Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Amazon!

I really didn't have to think about what I am going to write about today. I am a bit frustrated with Amazon. Last night I realized they put my book on sale which is great! Since I don't have that freedom to discount at random myself unless I want to change the cover price I am happy they did it. 17% off. Odd number but whatever a deal is a deal. When I realized this was the case I posted it on my Facebook page to let people know. Shortly after I received a message from a potential buyer stating shipping was expensive and they have purchased on Amazon in the past and never had to pay that much. I decided to do a mock order to see how much was too much. Wow it was almost ten bucks because they charge almost five bucks for a handling charge and then the shipping on top, to be clear this is on Canadian orders. For US orders the shipping and handling is only 3.99 and a buyer told me they were charged no tax. I think the Kindle ebook is the best deal right now for Canadian readers.

On a positive note I am seeing sales. I have of course been sent several messages from people who would like to buy direct from me so they can get an autographed copy. I wish my personal order would come in already. (which I had sent to a US address because shipping for 100 books was $90.00 to Canada vs $43.00 sending them to my in-laws.) Luckily I live in a border city and have that luxury.

Next up is reformatting my book for Smashwords uploading (saves me from individual device uploading) and contacting Amazon.ca to figure out how the heck I can get my print book for sale on there. For some reason CreateSpace has it on .UK and .Org but they have no agreement with .CA so I need to take care of that one myself. I wouldn't say any of the things I have had to do so far has been difficult just time consuming but I have to get this all done so I can get back to writing!


Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Stalled at KWL!

Well last night I was able to get two chapters edited and a third partially written. So I have 5500 words down and only 90k ish to go in the second installment of The Jaxon Effect. A new character evolved recently and it turns out he's a bit of a dick. I'm really curious to see what his main role will be in the over all story line. I have an idea but I find the story never goes where I think its going to go. The characters tend to tell he story. I'm just the messenger. I am grateful that these particular characters decided to take up residence in my head and not someone else's.

I am still trying to get my book set up through KWL (Kobo Writing Life) but I'm having trouble with getting it to recognize my credit union as an actual real financial entity. I sent an email off to them hoping they will shed some light.

This morning when I checked my facebook I noticed I had one person post a link to my book and another's status was that she was looking forward to reading it on her camping trip.
That's a good sign!

I am still waiting for my own shipment of books to arrive so I can begin begging book stores to carry my book. I think it's going to be fun. But then again I haven't begun so I might eat my words.

Kindle has added the "Look Inside " feature to my book. I think that's so cool. Since I am a Newborn Author my work will have to speak for itself because no one yet knows who KC Michaels is. But one day everyone will. Ah ha I know what you are thinking.....  I thought the same thing when my son auditioned for his first commercial at the age of six. He is now eight and has been in two feature films a number of commercials, a TV Hallmark movie a few appearances in sit coms and dramas. Not to mention he does voice over for a few cartoon series. Okay I'm bragging but I'm a proud MAMA! Anyway my point to that is you have to believe and never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game. My little man inspired me to go for my dream. I hope you al have someone who inspires you!
Have a happy day!!!

Monday, July 29, 2013

My first book is for sale..... Finally

As of today I am going to make an effort to Blog on a regular basis. That being said since I have not been blogging I will catch you up to speed. I do in fact finally have my book for sale. I decided to self publish with CreateSpace. My experience with them has been overall pretty positive with the exception with the time it takes to get anything done. However for quality and communication I do give them an A. 

Now the extra service I paid for was the Cover Creator. I think a professionally designed cover is very important. I feel they delivered based on my specifications. I kind of wish I went with white font instead of gold but that would be my fault not theirs. 

What I wanted to mention was converting the book from print to an ebook. They do offer this service for the low price of $69.00. I would have paid that with a smile on my face but the time it was going to take for it to be "Kindle Ready" was 3-4 weeks. I had read so many articles about the fact that during the conversion process a manuscript can get pretty ugly. The spacing and indents get pretty messed up. After reading through the kindle direct site I realized I could preview it before I offered it for sale so I decided to give it a go. I thought based on things I had read that I should use Calibre for conversion to mobi. It actually wasn't necessary but I am glad I did because it created a nice file with all my book files in one folder and saved it on my computer. I pulled my image from my Calibre file (Which it found on its own through metadata) and my original ms word manuscript. Presto I have an ebook. Now I think the fact that my manuscript was reformatted to perfection by CreateSpace was how I was able to avoid all of the problems people encounter. My spacing was perfect and my chapter headers came out great. Kindle told me in 12 hours I will have an ebook. This morning when I woke up and checked I do in fact have an ebook for sale. :)

Since I had a pretty easy time with Kindle I figured I would upload to Kobo Writing Life. KWL converts files to epub. This conversion had a few problems but nothing I couldn't live with or fix. With KWL you can actually edit in the preview. I had to re-center my chapter headers and I changed the font. I lost all of my paragraph indents but honestly I don't mind too much. I could have spent hours fixing that but I didn't (because I can barely use word, so everything program related takes me forever!) Everything seemed to run smooth until I had to set up my depository account info. Apparently there is an issue with me using a credit union instead of a major bank. I'm not positive that's the problem but I can't see what else it could be. I have to look into this today.

So now what do I do? I market the crap out of it. I am not the most organized person. I don't have a fool-proof plan. But I do have a desire and a passion so I'm going to fly by the seat of my pants and see if I can get my book out there. 

I will post my Marketing efforts as they come. I have ordered 100 copies myself to use mainly as marketing tools. My mom however wants me to send her a dozen right away(signed of course) to sell to her friends. She is proud as a peacock of my accomplishment. She actually read a not so perfect draft version of my manuscript and she called to ask me when book two will be complete. I laughed because I'm only on Chapter 2.