I had a great time at a workshop hosted by the Montrose Library and Carole London of London Publishing. I was asked to speak on e-books. Those wishing to see the slides I presented at the ebook workshop can find them here.

To prepare for the conference, I put my first broom book up on Smashwords. That’s a feeder site for Barnes and Noble, Sony, and the new Apple bookstore. You can see the details in the charts.

UPDATE: Here are two questions posed by Cheryl:

Question: Hi Dave,
I enjoyed your workshop at the library yesterday. I have questions! When preparing my book as an e-book, do the various ‘stores’ have a preference for number of pages in the book. In an 81/2×11, single-space format, my book has about 108 pages, including the cover. In 5.5×8.5, single-space pocketbook format, it has 218 pages. Does length of book matter? Does page size matter? Also, I’m still looking for a POD company. Do you offer that service? Thanks, Cheryl Read more…

Writing: Business

(NOTE: There’s an update at the end of this post.)

Our thanks to Office Depot for being the model of customer service! Our three-year-old, much-used Okidata war-horse-quality color laser printer was pretty worn out and insisted it needed some expensive new drums, so we replaced it with a Lexmark 540n from our local Office Depot. The difference in printer generations was immediately apparent; the Lexmark print quality was superior and the photographs much better. We quickly went through the toner in the “introductory” cartridges and paid a king’s ransom for another set (which is to be expected), and had just installed them—about $280′s worth!

Alas, there was one difficulty. Just 14 days after we purchased the printer (today) I was printing our Christmas letter when the red light came on with a message saying there was a jam and I should open the paper tray. I did so and to my surprise, sitting in the paper tray were a little wheel and a couple ball bearings. Oops! Close inspection with a flashlight revealed that indeed it was not just parts coming loose; a little retaining mechanism had in fact broken. Read more…

Writing: Business

Well, I did it. It seems too easy to be true, but it’s true. You see, I was asked to include a discussion of the Kindle at a presentation I gave recently at the Montrose Small Press Month workshop. I figured I’d better try it before talking about it.

So I did.

I’m already an Amazon Advantage member because Broom 1 (The Story of the Great American Flying Broomstick Book 1: Genesis) is for sale on Amazon as a hardcopy book. So I logged into my Amazon Advantage account. I didn’t have to do much seeking. The link to posting my book as a Kindle Book was right in front of me!

It was easy. I typed in the metadata, such as the ISBN and the price, and uploaded the contents of the book. On my first try, I uploaded the .pdf file. The system asks me to browse through what it would look like on the Kindle. I wasn’t happy. So, I uploaded the original .doc file. Kindle was quite happy with that. It has offered me the opportunity to download the native Kindle format to make tweaks, which I will do at some point here because a couple pages up front appear to be blank on the Kindle. The rest looks great!

Click on the image to see the book for sale in the Kindle Store. I set the price as $6.95, but it’s actually available for only $5.56. Here’s your chance! Assuming you have the Kindle, this is downright cheap and you’ll have a whale of a good time reading it!

Ah, the Kindle, you say. Well, I was skeptical at first too. But on my recent trip to New York, I had a seat next to a guy who brandished a Kindle II. I asked to look at it. Read more…

American Flying Broomstick, Writing: Business

Lifetime Chronicle Press and the Montrose (Colorado) Regional Library District are sponsoring a two-Saturday event in the Community Room and the Montrose Library. All events are free, though space is somewhat limited, so call Carole London at 970-240-1345 to register.

Saturday, March 21st, will feature two morning presentations and one in the afternoon. Saturday, March 28th, will again feature two morning presentations, the first of which I will give on “Marketing on the Internet.” The event after mine will be a panel discussion and I’ll be part of the panel. The afternoon session features an author reception with about 20 authors (including me).

Here are topics I plan to cover in my presentation:

• Getting onto Amazon–the pros and cons
• Setting up a blog on blogspot.com or else using WordPress (free) on your own website
• How to get your own URL and how to use it–how to find a hosting provider such as Yahoo or an independent
• Web contact forms–without the spam
• Web mailing lists–meeting the legal requirements
• Posting or commenting on other author’s blogs–getting the word out
• Video–the YouTube revolution–as easy as a webcam–using XP’s built-in movie maker
• Facebook and Twitter–connecting with Millennials–and Baby Boomers!
• Setting up on-line ordering on your website or blog
• PayPal (or Google or others), with Buy Now buttons and Shopping Carts (it’s not that hard–really!)
• Shipping (UPS or else USPS Media Mail)
• Collecting and paying state sales tax for Colorado sales
• Demo of a blog (this one) to show how easy it is to post new material (I’m assuming the library’s WiFi will reach into the presentation room

See you there! Use the contact form if you have any questions.

Mt. Sneffels Press, Writing: Business

Think of it. You write a novel. You find an agent. The agent gets you a contract with a publisher. An editor at the publisher works with you for weeks to hone your prose. The book is released with all due fanfare. The royalties roll in. Your public demands more.

Uh, that’s so 20th-century. Actually, maybe more 19th-century. Ah, the golden years. But memory weeds out unpleasant realities. Such an era never existed.

And it exists even less now, if that’s possible. Publishers are hurting and laying off staff. No one reads anymore, they say. The book is doomed. And yet a recent Time magazine article notes that overall readership is up 3.5%. (They didn’t say over what period.)

What’s happening is a complete restructuring of the entire market mechanism for moving words from authors Read more…

Writing: Business

I haven’t put a post up for the last couple days because I’ve been deeply involved in writing a proposal for my day job. Pondering this, I think the similarities between writing a good novel and writing a good proposal are striking. A proposal has to be very clear to the reader. Any ambiguities can create problems later. I have to be very clear about what I’m proposing, under what conditions I’ll do the job, exactly what is in scope for the job and what is out of scope, and what cooperation I need from my customer to enable me to complete the job. And, the proposal may contain conditions that must be met before I’ll start work.

Similarly, when writing your novel you may be putting some conditions on what you will deliver. For example, if you are writing through the voice of a narrator, the narrator may have Read more…

Writing: Business, Writing: Style

You may be expecting to read the standard advice: don’t give up! Keep at it! You’ll get published someday!

Bunk. Don’t quit your day job. Look at this realistically: for every book published through one of the major publishing houses, there are probably a thousand submissions. The odds are seriously stacked against you.

But, you say, someone has to be published, right? It’s just a matter of marketing yourself! Well, this is true, someone will be published. Perhaps that will be you. But think of professional sports. Count up the number of major league baseball teams and multiply by how many players they keep around (maybe 30). Now multiply that by the number of high schools in the country that have baseball teams. How many aspiring ball players? Tens of Read more…

Writing: Business