Save Yourself the Formatting Time!

I love looking at EBooks with cool fonts online, don't you?  The problem is, I can spend ALL THAT TIME setting up fonts to look beautiful, then go to upload the books on Createspace and KDP, and its all just straight text.  It looks nothing like I want it to look.

That problem is solved on Createspace by saving your Word file as a PDF and then uploading it.  You will get an error message, but usually when you look at your text in the Proofer, it looks alright for the most part.  This lets me put out an EBook that has an opening page that looks like this one to the right.  I like using different fonts for my Chapter headings.


I used a font I downloaded for free online, I usually go to https://www.dafont.com/ but there are also a lot of online fonts available.  Just download the font, unzip it, open your font book, then import the font.  Some fonts are only available in uppercase, without any symbols, so plan accordingly.  This lets you change your title page, Chapter Headings, etc., so that they stand out to readers.

But, as I said, you do all that work, and then upload it, and it's all basic type, single-spaced, and a hot mess!  I want my EBooks to look the same as my print books, so I began fishing around for a solution.  There are several listed on KDP, but the best, easiest and quickest solution I found just this morning, was Kindle Textbook Creator.  I just scratched the surface of it I'm sure, I plan to go back into it to see how it handles pictures inside of text so I will post that later.

Back to Kindle Textbook Creator.  Download the program, then install it.  Then open your file by clicking 'Create New Textbook From File', then find your file and click open.  Your file should
already be saved as a PDF, you can do that in MS Word.  This way, you don't have to go through that 'Embed your fonts' thing, that NEVER works unless you're some amazing programmer.  I'm not a programmer, I'm an author.

When your book opens, if you have any links it will ask if you want those links converted, then preserved and embedded in your book.  If this is an EBook, YES

you want this done.  It won't take but a second.

Then you go over to the right-hand corner and click the on the little icon that says 'Package'.  That will publish your file as a .kpf file, and you will be able to upload it, keeping your files attributes just as you wanted them to look.  You can go to Amazon and get this Application, do yourself a favor, get it and save yourself some time, energy and frustration.  I want my books to look like what I envision them in my head, and sometimes even when you try to convert a PDF on KDP, it just does not translate.

Many times I open a book and just ooh and aah over the pictures and fonts that are used with Chapter headings, then I try to do something like it, and its 'Blah, Blah, Blah.'

Now, you can make your readers go ooh and aah, without going through a lot of trouble.

Merry Christmas, and I hope this has helped someone who is self-publishing their books and settling for the formatting that KDP shows you when you upload your book.  No more settling, make it look as happy or as scary as you wish!

Just search for 'Kindle Textbook Creator (Beta) on Amazon.com

Be encouraged!

Back up your work, right now!

So.  You've been hard at work, revisiting old writing you put aside when you suddenly can't find a file on your computer anymore.  Things happen in the digital life, so to start your New Year off right, how about you zip down to Walmart or Staples and pick up a zip drive to back up your work?  You might even want to get two of them.  Work with them sparingly, I have had two zip drives fail within days of one another, from being bumped or jostled while they were attached to the computer, getting the data on them restored is a nightmare.  Be gentle with them!

Make sure all of your books and covers are in one place and write the date you originally put them on there on the zip drive with a Sharpie.  You never know when you may have to go back to an original, it's better to know what date it is that you may have to rebuild your work forward.  Use that one as a backup in case of disaster, use the other as a day to day working copy. 

It only takes a minute to avert a potential loss of everything you are working on.  Keep the first one in a safe place, a fire safe box would be the best choice.  Carry the working copy around with you in case you need it out and about.  You've just been warned, don't wait for a zip drive to come in the mail, unless you have Amazon Prime, it's hard to get things around the Christmas Holidays!  Be encouraged!

Turn your Serial into a Novel!

I worked on a Serial named 'Match Play' back in 2015, and did not finish the last 10 chapters.  I try to go back at the end of the year and see if there is anything I have missed or skipped over that I can finish or polish.  This year, it was this short Serial.

Match Play came about from a library visit.  It taught me to be careful what you write. My daughter checked out a book from the library which we read together, and the creative juices started flowing with a 'What if?' question. Doesn't all great writing start with a question? Tucker is a Serial Killer mimics the deaths of famous people on his victims in every detail. Rory just bought his Storage Container.  Tucker wants his death catalog back. 

Rory, a College student majoring in Forensic Studies has just had the misfortune of buying Tucker's storage container at an auction. Withholding evidence from the police, he and his roommates set out to solve the puzzle left by Tucker.

What do you do when you know you're in over your head with the Monster you just discovered? Rory knows the answer to that: You find a bigger Monster! I love to overlap my series, so I borrowed a few characters from my 'Peace Series', so for you all that have not read it, James Bowie Mars is the bigger Monster. I have ONCE AGAIN removed the Peace Series for editing, so I apologize to the readers of that series. It will be re-released with Book 5 in the Spring or Summer of 2018.

Follow along with Rory, as he and his friends Will and Ben realize that whoever held the storage area that Rory bought at auction may very well know where they live and he want's his stuff back.

Rory finds out that having an uncle with a clue is much better than having an uncle who can call off the police, as his uncle James shows them how to trap someone who thinks JUST like he does...never leave a loose end breathing.

This story began as a Serial, but it needed completion. I hope you enjoy the read. The character death studies all came about after reading a book called, “How They Croaked”, by Georgia Bragg and L. J. Ganser. If you want to see how bad medicine was before the modern era, check out their book, it makes you thankful to live in a time (at least up until the recent election) where good medicine is available to most in the developed world.  Here is the Amazon link: 

http://amzn.to/2A1daU7

Don't be afraid to take some of your smaller writings and expand on them, or put them together in an anthology.  Right now, its time to go blow the leaves, yuck, its cold outside!

Revisit old work before the New Year!

With the New Year coming, this is a perfect time to go back to your unfinished projects and musings and see if it is time to bring them to fruition.  I know you are very, very busy getting ready for the Christmas Season, (I HOPE you are very busy), but pull out some of the ideas you have sketched out, and see if its time to work on them.

I usually do this in late November or early December, and I am happy to report after a few days of writing and tweaking, I just finished a Novella!  Its actually from a Serial 'Match Play' that I had previously written after watching the Storage Wars shows on television.  The main buyers on the shows are a microcosm of people you run into in your everyday life, except they actively travel to storage centers to place bids on unclaimed storage lockers.

I had 40 chapters prepared, but no end to the story, other projects came along and took time away from continuing the serial, which left me feeling unfinished also.  This serial was a way to stoke my brain to go back and begin editing the Peace Series that I wrote many years ago, but pulled from the shelves due to personal convictions.  It's very, very hard from someone as myself to get everyone inside on board with the fact that we don't have to spew everything we come up with out in a book, no matter how cathartic it can be.

It's a good idea to have several projects going at one time when you are an Author.  You should always be looking for new writing opportunities and ideas.  When you find yourself setting up that DVR to record a series, ask yourself what it is about it that draws you in?  Have you joined a Book Club?  Have you joined a new group online?  Draw upon your own life and strike out and write a small Novella about something once improbable, but now within the realm of reality in the world of change that we live in.

Another good idea is to find subjects that are also related to your writing and have your Social Media Feeds update you when news about those subjects comes over the wire.  Try to anticipate the directions those stories might go in, and write about them.  Many writers who can see trends and possibilities are often asked to provide commentary on local shows when their stories overlap with real life in the future.  Use your visionary skills by going over some of your ideas to determine if there is more to that small tidbit that you saw before.

This early part of December, you should be gearing up for new releases, giveaways and promoting current works for all of those new readers who will be getting electronic devices for the first time or as replacements.  I have joined a giveaway on Instafreebie, that has bundled books of the same Sci-Fi/Time Travel Genre together in one download.  My book from the same-named series, "Pharaoh Memnet" is listed as one of the books available for this giveaway.  It is better to bundle your books with a bunch of same minded authors, as you not only will get your works to readers on your Social Media Platforms but will also gain new readers from Authors who have readers interested in the same Genre that you write about.  Here is the link for this Giveaway which features Time Travel and Alternative History Novels:

https://www.instafreebie.com/gg/QgouQbnJtntrsQphSSnE

You can go to Instafreebie to check out groups that you might be able to join to showcase your book for free, to a wide audience of readers.  This is good when you have several books in a series, and does not include the exclusivity of a KDP giveaway for your book.  Look at how they are set up so you can get an idea of the reach you can gain to new readers.  Make sure you DO sign up for getting email addresses of those who download your book when you set up or join a giveaway, you CAN'T go back later and do so and get all of the emails from the start of the giveaway period, ONLY from the date you request to get emails.  Emails from readers are good to compile so you can notify readers of future books you will be releasing, your blog information, and all of your Social Media links.  You should ALSO be adding a contact page to the end of your EBooks and Paperbacks that lists all the ways potential readers can contact you.

The next blog post will cover some places you can list your books for free and paid links that will gain you more promotion.   I want you to have a Happy Christmas Season and increased royalties.  Be encouraged!

Forward Thinking Writing - My 1 cent...

When I started writing my Josef and Blair Series, it was 1992, I did not begin publishing until 1994.  I was projecting what I hoped the world would be like, in an America where race was nullified, from an unlikely source.  Having grown up overseas, only to be forced to spend my adult life in America where race mattered, made me want to flip the script in a major way.  I liked writing improbable love stories already, and this led to me wondering what it would be like if someone who had been let down by those closest to her, finally met someone she didn't have to pretend with, only for it to blow up in her face in an epic way?

That is how Blair, my main character in the Josef and Blair Series, was born.  Blair was an orphan, given away twice by her surviving parent, into an American Foster Care system broken beyond compare.  And like many African American's, the Military became a way out of a life full of contradictions and struggles, a place where equality was forced and instituted systemwide, as much as possible.

I knew that Blair would have to be both hard as nails as a Shadow Team Member, yet blindingly human, when it came to real love.  Not puppy love, but that 'I'll cut a bitch over you!' kind of love.  I wanted her to let her guard down personally, completely, for the first time in her life with Josef.  Knowing how to handle life in the Military with codes, directives and regulations is one thing.  But life itself does not play by military rules.  It's full of duplicity, moral judgments, bad decisions, extreme highs and extreme lows.  Blair fell victim to the same thing we all have, no matter what our age, falling in love, justifying shortcomings in our intended, then reeling from the aftermath of those bad decisions.

I had one review in which the person who read the book "Bliss" stated:

"I thought this would have been more interesting than it was, it was disappointing in it's reduction of Blair as a "top agent" to basically a woman who was allowing her man to pretty much take control of her life, it didn't give credence to her character as a strong, smart independent woman..."

And I realized, I had hit the mark with who I wanted to show Blair as.  I just don't care how together you are, women and men both do REALLY stupid things when they REALLY fall in love hard!  If you look around you, no one is immune.  We see the stories in papers, magazines, on television, on Social Media and on reality TV all day long, people making REALLY bad, 'I'm going to ride cross country, not taking bathroom breaks, wearing Depends to get you back' decisions.  That is what I wanted Blair to be portrayed as, human, and a woman making bad decisions.  I also wanted Josef's power plays to render him stupid and repentant, not willing to sacrifice his woman and children behind a rhetoric that left him cold and alone at night.  I wanted characters who were all running from God, their lives and their futures to some degree, something we all are guilty of at one time or another.

I structured Josef around what I thought at the time was an ideal Neo Nazi man, with layer upon layer of lies and hate resting on a shaky foundation that just needed the right kick at the correct juncture to bring all of his layers down around him.  Isolation, power and fear created the environment that he grew up and lived in.  He, and his brothers in arms learned early in life from Josef's father that you either used that power, or you suffered.

Frankly, it's hard to remain separated by hate today.  We interact with too many people who are different from us, which is why even though it may appear that hate is growing, it really isn't.  Its the same small microcosm of people who generationally have let hate rule their lives.  It's not the isolation that causes the hate, because the Amish are isolated in America, and even when they integrate into society, they still treat everyone they encounter with respect.

Its a lack of moral conscience, a refusal to admit that your failures are of your own doing and spiritual blindness in the worst way that causes this hate to thrive.  But it only takes one person to come along and shine that light on a cockroach, rather than squash them, that can bring about change.

This election cycle has brought out the worst in people that hate others, based on their race, religion, skin color, immigration status, etc.  The real culprit is that they hate who they are and their place in life which is mostly of their own bad decision making, generationally and today.  It makes zero sense that in this day and age they refuse to stop supporting a plan that doesn't see them as part of it, admit they have backed the wrong horse for generations and seek God to truly change their heart on a fundamental level.

That is what I had to do as a writer over time, not just with Josef, but with the huge extended family network that he was part of.  I used the underpinning of Jesus Christ to bring about that change.  It was hard for some readers to stomach, but I believe that was largely due to their own hangups about Jesus Christ and Christianity.  Some have been hurt personally by Evangelicals who follow a religion of prosperity and exclusion.  That is not the Christianity that I follow, nor that I write of with my characters.  But I truly believed, if I could bring these people around with love and logic (both of my main characters, in spite of what their past had made of their lives) I could bring any of my characters of note around in the same way.  Truly loving and caring for others, in spite of their past, how they behave and what they believe, will win the day.

You cannot legislate morality.  True morality begins in the heart of man.  I did not know back in 1994 that we would face an election cycle where our enemies helped one party to come to power, and the seedy underbelly of what was given to win at all costs is just starting to come out.  I did foresee that no matter what was found out, that we would still have an element that refused to accept they had been tricked and hoodwinked.  Because when someone else is pulling and guiding the reins of our government, it eventually will come to light.  I knew it was possible, I just did not think I would see it so glaringly brought into the spotlight in my lifetime.

So, if you are writing with future changes in history in mind, don't play it safe.  This book series may have begun with my writing about Neo Nazi's in 1992, but to have a reader post the following review in 2017, makes me glad that I projected further with my 'What if?' scenario. 




Susan Parker an Amazon Reviewer for Book 9, "Reaping the Whirlwind" in the Josef and Blair Series wrote:

"...this novel does address real-world issues. As I was reading it, White Nationalists were marching in Charlottesville, Virginia, to protest the removal of the statute of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. It turned violent, resulting in three fatalities and numerous injuries."

The question is, do we hate these manifestations of ignorance back, continue to pray for them or do we drag them into 2018 with a vengeance?  I believe we have to let them paint themselves into a corner that only God can get them out of, just like Josef.  I had many former friends that didn't wear a hood openly, but their hearts were either shrouded in them inwardly, or they were using them as bandana's, scarves, capes or hankies.  I still haven't decided what to do with them, so I hold them at arm's length, sadly.  I am not perfect, either.  When the rubber met the road, I backed off.  I hope I can reach a place in my heart that I can interact with them one day again, and build a new bridge of friendship based on them facing the truth of who they are, why they are that way, and how we can move forward in a better way with one another.  Nothing is impossible with God, and I believe some day, maybe not down here with them, but certainly on a heavenly plane, things will change.  Be encouraged!