I'll start off by admitting that I bought my Kindle Paperwhite on a whim - which is how I make most of my purchases that do not involve food or financial obligations. I already owned the first generation Kindle Fire which displayed my eBooks beautifully, but the glossy screen and LED display were taking a toll on my eyes.
I already work a job where I am looking at a computer screen all day, and then I switch over to a computer screen to type in the evenings (been trying to handwrite things lately to give my eyes a break). So, when I saw that the Paperwhite used a traditional illuminated Kindle screen, I was thrilled.
The only thing that didn't thrill me was navigating my book collection, both while looking for what I wanted to read, and also while reading a volume.
Not any more!
Imagine my surprise when my Paperwhite was automatically updated with the latest software before I even booted it up this past weekend. Not only can I connect my Goodreads account to my Kindle (which I love, by the way) but, I can also see page numbers on all of my books I'm reading and easily navigate multiple bookmarks without fear of losing my current place. Who doesn't like to skip ahead just to see what is coming up? Now I can do that and go back to my place without all the hassle.
The Paperwhite is visually appealing, and I've found myself reading on it more and more. Nothing can replace the feeling of flipping the pages of a book, but now with my revamped Paperwhite, I feel like the digital reading experience has come closer to what I always imagined it could be.
Now, to try out the many fantasy novels I've recently downloaded for my eventual vacation reading...
Showing posts with label #Kindle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #Kindle. Show all posts
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Kindle Word-To-Page Count Thoughts
It's a great mystery as to how Kindle and the Amazon storefront estimates page count when you upload your Kindle book to KDP.
Page count is relative. In the era of digital eReaders where the audience can adjust the text size, spacing, margins and fonts, the actual type-set pages that we would normally judge a book on for length are becoming obsolete unless you have a physical edition that you are converting to Kindle. For myself, I end up going the opposite - taking my Kindle version and converting it for print using Scrivener with the correct layout and dimensions for CreateSpace. I was very pleased with how my first book came out and I'm sure that I will definitely use CreateSpace again in the near future. Check out the image below of how my physical book came out.
Page count is relative. In the era of digital eReaders where the audience can adjust the text size, spacing, margins and fonts, the actual type-set pages that we would normally judge a book on for length are becoming obsolete unless you have a physical edition that you are converting to Kindle. For myself, I end up going the opposite - taking my Kindle version and converting it for print using Scrivener with the correct layout and dimensions for CreateSpace. I was very pleased with how my first book came out and I'm sure that I will definitely use CreateSpace again in the near future. Check out the image below of how my physical book came out.
Back to the initial post topic - I've got some estimates based on my own work that might help with your own dilemmas of figuring out how "long" your book is once you upload it to KDP.
For my shorter work, about 8,000 or so words, KDP estimated my book was roughly 41 pages. This includes an internal cover and title page with table of contents. Not bad for a short book. I also recently finished up a short prequel story to my Macyntire & Hough novel that was just shy of 7,000 words, and KDP estimated this as being 32 pages long, again, including cover, title page, and table of contents.
While it's not exact, that equals roughly 218 words per page. Pretty close to my estimate of 250 words for my own calculations.
If you're really concerned with readers being unaware of how long your book is, you can always put in the description how many words (approximately) the book is. The tech-savvy readers will pick up on that and hopefully be more tempted to give you work a chance.
Monday, October 14, 2013
How To Create An eBook
Here's a little shameless self-promotion, but also a bit of useful information for anyone out there who wants to know how I create my eBooks for Kindle.
I've written a modest-sized (41 page) eBook on how I created my novel, Macyntire & Hough from start to finish. This book includes all the information on my outlining process, how I keep track of drafts and the number of passes I did to the manuscript, and also a step-by-step guide to how I formatted my Scrivener document and compiled for KDP.
I've written a modest-sized (41 page) eBook on how I created my novel, Macyntire & Hough from start to finish. This book includes all the information on my outlining process, how I keep track of drafts and the number of passes I did to the manuscript, and also a step-by-step guide to how I formatted my Scrivener document and compiled for KDP.
This book is only $0.99 on the Kindle Store. The process I detail as far as formatting is the same exact process I used to create this eBook, so if you enjoy the way it's all put together, you can achieve the same exact results for your own book by following the steps. (To be honest, I worked on a short story earlier in the week and ended up using this book as a refresher to how I had everything set up. There are a lot of things that go into an eBook, and it's great to have them all in one place as opposed to when I was figuring everything out with different bits of information and tips scattered on napkins and notecards!)
For those who love print, I don't have a physical option...yet. But I successfully made it through my first CreateSpace adventure and will see about making a "real" copy of this book soon!
I hope it helps!
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Let's Get Physical!
Or not...
I've been reading a lot of posts lately on different forums, in particular with the digital release of Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs, that some people are upset that there is no physical option available for purchase. Being the writer that I am, I looked at this frustration through the lens of eBooks.
I'll admit that I was hesitant to go all-in on Kindle at the beginning. I viewed eBooks as a novelty and not a necessity. After all, I was one of the millions who plunked down cold, hard cash at big book retailers to buy Harry Potter at midnight releases, and even now, I still prowl the book sections at both local BullMoose outlets, looking to feed my hunger for a paperback or even the occasional hardcover.
But, are we really losing anything when it comes to a physical product? More important to note, in my opinion, is this: In many cases there isn't a physical product simply because it doesn't exist. In the case of indie book publishing, this is almost always the case. Unless you go with CreateSpace for a paperback, a physical book like you would pick up at a store just doesn't exist. It's not hidden somewhere - not locked away in the Disney Vault (which still hasn't given me my Aladdin on blu ray!). The product is the digital file, as you can see with the whole Amnesia issue.
Why is having a digital file scary?
Well, I can say that people are always worried that their collections are going to just become deleted someday, and that's fair enough. I went through a year or two when an album I'd purchased on iTunes was unavailable due to a contract expiration and, since I hadn't backed up a physical copy of this album, when my iPod crashed, I was without that album. Poof, goodbye.
But, with the cloud and Amazon, I am not afraid that my eBook collection is going anywhere in a hurry. In fact, I have downloaded books I bought back in 2010 to my new Paperwhite, and they were exactly the same as they were when I purchased them. I believe that is the plus side of all this digital marketplace business - the products don't age.
I can't tell you how many books I've purchased as physical objects that are now collecting dust and wearing away on my shelves at home. They get old. Nothing lasts forever. The surprising thing is, once my eReader becomes obsolete or battered, I can get a new one. My books remain the same quality as they did on day one.
So, as you shop for eBooks and other digital goods, keep in mind that the shelf life doesn't expire on these goodies. This means a lot less dusting in my own home, for which I am always very thankful!
I've been reading a lot of posts lately on different forums, in particular with the digital release of Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs, that some people are upset that there is no physical option available for purchase. Being the writer that I am, I looked at this frustration through the lens of eBooks.
I'll admit that I was hesitant to go all-in on Kindle at the beginning. I viewed eBooks as a novelty and not a necessity. After all, I was one of the millions who plunked down cold, hard cash at big book retailers to buy Harry Potter at midnight releases, and even now, I still prowl the book sections at both local BullMoose outlets, looking to feed my hunger for a paperback or even the occasional hardcover.
But, are we really losing anything when it comes to a physical product? More important to note, in my opinion, is this: In many cases there isn't a physical product simply because it doesn't exist. In the case of indie book publishing, this is almost always the case. Unless you go with CreateSpace for a paperback, a physical book like you would pick up at a store just doesn't exist. It's not hidden somewhere - not locked away in the Disney Vault (which still hasn't given me my Aladdin on blu ray!). The product is the digital file, as you can see with the whole Amnesia issue.
Why is having a digital file scary?
Well, I can say that people are always worried that their collections are going to just become deleted someday, and that's fair enough. I went through a year or two when an album I'd purchased on iTunes was unavailable due to a contract expiration and, since I hadn't backed up a physical copy of this album, when my iPod crashed, I was without that album. Poof, goodbye.
But, with the cloud and Amazon, I am not afraid that my eBook collection is going anywhere in a hurry. In fact, I have downloaded books I bought back in 2010 to my new Paperwhite, and they were exactly the same as they were when I purchased them. I believe that is the plus side of all this digital marketplace business - the products don't age.
I can't tell you how many books I've purchased as physical objects that are now collecting dust and wearing away on my shelves at home. They get old. Nothing lasts forever. The surprising thing is, once my eReader becomes obsolete or battered, I can get a new one. My books remain the same quality as they did on day one.
So, as you shop for eBooks and other digital goods, keep in mind that the shelf life doesn't expire on these goodies. This means a lot less dusting in my own home, for which I am always very thankful!
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Why Scrivener?
I will admit right off that I've been using Microsoft Word since I was in high school, and if you want to count, that was roughly ten years ago. I was typing away on an old Windows machine in the basement, writing Harry Potter fanfiction every night. If only I could be so productive now with my own stuff! But I digress...
The argument I'm going to make here is that it's hard to jump ship on a typing program and learn a completely new piece of software if you're looking just at the act of typing words on the screen. I heard about Scrivener last year, and the free trial has sat on my laptop since then, barely used. Originally I was trying to use it to write a few screenplays, but never really got into the nuts and bolts of the software with that usage alone.
Fast forward to a month ago.
Nearing the end of my first draft of my manuscript, I decided to try my hand at formatting for Kindle, my end goal format for self publishing. I thought it would be easy. After all, with every Kindle that I've purchased (I own a Kindle 2 - purchased in 2009, the original Kindle Fire, and now my beloved Kindle Paperwhite) Amazon has provided a free eBook that goes over the process of publishing on Amazon. This step-by-step guide insists that I use Microsoft Word, so I was thrilled that I already had my hands on the program and was doing all my typing in it.
However, when I actually got into the nitty gritty of formatting, I wasted at least three hours on trying to get my tabs to work (I had already stripped out the manual tabs like it told me to do and replaced those with the auto formatting of first-line indent x percentage). After all that time, I still had tabs that were off kilter and looked like a mess! Now, you have to understand that I worked for two years as a graphic designer for the University Of Southern Maine's music department where my entire job consisted of making sure that all the text of their music programs was lined up precisely and all the italics were where they should be. Seeing my manuscript, a 50,000+ word novel just thrown together with me being helpless to figure out what was going wrong - I was ready to cry or drink a very large glass of red wine!
I did enjoy the wine regardless, but it wasn't until I re-discovered Scrivener through the Self Publishing Podcast that I found a solution to all of my formatting woes. (If you haven't checked out that podcast on iTunes, I highly recommend it). You see, the main roadblock to my using Scrivener was simply that I didn't want to learn a new, fancy interface in order to do something that was so simple up until now: type words on a screen and print them later. But, with the advent of self-publishing as eBooks, I found that I wasn't printing my words any more, rather, I was going to be exporting them as a digital book that is not unlike a website. The table of contents is a list of links, and the image insertion is exactly like a web page. I didn't finish my only HTML course in high school with flying colors, but I knew the basics and was easily frustrated when the codes didn't do what I wanted, or I forgot how to type some random tag.
Scrivener takes all the headache out of this export process with some very cool presets for Kindle (.mobi) and other major eBooks (.epub). I found some excellent blogs about formatting my document for the best possible .mobi output and went to town. There are way too many things to type right here, but if I get a chance, I will try to document some specific revelations that I found while formatting with custom fonts and cover images. In a matter of three hours in Scrivener, I had a beautiful Kindle book that I loaded onto my Paperwhite and enjoyed like a kid in a candy store. Why would you ever try the headache of Microsoft Word when you can get better results with complete customization options in Scrivener? I don't know.
What I do know is that I can't imagine using any other writing software moving forward. With all the different things you can do, from drafting to completed Kindle export, Scrivener is a dream. Definitely check out the free trial if you are struggling to get your work out to eBook stores like I was. There's a great peace of mind that settles over me once the technical aspect of constructing the eBook product is finished and I can focus completely on what really matters to my creative brain: my story.
The argument I'm going to make here is that it's hard to jump ship on a typing program and learn a completely new piece of software if you're looking just at the act of typing words on the screen. I heard about Scrivener last year, and the free trial has sat on my laptop since then, barely used. Originally I was trying to use it to write a few screenplays, but never really got into the nuts and bolts of the software with that usage alone.
Fast forward to a month ago.
Nearing the end of my first draft of my manuscript, I decided to try my hand at formatting for Kindle, my end goal format for self publishing. I thought it would be easy. After all, with every Kindle that I've purchased (I own a Kindle 2 - purchased in 2009, the original Kindle Fire, and now my beloved Kindle Paperwhite) Amazon has provided a free eBook that goes over the process of publishing on Amazon. This step-by-step guide insists that I use Microsoft Word, so I was thrilled that I already had my hands on the program and was doing all my typing in it.
However, when I actually got into the nitty gritty of formatting, I wasted at least three hours on trying to get my tabs to work (I had already stripped out the manual tabs like it told me to do and replaced those with the auto formatting of first-line indent x percentage). After all that time, I still had tabs that were off kilter and looked like a mess! Now, you have to understand that I worked for two years as a graphic designer for the University Of Southern Maine's music department where my entire job consisted of making sure that all the text of their music programs was lined up precisely and all the italics were where they should be. Seeing my manuscript, a 50,000+ word novel just thrown together with me being helpless to figure out what was going wrong - I was ready to cry or drink a very large glass of red wine!
I did enjoy the wine regardless, but it wasn't until I re-discovered Scrivener through the Self Publishing Podcast that I found a solution to all of my formatting woes. (If you haven't checked out that podcast on iTunes, I highly recommend it). You see, the main roadblock to my using Scrivener was simply that I didn't want to learn a new, fancy interface in order to do something that was so simple up until now: type words on a screen and print them later. But, with the advent of self-publishing as eBooks, I found that I wasn't printing my words any more, rather, I was going to be exporting them as a digital book that is not unlike a website. The table of contents is a list of links, and the image insertion is exactly like a web page. I didn't finish my only HTML course in high school with flying colors, but I knew the basics and was easily frustrated when the codes didn't do what I wanted, or I forgot how to type some random tag.
Scrivener takes all the headache out of this export process with some very cool presets for Kindle (.mobi) and other major eBooks (.epub). I found some excellent blogs about formatting my document for the best possible .mobi output and went to town. There are way too many things to type right here, but if I get a chance, I will try to document some specific revelations that I found while formatting with custom fonts and cover images. In a matter of three hours in Scrivener, I had a beautiful Kindle book that I loaded onto my Paperwhite and enjoyed like a kid in a candy store. Why would you ever try the headache of Microsoft Word when you can get better results with complete customization options in Scrivener? I don't know.
What I do know is that I can't imagine using any other writing software moving forward. With all the different things you can do, from drafting to completed Kindle export, Scrivener is a dream. Definitely check out the free trial if you are struggling to get your work out to eBook stores like I was. There's a great peace of mind that settles over me once the technical aspect of constructing the eBook product is finished and I can focus completely on what really matters to my creative brain: my story.
Friday, August 23, 2013
Old Dog, New Tricks
I just did something that I only do once in a while: I bought a few Kindle books.
Did you read that correctly? I actually paid real monies for a product that someone else wrote. If you know me, this is a little shocking because I am infamous for prowling the "Top 100 Free" list on Amazon daily. I have only read one book from the hundreds that I've downloaded, mostly because I am very busy and my free time is very limited - but I am also nearing the end of two other books I've downloaded recently that kept my attention. Those were also free promo books for a day or two.
Why this leap into spending money for something? Well, I just got my first ever Kindle Paperwhite. I debated for a month whether or not I should buy a new eReader (my other options being my iPad, which hurt my eyes after an hour of reading, and my original Kindle 2 with keyboard and buttons) but, I finally broke down. I am thrilled with the device, and it has jumpstarted my book consumption back to a healthy level that I haven't seen since my high school days. I was very turned off by my old Kindle 2's single, computerized font. The Paperwhite looks like real printed type, and I love the backlight. I've read everywhere, and it's rejuvenated my imagination.
But, enough about the eReader. My point for this blog is that I've struggled with something mentally that I read about a while back when it comes to eBooks. I downloaded so many for free that they started losing their value in my mind. Why is this? I'm still not really sure. I think it may have something to do with the genre that is most often free, and that's coincidentally related to the genre that I am trying to write: romance.
I'll be honest. I'm a sucker for a good love story. I am a man, but that doesn't stop me from crying like a baby when I see Lady Mary and Matthew Crawley share a kiss in the snowfall on Downton Abbey. I am sucked in to the stories of these characters and their relationships. They're fascinating and engaging when done right.
However, I've noticed that there are a lot of half-baked ideas floating around in eBook-land. Technology is good to us and gives writers opportunities that we didn't have five years ago. But it's a double-edged sword. The ability to publish anything means that as a reader I am now forced to wade through thousands of books to find one to read. Many of these books are not my taste. Many of them are not bad, but there have been quite a few that had me scratching my head thinking, "What was this writer trying to do?" I suppose some of these stories are too simplistic for my liking. I need high stakes, even if those stakes are simply who will inherit a sprawling estate. I have come across many books that believe that I should be completely interested in reading about every little thing that the heroine does for her daily routine. This isn't the case. I need urgency. I need to feel that everything that is happening has a point for the overall story. It's something that I'm currently sorting through in my own manuscript.
Even with all this wading, I believe I have found a few eBooks that are worth my money. I'm hoping, at least. I need escapism. Better than that, I need to be well-read in my chosen genre. There are many how-to books out there, but nothing teaches better than a great novel on its own. It's also an added bonus when that book is a page turner!
Did you read that correctly? I actually paid real monies for a product that someone else wrote. If you know me, this is a little shocking because I am infamous for prowling the "Top 100 Free" list on Amazon daily. I have only read one book from the hundreds that I've downloaded, mostly because I am very busy and my free time is very limited - but I am also nearing the end of two other books I've downloaded recently that kept my attention. Those were also free promo books for a day or two.
Why this leap into spending money for something? Well, I just got my first ever Kindle Paperwhite. I debated for a month whether or not I should buy a new eReader (my other options being my iPad, which hurt my eyes after an hour of reading, and my original Kindle 2 with keyboard and buttons) but, I finally broke down. I am thrilled with the device, and it has jumpstarted my book consumption back to a healthy level that I haven't seen since my high school days. I was very turned off by my old Kindle 2's single, computerized font. The Paperwhite looks like real printed type, and I love the backlight. I've read everywhere, and it's rejuvenated my imagination.
But, enough about the eReader. My point for this blog is that I've struggled with something mentally that I read about a while back when it comes to eBooks. I downloaded so many for free that they started losing their value in my mind. Why is this? I'm still not really sure. I think it may have something to do with the genre that is most often free, and that's coincidentally related to the genre that I am trying to write: romance.
I'll be honest. I'm a sucker for a good love story. I am a man, but that doesn't stop me from crying like a baby when I see Lady Mary and Matthew Crawley share a kiss in the snowfall on Downton Abbey. I am sucked in to the stories of these characters and their relationships. They're fascinating and engaging when done right.
However, I've noticed that there are a lot of half-baked ideas floating around in eBook-land. Technology is good to us and gives writers opportunities that we didn't have five years ago. But it's a double-edged sword. The ability to publish anything means that as a reader I am now forced to wade through thousands of books to find one to read. Many of these books are not my taste. Many of them are not bad, but there have been quite a few that had me scratching my head thinking, "What was this writer trying to do?" I suppose some of these stories are too simplistic for my liking. I need high stakes, even if those stakes are simply who will inherit a sprawling estate. I have come across many books that believe that I should be completely interested in reading about every little thing that the heroine does for her daily routine. This isn't the case. I need urgency. I need to feel that everything that is happening has a point for the overall story. It's something that I'm currently sorting through in my own manuscript.
Even with all this wading, I believe I have found a few eBooks that are worth my money. I'm hoping, at least. I need escapism. Better than that, I need to be well-read in my chosen genre. There are many how-to books out there, but nothing teaches better than a great novel on its own. It's also an added bonus when that book is a page turner!
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