Two Outta Three

I'm an early adopter. This is both a good and a bad thing. Or it can be.

I was one of the first people to join Kindle Worlds. It's an Amazon property that allows you to sell licensed fan fiction. The royalty structure is based on the length of the work and their rules, but it's a decent way to earn some extra change.

And I do mean 'change'.

One of my novellas recently sold three copies. My royalties on those three copies combined is a cool $1.92. It's $1.99 to buy. So I get around $0.60 a sale. About a 32% royalty. Again, not bad, especially if you're selling lots of copies.

These little novellas are quick and fairly easy for me, plus I don't really talk about or market them ever. People seem to stumble upon them.

Also, these are eBooks only and won't accept a lot of fancy formatting. Even some of the formatting I normally do for Kindle freaks out Kindle Worlds. Downside? It's a Kindle Exclusive. You can't upload those works anywhere else for sale. It's all in the fine print agreement.

So, two outta three.

I'm working on polishing off a trilogy for The Vampire Diaries called Dead Ringer. The main premise behind it is what if Elena Gilbert had a sister? Twist... said sister looks very much like her but isn't a doppelganger. Also, said sister knows about Elena, but Elena knows nothing about her.

The first novella, Splintered Shadow, takes place at the beginning of Season Three, starting with Elena's 18th birthday party. The timing works since (spoiler) Elena's biological father died at the end of Season Two. This is the reason that her half-sister comes to town: to find out what happened to John Gilbert.

I just put the sequel through the beginning of the vetting process today. There's relief, excitement, and then panic ("Oh, shit, I need to finish the third one!"). 

So, trilogy is two-thirds complete with Blind Betrayal. Which means I have a few seconds to take a deep breath before I dive back in.

Lost Love will be book three. Hopefully out by early this summer. Book One made it to market in January and Book Two will be live any time now.

If you want to know more about Dead Ringer, look below!

Revamp

Of all my published works, I think Sole Survivor has probably been redone the most. It's tricky getting the first book in a series right. Not to mention the dual storylines.

There's Lisa and Jackson. A marriage on the rocks. Deadly secrets.

Then there's Kat. A college student on a mission to solve a cold case that started as an assignment and became an obsession.

It's time for a revamp. Maybe even a face-lift for the cover. Either way, it's a perk and a problem for me.

Writing Workshop: Self-Publishing Formatting

In my last post, I mentioned that I teach Writing Workshops. Well, this week is all about self-publishing so I thought I'd share one of the documents I created for it. I'm going to work on a more in depth version for the future, but this is skipping the top and not necessarily beholden to a single distributor or program (that's a future post).

Self-Publishing Formatting Tips

Formatting tips:

•          Separate documents or save files for ebook and print (and it helps to keep one file that’s just the text file just in case)
•           Take your time. Relax. Maybe do one thing at a time, like add the header formatting, then take a break and focus on other bits.
•           Don’t forget to include “front matter”. It will vary depending on the distributor. Read through their guidelines. “Front matter” is the copyright information as well as the title page.
•           300dpi image for cover – size depends on the requirements of the distributor – bigger is better and remember a lot of eReaders only show black and white, not color

eBook:

•           eBook formatting can be done in Word
•           Strip all the formatting first – copy/paste entire text into a Wordpad/Notepad (not Word, but the plain text pad) document to strip all formatting. Copy/paste the text from Wordpad into a new Word document. (Known as “going nuclear”)
•           Styles are your friend in Word when it comes to formatting. Create one for chapter headings and one for main text at a minimum.
•          Basic settings for paragraphs in eBooks:  start with “normal” and then “modify” to:
•    Single spaced lines
•    Times New Roman, 12pt font
•    .3” first line indent
•   For first paragraph to make text appear flush:  .01” special first line indent (make this a separate style)
•           Header text is good around 14pt – can use another font like Arial. Stay away from kooky fonts
•           Add space of 30 or 40pt both before and after header to keep spacing even and give it a small barrier between the chapter title and the text
•           “insert > page break” at the end of each chapter
•           Do not add page numbers or headers to an eBook  - text needs to be flowable.
•           Italics, Bolding, and Underlining can all be directly done on specific pieces of text – they don’t need a style unless you prefer it.
•           Glyphs as paragraphs breaks add a professional touch to your ebook, but can be tricky to pull off since you’re almost inserting a picture into text rather than a symbol.
•           Table of Contents are required and need hyperlinks. There is a two-step process – first you have to create the links within the pages (highlight the chapter heading, “insert >bookmark”, name it) and then in the TOC (highlight ‘Chapter One’, etc, “insert > hyperlink > place in this document > your creatively named link from step one”).

Print:

• Can be achieved in Word with patience and lots of work (there’s lots of tutorials online including: https://jamigold.com/2015/06/formatting-from-manuscript-to-a-print-book-with-ms-word/ and https://selfpublishingadvice.org/production-6-tips-to-help-indie-authors-format-prints-book-with-word/ and a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FzvtxK686c&t=1s )
• Adobe InDesign works well if you have a non-formatted version of your work (do not use the same file as you did for eBook or you will be very, very sad). (More on Adobe: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/creating-book-files.html )
• Look at a print book to help with this stage.
• You should have page numbers and header/footer. This is a professional looking tip.
• What you see is what will print. You can use fancier fonts in print, but keep them readable.
• Don’t have too many fonts going on: three is good in general (one for title, one for headings, and one for main text)
• 12pt font is usually good for main text
• 14-16 or higher pt font for headers
• Add space before and after chapter titles
• Generally, do not include page numbers or header/footer on the first page of a new chapter. Chapters usually begin on the right page. This might mean adding blank pages (also without page numbers/headings) to get it correctly balanced.
• Your left and right pages with have different headings. For example, the left might be your name and the right the title of the book. Page numbers can be in the heading or on the bottom of the page.
• Section Breaks are important for print formatting in Word.

Future Plans

I've not been blogging for a while. I've also not been writing as much.

I've always written while having a job and often while attending college. But I wasn't really prepared for the exhaustion from chronic illness coupled with a promotion at my job. Most days, I come home and crawl into bed under the covers.

My mind is always going, but sitting down at the keys and actually "working" eludes me.

For the past year, I've been hosting "Writing Workshops" at my job. I've been at this over a decade now and information was hard to come by and understand when I was starting out. Not to mention that self-publishing had a really bad wrap as vanity press (which still exist, BTW).

Then the recession hit. Borders closed. Publishing changed.

Self-publishing has become more and more viable depending on the person. And depending on their goal.

I enjoy helping guide others and share information and wisdom learned from years of doing. I'm even considering creating some $0.99 eBooks or so with tips and tricks.

In the meantime, I'm using my spare time to correct past works piece-by-piece. New formatting. Typos and errors re-corrected. New paperback editions. New eBook editions. Possible combo issues.

If you're ever south of Annapolis, MD, maybe you'll stop by one of my workshops at the local library. :)