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Sunday, October 23, 2011

What I did wrong publishing my kindle book

     Last weekend I published my book, Confessions of an Internet Pornographer, as a kindle book on Amazon.com.

     That’s right, it’s finally published! It looks beautiful, but the experience was full of pitfalls. Maybe it’s just scarier to publish in the same month as Halloween.  I really did naively think that I would just be able to upload my files and it would appear on Amazon. Why not? I’ve been writing the book for 12 years and it looks perfect as a Word document. But there were things I was seriously unaware of.
     The first thing wrong: For the last 12 years I used the space button to indent every first sentence of every paragraph. It looked great, until I uploaded my files and previewed my book for the kindle. Every first sentence, in every paragraph of my 283 page novel, was not indented! I’ll be honest, I considered publishing it like that, but after not finding ONE book whose paragraphs were not indented, I had to find a cure.  
     I tried to use the “indent” button to move the first sentence of each paragraph. I was ready to indent each and every one, but it moved the entire paragraph not just the first sentence. Thank God I have Microsoft Publisher; it allowed me to indent the first line without affecting the whole paragraph. I did not have to spend weeks changing, and probably screwing up, every paragraph in my book. The “select all” button allowed me to change every paragraph with one press of a button.  Publisher saved the day!
     The second thing that went wrong: When I created my pages I used the “Enter” button to end my chapters and continue writing on the next page. Apparently I've spent years writting in a fool’s paradise.

      In order for your pages to look right on the kindle, you must use page breaks after the title page, copyright page, dedication page, chapter page (if any), and after the end of every chapter.
     The third thing that went wrong: Fucking misspellings!  After editing the book 22 times I still found spelling errors. I was editing up to the last minute. My wife’s read it 4 times, and she missed stuff too. I can only hope it’s perfect.

      The only thing you can do with this is keep re-editing and give it to a trusted friend to read. Someone else MUST read it. There is always someone. You can imagine how close to the vest I’ve had to be after writting a book entitled, Confessions of an Internet Pornographer. My choices for a smart trustworthy beta reader were very limited.
     Last but not least: When you “look inside this book” on Amazon the text of my book is green!

      I called Amazon’s tech support to learn how to change it to black. The support rep told me that she did not know how to fix it. She had never seen anyone’s text come out green before. I looks weird but kind of cool at the same time.  My wife keeps reminding me it’s good luck because it is the color of money.
     These are all the things that went wrong when I published my book on the kindle. I wanted to share my mistakes with you in the hopes you’ll be better prepared than I was. And don’t worry Amazon’s instructions are great and easy to follow. The final product looks fantastic.
     I hope you’ll all go check out my store on Amazon, and buy my book! Come back and tell me what you think about the story.

     Until next time, even after publishing my first e-book, I continue to write in the wind. Until we speak again. 

      Wish me luck, I am about to publish it in paperback!

      Lucho

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

If the whole world were listening, what would you say?

Hi everyone!

     This blog is a continuation of the talk I had with my big brother at the Hawk's Cay Resort in Little Duck Key over the summer. My brother is also an amateur writer, and we were discussing what our next novels should be about.
  
  He asked me a very interesting question I want to share with all of you. He said, "If you want to know what your next novel is about. Ask yourself one question: If everyone in the world, EVERYONE, stopped what they were doing for 5 minutes to listen to you, what would you say?" Would you give them advice, tell a story, give them a warning or just complain for 5 minutes.

     I want all of you writers out there, all artists in general, to consider that idea. What you would say if the entire English speaking world were to listen to YOU for just 5 minutes. Would you read them your book? Why not? Isn't your book the story you want to tell the world if you had its full attention? Would you read them your novel, or something else?

     Is your novel conveying a message, or telling a story, the whole world needs to hear? If it isn't the story you would tell, maybe you should be writing something else.

     My novel is about my experiences as the webmaster of fantasiesonline.com. My family and I worked so hard to build and run a site, that I wrote the book so that the world would know the blood, sweat, and tears we spilled to make our little business.

So what are you writing? Are you going to make the planet laugh, cry or wonder? As you continue to work on your novels, ask yourself questions.

 My next topic will be about some of the wonderful FREE resources I'm using for the publication of my book, like the great cafepress.com

Don't forget my novel, Confessions of an Internet Pornographer will be published this week! I was hoping to publish it September 29th but my wife got gastroenteritis, ouch!!! We spent the evening, of our 29th anniversary, in the ER of our local hospital. But all systems are go. Please look for it this Friday on Amazon.com, it'll will retail for $4.99. I hope you'll buy a copy then come back and tell me what you think.
Thank you for reading my post. We'll talk again soon, until then I will continue writing into the wind..

Lucho