh, well, she's still got two other sons.  They'll probably die in some violent crime, too, because it's attitudes like hers that keep the cycle going.  

Justice = equal treatment across the board. For EVERYONE. You get the same treatment as I do as Johnny Celebrity does as Percy Poorfolk does.  Know justice, know peace.  Ya know?

I'm full of piss and vinegar this morning. LOL, I'm actually in a pretty good mood.  I'm jus' sayin'.

Sunday Update 9/8/24

 Good Morning.  I'm not quite awake yet, but here goes...

I got a wild idea and starting writing another book this week.  I'm 3729 words in.  The original idea was that this would be the third Duke Noble book, but I'm starting to think this would be better as the second Duke Noble, which would then shift the book I just finished writing, and am now editing, to #3.  We'll see.  

Also, I've been working a little on phase one of the edits for TTW (Duke #2... err 3).  I haven't gotten very far - only at 4% - but I'm working on it.  I think I already have like 3 pages of notes.  

I tried to do some marketing this week because SSS was on sale, but that was :sad trombone:, so I stopped.  I did sell a copy of it to someone in the UK, so not a total waste.  Also, I gave a gal at the bank one of my bookmarks and she wants a copy of BloodFlow (yeah, it's Project Hermes now, but the bookmark was old and that's the only copy I have on hand right now, so it works).  I'll get that to her later this week.  I really need to make some new marketing materials.  Blerg.

Reading...  We-ell... I did finish one book last Saturday, but I forgot to do a wrap-up yesterday, so I'll throw it on next week's.  I don't expect that to be very exciting, though, because I'm currently using my Kindle to edit and I haven't picked out a hardcopy to read while I'm writing and editing.  Derp.

On the activity front, I started out the week pretty good.  I got in three walks for almost three and a half miles.  Then I got sluggish and meh.  No walkies for the past three days, unless you count walking around the Wallyworld.  We won't talk about weight.  K?

Friday, on my way to do the shopping, I stopped in at the old office because I saw the truck for the one guy I never got to hug goodbye.  I got me some hugs from him and from my faux little brother.  Yay.  I do miss my guys.  And some of the customers.  Anyway, I chatted with people and stuff, which was nice.  And I finally remembered to take my big, metal, outdoor ashtray with me. Yay.

The deer are starting to turn gray.  The fawns are getting big and them what are boys are starting to get their antler nubs.  Lumpy's fawn is a buck.  He's the biggest fawn of them all.  Big boy.  Wuff.

Okay, that's about all the news that's fit to print here.  How are things in your world?

Thursday This n That

I'm having a tough time remembering what day it is anymore.  Yay... I guess.  I mean, it sorta means I'm forgetting the day job, which is good, right?  Unfortunately, I did dream about the job yesterday, so I'm not entirely out of it yet.

The other day we heard this strange thumping noise outside and went to see what it was.  A doe was kicking the crap out of one of the water pans.  She looked pissed, but I think she was just having a gay old time.  Silly deer.

Out for a walk, I stumbled across a new-to-me snake.  It was an eastern hognose snake.  It flattened itself out and rose up like a cobra, but it's totally harmless.  Ooo, big mean snake... I'd better stay away. LOL  I left it alone and went on my merry way.  

My sale is going bust.  I haven't really been marketing it much, though, so partly my fault.  But when I go through the trouble of marketing on the first day and I get no hits whatsoever, it's kinda hard to keep going.  I need some kind of positive reinforcement.  One sale?  Maybe?  Throw me a bone. LOL  I'll do something different next week.  Maybe make Natural Causes free and see if it encourages anyone to buy Accidental Death.  We'll see.

Okay, so I was watching a true-crime show on Monday that gave me an idea for my next Duke Noble, so I've been hitting that hard.   It's at 3323 words as of last night.  It's turning into a SepNoWriMo.  I'm going to write every day this month, too.  Yay.  I've also sent Duke #2 to my Kindle and I'm working on editing that during the day.  Not a lot of progress to report there yet, but yay.  I'm back baby.  

Lumpy's new fawn - Speedy - is a buck.  He's got little nubs that are just starting to show.  Aww.  He's also the biggest fawn we have out there right now.  He's gonna be amazing.  Her last buck fawn - Sonny - is a big ol' buck now and he's only 3.  I hope he survives hunting season.

Yesterday, Hubs and I went to town and left the Boyz running free in the house.  We got home to find our coatrack knocked over.  Naughty kitties.  They were both hiding under the bed - whether because the metal coatrack scared them or because they heard us and thought they were going to get a scolding, I don't know.  The coatrack is now in the spare room where they can't mess with it.  Thankfully, no kitties were injured.  That thing is heavy and could've easily broken a kitty when it fell over.

Okay, I think I've about random-ed myself out.  Have a great day out there, folks, and feel free to leave a comment, if the mood strikes ya.  

Where Do Ideas Come From?

I missed posting yesterday.  No excuses.  I mean, I don't celebrate Labor Day (don't get me started on that), so it wasn't like I was doing anything.  I basically just laid around watching TV.  In the afternoon, I made applesauce bars - which turned out really more like sheet cake.  Tasty but not exciting, so I won't make those again.  I also sent TTW to my Kindle so I could start editing, and I did a little of that.  Then late evening, we finished watching a true crime show and an idea hit me while we were out having our post-show smokes.  I finished my cigarette, marched right over to this desk and started typing.  881 words later it was time for bed and I had run myself out of steam.  

When people ask where ideas come from, it's basically that... something sparks an idea that I believe I can work into a book.  Sometimes, I fail at turning it into a story that I can complete, but usually with some effort, I succeed.  A book is born and all that.  At least that's how it works for me.  Your mileage may vary.

Song of Storm and Shroud started out as a dream.  It doesn't resemble the dream at all anymore, but I never would've written it if I hadn't had this really interesting fantasy-themed dream.  You know the kind with characters and plot and setting, etc.  That kind.  I woke up and wrote down the idea.  Like I said, the book didn't come out anything like the original idea, but sometimes it works like that.

The first book I finished (Fear Itself - not yet published) came alive after I watched a couple of 'space rock will destroy the world' movies.  I sat down at my computer and started writing, and nine months later TADA.

Accidental Death was born out of a fear I had sitting at home waiting for Hubs to come home from a meeting.  It combined with some other ideas I had and a storyline was born.

My brain likes to explore possibilities, even when I'm not trying to come up with story ideas.  It meanders all the paths.  I think this is why I have deja vu so often.  With my brain exploring all the possibilities, I'm bound to eventually actually experience one or something similar to one.  Anyway, that's probably where the majority of my book ideas come from.  What if...? and all that.  

What if a woman was so focused on all the imagined wrong in her past that when she is actually wronged, she decides to pay back everyone who ever hurt her?  What if the person assigned to hunt her down is terrified of the means she uses to commit these murders?  Voila... Dying Embers.

See?  

"Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don't see any." - Orson Scott Card

I don't see five or six ideas every day.  Thank goodness for that or I'd probably go insane trying to write them all.  I'd never get anything done either.  I'm content with an idea here or there.  I'm happy when I can come up with one when I need it.  The others?  They get jotted down in my ideas document and they're there if I'm ever at a loss for what to write next.  That hasn't happened in a while, but like I said, they're there if I need them.

What about you?  Are you inundated with ideas?  If you're not a writer, what do you do with them?  Seriously.  I'm curious.  If you're a writer, I'm pretty sure I know what you do with yours.  Keep doing it.  

Sunday Update 9/1/24

Good Morning.  It's a whole new month, but let's wrap-up the old month, eh?

I didn't do anything writerly last week.  (That kinda reminds me of the scene in History of the World, Part One when Mel Brooks' character is applying for unemployment as a stand-up philosopher - "Did you bullshit last week?")  I did think about what I'm going to be doing next and the odds-on favorite is another Duke Noble.  I mean, from a sales standpoint, if I can crank out a bunch of these in a row, they'll sell better.  At least, that's the theory.  My other thought is doing the next book in the Shroudlands series.  I would need to start over, of course.  What I've already written isn't thrilling me.

I didn't do any marketing last week other than to set up a sale that starts today.  This morning, I hit all the FB Groups with the following ad: "For the first time ever, get my epic YA fantasy - SONG OF STORM & SHROUD - for only 99c.  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09W745M6P"  Not the most scintillating marketing copy I've ever written, but I had just gotten up and the coffee hadn't kicked in yet.  Anyway, the sale goes through to the end of Saturday, so if you haven't read SSS yet, now's the time.

And hey, if you've ever read any of my books and liked them, if you could drop a review at Amazon, I would be eternally grateful.  Poor SSS only has one review.  =o( (On the brightside, it's a 5-star )

In reading news... well, you can go to yesterday's post for most of that.  I did finish another book yesterday, but that'll be on next week's wrap-up.

On the activity front, I got in 3 walks for just over 3 miles and I vacuumed the entire house (which is no mean feat).  I also ate like a horse, so the weight went up - Weight: 171.4

I made more pizza.  Hubs thinks I've achieved 'professional pizza' status.  I should've taken a picture so you can bask in the glory that is my homemade pizza.  There's still one piece left, which by rights belongs to Hubs.  If he doesn't eat it today, though, all bets are off.

This week, I noticed several message requests on FB.  They were all scammers wanting to sell me publishing services.  I've never had that happen before, so I guess I've arrived.  LOL  (Yes, they're all blocked now, but I didn't delete the messages.  They're kinda funny.)

Okay, well, I guess that's it for me today.  If I think of anything else important, I'll add it later.  Time for more coffee.  And maybe a walk.  have a great day.  Oh, and if you're so inclined, leave a comment and let me know how your week went.