No Bread Sticks in Your Trenchcoat: Lessons From My Copy Editor
I’ve been getting The Perils of Panacea back from my copy editor in chunks this week, so that’s exciting. My husband asked, “Does she find a lot of stuff?” She’s reviewing a post-beta read final draft, which I’d like to think is reasonably clean. The answer is still, “Yes, she finds a crap-ton of stuff.” Okay, that might be exaggerating a little, but it’s amazing how many things slipped past me over the course of 100K+ words. Some were typos or awkward phrasing that I’d read too many times to notice. I’d introduced mistakes making changes after the beta reads. And I’d done Read more…
Hard-Boiled or International Spy: Categorizing my PI
Last time, I talked a little about the file frustrations in moving beyond Amazon to add my ebooks to Kobo, Nook and iTunes. In addition to a properly formatted book and cover file (which I believe for one of those retailers requires the sacrifice of a purple baby unicorn on the equinox), you also have to complete meta-data (book details) sections for each retailer. You’d think these would be straightforward, but if you’re not careful your answers can come back to bite you in the ‘ōkole. (See—we aim to improve your high-brow Hawaiian vocabulary on this blog.) When I put Back Read more…
Letting Out My Ebook Pants a Notch: Going Beyond Amazon
Barring any earthquakes or tsunamis or such-like, the next Sydney Brennan novel, The Perils of Panacea, will be released March 27, 2015. (At around 700 feet elevation a few miles inland, any tsunamis would have to be metaphorical or cataclysmic to directly affect our home; let’s hope for metaphorical.) Yay—happy writer dance! With the big date approaching, it seemed like a good time to get my website house in order, so I’ve made a few changes, and I’ll be doing a little more tweaking in the coming weeks. Take a look around and let me know what you think and Read more…
Where is the Cutesie Novel-Naming Book for Expectant Authors? Reader Poll
With the Secrets in Stockbridge novella now out there making its way in the world, I’m about to dig in on the edits for the second full-length novel. I’ve had ideas for the cover rolling around in the back of my mind for months, and I’ve even browsed stock photo images. Unfortunately, I don’t have my cover designer’s magic touch on the search engine. I know what I want; I just can’t find it. (And yes, it may include a gator–mwah ha ha!) There is one other little thing holding me up on cover design… the title of the book. You’ve probably noticed Read more…
Dude, Where’s My Book? And Other Monday Technology Tales…
Lest you think you are the only one who has those kinds of Mondays, the ones where you should never be let within arm’s length of power tools or the internet, let me reassure you. We are of the same tribe. If you’re a regular blog reader, you probably know my novella Secrets in Stockbridge was released over the weekend. Sort of. I spent way too much time troubleshooting updated ebook back matter links in SIS and BTL, with the trouble emerging unscathed. Apparently Amazon and Apple are having a tiff, and I still haven’t figured what’s going on with Read more…
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