Posts Tagged ‘kindle’

Formatting

Posted by XanderRichards at 2 May 2012

Category: News

Oh blimey.

Yesterday I spent from 07:00 to about 8PM formatting ‘COAST: An Act Of Burial’ for the printed version.

First was the cover… oh wait, you can’t do that!  You have to calculate the number of pages first.  So, despite having the cover pretty much ready to go, I had to then go and format the text.  I used good old MS Word 97, which I really like, but which can be a bit idiosyncratic at times.  Does its own thing, you know?  And I absolutely hate the newer “software for dummies” versions.  Anyway, it was fairly easy to calculate the number of pages… three hundred and twenty six.  This, of course, affects the cover design by determining the width of the spine.  So, the spine width is 0.734152 inches.  Wow, we’re working at a resolution of a millionth of an inch here!  I like that kind of precision.

So after a few mishaps with the awful provided PDF template and resorting to my typical methodology of creating my own (which was more accurate and would have saved me tons of time had I done it in the first place), the cover was right.  Okay, let’s submit that.  Oh wait, you can’t do that!  You have to submit the text first.  Went back to Word, made sure everything was okay, corrected the mistake (sorry, ebook version readers), farted about for at least an hour sizing the text and getting all the headings right (the idiosyncrasies of Word having already been noted above) and submitted it, which took about 2 minutes for the upload and at least another ten for the processing.  And then… ARRGH!

Like a silly bugger I had forgotten to insert page numbers!  What’s the point of having a table of contents without page numbers?!  Having beaten myself up a bit for this glaring omission, I added the page numbers and faithfully submitted the document again.  Now all the formatting is out!  So I go back to Word, fix it, format it, upload it, switch on the television whilst I wait for the processing (oh, it’s mostly adverts.  Wait, this is Canada), run the Interior Reviewer application (a VERY handy little gadget, I might add) and once again find that the formatting is out… so it’s back to Word…

This process continued all day and some of the evening.  I went back and forth between Word and the Interior Reviewer more than twenty times.  Finally, shortly after Wife Team Six returned from assassinating a few drinkies, I had a version with which I was relatively happy.  I submitted it, it worked and I moved to the next stage of the process.  YES!

So let me offer this little pearl of wisdom to any budding author out there:  REMEMBER YOUR PAGE NUMBERS!  And that is all for now.

Roger and out, X.

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It’s Out!

Posted by XanderRichards at 1 May 2012

Category: News

‘COAST: An Act Of Burial’ is now available online!!  Here are the retailer sites which are on-stream at time of writing:

Kobo,  Amazon,  Barnes & Noble, Sony Store.  We’re still waiting for Copia and EbookPie but no worries; they’ll arrive when they arrive.  As I don’t use Apple gear (well, I have a Mac, but I never switch it on) I can’t tell you whether the novel’s out on their iBookstore yet, but I’m sure it will be soon if it isn’t already.

Yesterday—release day—was somewhat mental.  It was decided that I’d drive ‘She who must be obeyed’ to work, and go by the bank to get some cash for all the stuff I needed to do.  However, just as we turned onto the main drag, the serpentine belt which powers the A/C, the alternator and the power steering decided to jump its tracks, leaving me without any of them.  With the wheel feeling like trying to force your fist through slightly moist clay, I wrestled the truck into a store car park and the missers got herself a cab.  Great start to the day!

So I called up the garage, who had only just replaced the serpentine belt, the tensioner and the jockey wheel and assured them that, whilst I was definitely not casting aspersions, it did look a little bit coincidental.  So they kindly sent a tow truck and off went mine.  A short while later they ‘phoned up having discovered that the bearing in the A/C was on its way out and every time the A/C compressor was engaged the fault manifested.  So it was back off to the garage to collect the truck and drive it around with the A/C disconnected.  Thankfully it performed admirably and I was able to complete all my errands.

Only trouble being, I had shed-loads of work to do at home as well, all book-related.  And that’s why I was still farting about late into the night formatting the print version of ‘COAST: An Act Of Burial’ (more news on this soon!).  All in all, a mildly stressful day but no matter; the book’s out, the truck’s running and insured, our bills are paid and the diet’s going well.  Also, Steve and I figured out all the bananas for our Read The Prologue page so that readers can preview the novel.  If you haven’t signed up yet, go there now and I’ll be able to send you a free copy of the prologue which, of course, I hope you enjoy enormously!

So there you go: an idea which was first conceived in 1987 has finally come to fruition twenty-five years later with the release of the book.  What a remarkable journey it’s been.

Roger and out, X.

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Anticipation

Posted by XanderRichards at 27 April 2012

Category: News

Just three days to go.

I’m trepidatious because I’m starting to worry that the retailers won’t have the spy novel online on the 30th.  It is highly illogical that I should worry like this, as there is little to indicate that they won’t.  But my daft brain seems to concern itself regardless with the fact that none of the retailers have it online yet, but why should they?  It’s still three days until they’re supposed to!

As it goes though, the only casualty from a late release will be my self-esteem after having plugged the date so enthusiastically.  Some of the reviewers can’t even get to it until later on this year, but that’s okay.  It’s not as though I could realistically expect everyone who’s ever going to buy the novel to do so on one day, right?  Sales will more than likely ramp up over a period of time (at least, I hope they will!)

Having looked at the figures from Bookbaby, it appears that Apple iBookstore will almost definitely have it on time and there’s also a fair chance that Amazon, Baker & Taylor and Kobo will as well.  Or not; we will see.  Either way we’ll be posting the sales links here as soon as they become available.  I must again write of my gratitude to Jon; I have had several people comment that the cover’s going to sell it.  I agree; it has 100% more badassery than any book cover I’ve seen for a long time!  It really is a privilege to have such a great artist create my cover.  To my author friends who are reading, please consider getting Jon to do your next cover.  He’ll kick it out of the park.

‘COAST: An Act Of Burial’ now has its own page at Goodreads.  Go check it out!  Got a couple of favorable reviews already, for which I am very grateful.

Just three days to go … I hope.

Roger and out, X.

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It Plans To Escape On The 30th…

Posted by XanderRichards at 12 April 2012

Category: News

I’m talking about my spy novel, of course.  Using the word ‘release’ always brings to mind a picture of a wild animal being let out of a cage in a countryside location, something like what you’d see at the end of a Billy The Exterminator episode.  So maybe I’m releasing it . . . or maybe it was planning to escape all along!

So, after a little back-and-forth, I finally accepted the proof epub file a couple of days ago and Bookbaby can therefore commence sending it out to their retail partners.  In testing though, I learned quite a profound lesson; all e-readers are not created equal!  Now, I don’t own a physical e-reader yet.  The closest I got was trying it out on a friend’s wife’s Sony Reader.  At home, however, I dutifully downloaded and installed Mobipocket, Sony Reader for PC, Kindle PC, Calibre, Adobe Digital Editions and Nook for PC.  Well, I gotta say that the results varied wildly.  There was different formatting, different fonts (although that can be changed on some), different aspect ratios for the cover image, different indents, different spacing… the list goes on.  After some pretty exhaustive searching through the text for oddities and idiosyncrasies, I have concluded that Nook for PC and Sony Reader for PC definitely look the best and offer the most accurate display, with the Nook having a slight edge over its Japanese cousin.  Now, remember, these are computer applications, not physical e-readers.  But if I was to base a choice on what I’ve seen of the apps, I’d buy a Nook.

Due to the delay in my acceptance of the… err… e-proof, not all the retailers may have it up on their websites for the 30th, but no worries.  All the appropriate links will go up on this site as soon as they become available.  There should be reviews coming out soon, and I’ll link to those as well.  Only eighteen days to go!

And talking of momentous dates, this weekend marks the hundredth anniversary of the famous Titanic disaster as you have doubtless gathered from pretty much any media, all of which seem obsessed with the subject right now.  It does hold a fascination for us for some reason.  Must have been a ghastly, horrible night.  My dad would’ve been two years old at the time.  I think it’s lesson to us all never to tempt calamity by saying “even God Himself couldn’t…”

Roger and out, X.

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It’s Done!

Posted by XanderRichards at 26 March 2012

Category: News

Today I sent Bookbaby my spy novel ‘COAST: An Act Of Burial’ for publication!!

I’ve set a provisional release date of Monday, April 30th.  Can anyone tell me the significant event which happened on that date in 1945?  Of course there’s no connection; it’s just coincidence.

I’ve been assigned an ISBN already (that was quick) and conversion to the appropriate e-reader formats is ongoing.  We’re on the way, folks!

Roger and out, X.

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