Ta-da!
Shinny's Girls, the trilogy is now available to e-readers!
It is finished, yet does not feel complete, so I ask, what now? In the past when I have published a book, a package arrives in the mail - the author's copies - and the pleasure of fruition is sensual, the smell of the newly printed book, the feel of the smooth cover, sometimes even a slight crackle as the top copy pulls away from the one just beneath. This time, my first experience with e publishing, it was a matter of pressing the Save and Publish button on the Kindle Direct site, and waiting 12 hours for the book to be vetted (however mysteriously that is accomplished) before seeing the book cover, blurb and ordering information appear on the Amazon site. A little anti-climatic, if still satisfying to have come to this point in the long creation of this volume.
I found out the hard way that one must meticulously follow every step in the formatting guide, rather than winging it more or less logically to achieve the same end, in this case, indents. After the first attempt I made with the aid of my mentor Steve Harlow, I discovered that although I thought I had formatted correctly, manual tabbing was not acceptable, so I spent a day and a half manually removing all the tabs and creating first line indents for the whole document via the paragraph menu.
At this point, if this were a paper book, the publisher would be sending it to newspapers, magazines and broadcasters for reviews. There would be a book launch, possibly a tour, readings, signings. I would register my new title in the Public Lending Right program and with Access Copyright. It might be nominated for a literary prize. (Is there one for perseverance?)
Over the next several months I will discover more about the next steps, have some answers for the "what now?" But as of this week, my feet are officially wet.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DKCZKFU
Shinny's Girls, the trilogy is now available to e-readers!
It is finished, yet does not feel complete, so I ask, what now? In the past when I have published a book, a package arrives in the mail - the author's copies - and the pleasure of fruition is sensual, the smell of the newly printed book, the feel of the smooth cover, sometimes even a slight crackle as the top copy pulls away from the one just beneath. This time, my first experience with e publishing, it was a matter of pressing the Save and Publish button on the Kindle Direct site, and waiting 12 hours for the book to be vetted (however mysteriously that is accomplished) before seeing the book cover, blurb and ordering information appear on the Amazon site. A little anti-climatic, if still satisfying to have come to this point in the long creation of this volume.
I found out the hard way that one must meticulously follow every step in the formatting guide, rather than winging it more or less logically to achieve the same end, in this case, indents. After the first attempt I made with the aid of my mentor Steve Harlow, I discovered that although I thought I had formatted correctly, manual tabbing was not acceptable, so I spent a day and a half manually removing all the tabs and creating first line indents for the whole document via the paragraph menu.
Over the next several months I will discover more about the next steps, have some answers for the "what now?" But as of this week, my feet are officially wet.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DKCZKFU