Love Writing. Hate Formatting.

I hate formatting. HATE. IT. With a passion. Why - in this day and age - can't someone come up with a program that will take a basic Word document and change it into an eBook? I know, some of it has to do with the fact that Amazon uses Mobi and Barnes and Noble uses ePub. But, come on, people!

I have changed my Word document into everything possible and uploaded it and something is always messed up. I've gone back through my books and fixed anything that looked funny and most of the time it STILL looks funny. My main problem are the indents. They are all messed up!

Now, I've uploaded to B&N, and when looking at the sample, it looks fine. But, I can't see further into the book. So, you download the epub version of it and their Nook reader for computers, and then what happens, all the chapters are messed up on the top! UGH!

The other thing giving me trouble is formatting a table of contents. I had one that when you clicked on it went to the chapter, but the page numbers are wrong (they are okay on the Word document), but not okay on the eBooks because the pages are different. So, I took the page numbers out, but now I can't get them linked to the chapters.

I've tried some free programs, I've downloaded a free trial of Adobe's ridiculously expensive Indesign. Nothing helps.

Love writing. Hate formatting.

First Payment

I got an email last night - I almost missed it - my mailbox thought it might be spam. It was from Amazon and basically said my first payment is coming in. Took a few seconds to register, but soon I was elated! This means I've sold enough books to get a payment, even if the payment is small! Who would have thought? Even though this is very different than an agent picking the book and selling it to publishers and stores, it's still a wonderful feeling!!

I've sold 21 books so far. I can't wait to hit 25... and maybe 50... and I really, really hope someday 100!!

It's Live

I uploaded my book to Amazon and it didn't look right on their preview. So, I worked on the formatting again and again and again. I finally found a way to make the indents work right. Then there were 2 hypens I couldn't get deleted. Finally found that problem. So, I uploaded the book again - with a new cover picture I had taken at the beach a few years ago - and now it looks pretty good. The only problem I'm having now is the chapter headings are off centered. I guess I'll have to deal with that.

Anyway, I digress... MY BOOK IS LIVE!!!!!!!!!!! On Amazon!!!! It's unreal! I'm hoping that once the description gets put on there, that people will get interested and they'll buy it.

Natalie's Story

What are you waiting for??? GO! BUY! READ! :)

I Did It!

I uploaded my first book to Amazon. I had some trouble with the formatting, so I hope that once the good people over there look at it, they'll fix it. I'd hate to have my book up there with the margins all funny looking.

It's supposed to be up within 48 hours. Not sure if that'll happen on a weekend.

I'm so anxious! It's hard to be excited when there's no guarantees. But, there aren't any guarantees in life. Gotta take a chance sometimes. I hope there are people out there somewhere that will read it and like it!

So, book #2 is being looked at by some friends of mine. And I'm working on book #3.

It's Going To Happen

I am editing my book one more time. Then I plan to send it to the copyright office and upload it to Amazon. I'm sure there will still be mistakes, but I hope people aren't overly harsh.

So, dear readers - all 4 of you - please feel free to buy my book when it is uploaded, read it on your computer or phone or Kindle, and then if you like it, leave a glowing review so maybe, just maybe, someone else will buy it.

To Kindle or Not to Kindle

That is the question.

My loving and supportive husband thinks that I should self publish on Kindle. Me? Not so sure. I know I write well - and by that I mean I have good stories - but I'm not the best with grammar and punctuation. So, to bypass the whole agent, editor, and publisher thing is well... scary. Can I edit my books well enough that there aren't a ton of mistakes? And if 5 agents weren't intrigued by my queries, would anybody want to read the whole thing?

And WHO uses a Kindle??? I seriously don't know anybody who does. I have never seen one in real life. Also, my novels are young adult, so my other worry is that most young adults don't have Kindles or credit cards to download to their Kindle. Am I mistaken?

I am scared, I have no problem admitting that. It's one thing to send a chapter or two to an agent and they say "no thanks". But, to send your entire book to the world and have the entire world not be interested, that's FAILURE!