That’s right. I’m axing the price of my paperback novel Blood of Midnight: The Broken Prophecy by five dollars for the entire month of February to show my readers some love. Because, when you love someone, you give them books.
Don’t say I never got you anything for Valentine’s Day.
So stop by tomorrow for swords, sorcery, and sex. … Wait what? Oh, yeah. Please don’t buy it for your kids. I don’t pull my punches.
Okay, so the issue with the table of contents was resolved. If you’re making an ebook, and struggling with this, this might be of interest to you.
Apparently, sometimes when the book is converted from one format to another, or even simply opened in another program, hidden bookmarks are created that mess up the functionality of the book when it’s converted to an .epub format. Thankfully, this is easy to fix if you know how.
You go to Insert, then Bookmarks, and in the field where your bookmarks appear you’ll see the little buggers that snuck in there. You’ll know them because they start with an underscore: _like this. And you definitely didn’t put them there. Delete them. Make sure the document is saved. Close it and send it off.
I mean it.
Close it. Don’t open it again to check on it. And send it off.
Why? Because if you open it again, at least if you’re using Open Office like I do, the program will re-create those hidden bookmarks and you’ll have to do this again.
Now that that’s solved, let’s see what manner of mischief I can get up to today.
So! On the advice of my lovely friend Lofnbard, I decided to make a page dedicated to letting people know where they can purchase my book. Great idea! So I made one, and it looks nice. That’s not the problem.
The problem is, I went to Smashwords to retrieve the link for my book on their site and discovered that there were some formatting errors that caused my book to be rejected from their Premium Catalogue, namely, that the table of contents isn’t working for some reason.
What does that mean? Well for one thing, it means that if you poke a chapter heading in their version of my ebook on your ereader, it won’t take you to that chapter. This is weird because when last I saw it, I verified that the table of contents was in proper working order. In fact, it’s fully functional on both the Kobo and Kindle so if you’re using either of those devices, you’re absolutely fine.
The other thing it means is that, since December, they haven’t been distributing to all of the channels they were supposed to (ie: Sony, Barns & Noble, Apple, etc) and did not think to tell me about this. To be clear: When last I checked, it was available via all the distributors it was supposed to be and everything was fine. Smashwords neglected to notify me that there was a problem.
Not cool guys. I can’t fix things if you don’t tell me.
Another thing that I find very strange is that I uploaded my book to Kobo and Amazon independently of Smashwords. These two copies of the ebook (the .epub on Kobo and the .mobi on Amazon) are working fine. This leaves me wondering why the very same file suddenly doesn’t work the same when I upload to Smashwords. How frustrating!
I’ve sent an email to Smashwords asking them what’s up. I’ve gone through the file again, reuploaded the perfected version, and tested it in Adobe Digital Editions. Still having functionality issues with the table of contents for unexplained reasons. Hopefully, they will get back to me soon.
I apologize for this inconvenience. I will get it fixed as soon as I can. It would have been rectified already had I been aware of the issue.
Man, it would be really great to just focus on producing good literature for all you nice folks instead of having to constantly run around checking that everything is still working.
I just finished the plot and structure of the first chapter of Blood of Midnight: A Hollow Vengeance. Woo! Very excited to flesh it out. I’m pleased with the way the plot is coming together already.
In terms of cover art, presently, I’m waiting for Lulu’s Global Reach to kick in so that Blood of Midnight: The Broken Prophecy will be available for purchase on Amazon.com in its paperback format. It’s already there in ebook for the Kindle, if you so desire. For the paperback, it’ll take 6-8 weeks to be approved.
While I’m waiting, though, I’m considering showing y’all some love for the month of February and reducing the price of the book to 20.50 instead of 25.50. What do ya think? Five dollar discount for a month? Don’t be afraid to post or “like” and let me know your opinion.
Excellent info for freelancers and indie artists of all stripes, whether you’re the client or the artist. If you’re hiring, always pay your people. If you’re being hired, always get paid.
It’s very sad when art is devalued as something frivolous. Artists, your time is just as valuable as anybody else’s.
We had a fantastic writers’ circle meeting this weekend. I introduced our Scrivener-using members to Carol’s Novel Outliner and received some very positive feedback. Everyone came with vague ideas and left with a viable plot.
As for work, not much to report. I’ve been sick with a cold and slowly slogging through the second scene of A Hollow Vengeance. I’ve finally been able to approve the cover for the paperback version of Blood of Midnight: The Broken Prophecy. It should be available via Amazon in 4-8 weeks but until then, it’s available on Lulu if you’d like one.
Ebooks are available through all major distributors. Amazon, Kobo, Barns and Noble, you name it.
If you’ve read it already, I’d appreciate a review on Goodreads. Whelp, back to work with me. Catch ya later!
Yeah, I decided I’d update the background for the site as I’m sure you’re tired of looking at the cover art of Blood of Midnight: The Broken Prophecy over and over again all over the page. … okay maybe that was just me. Ha! Anyhow, I hope you like it.
As I write this, yet another proof is on its way to me. Hopefully by the end of the week I’ll have a paperback ready for mass distribution. I’m sorry it’s taken so long. I didn’t anticipate that the wait-times for tweaking things would be so extreme.
Basically, what I’ve been doing is working with my graphic designer trying to find the best method for compensating for this odd spinal drift that Lulu’s printer has going on. We’ve followed the uploading guidelines to a T and I’m pretty sure there’s a discrepancy between the measurements of their template and what actually comes out of the printer. I’m also pretty sure that their support team doesn’t believe me when I say this. In any case, the first edition limited run that’s still available for a week or so has a pure white spine with the title, author name, and spine art at the bottom printed on it. However, this lovely layout is really difficult to line up when it actually goes to print so I’ve had to mess around with getting the cover art to wrap around the spine. Both versions are beautiful. Kudos to Kristy for her mad skillz. I just wish that I could have had my first choice without having to muck about so much.
You see, each time I try something different, I have to upload the new cover art, order another proof copy (which costs me money), and wait for it to be printed and arrive at my door before I can say yea or nay to approve it for mass distribution. Currently, it is available for purchase at Lulu HERE but after it’s approved for expanded distribution, it will also be available on Amazon, Barns and Noble, etc.
Thank you all, once again, for being so patient with me. The learning curve for this endeavour has been an extreme one!
I sent out my first signed copy of Blood of Midnight: The Broken Prophecy today. What an exciting experience!
I’ve got all the plot elements for the sequel Blood of Midnight: A Hollow Vengeance done and I’ve started work on the plot skeleton. The first scene should be all blocked out by tomorrow. Possibly the entirety of the first chapter if I really get on a roll.
Until next time, folks! Thanks for stopping by.
This, I hope, will be the last time I have to upload a cover to Lulu. At least on this project. Haha! After futzing around over fifteen (not exaggerating) different iterations of the cover, I have one that finally looks like there will be NO overlap on the covers from the spine.
Many thanks go out to my tireless graphic designer, Kristy Laporte. You are full of win. Proof is ordered once again. All copies from now on will be Second Edition. People who bought the book within the first month and a half of availability now have a special version that will never be printed again. Woot!
Alright! I’ve finally settled on a title for the second Blood of Midnight book:
Blood of Midnight: A Hollow Vengeance.
While the first book focuses slightly more on Damon, the second follows Phoenix more closely. At first, I was apprehensive about this. Since I’ve been talking with some really amazing women, doing some research and reading, I’m a lot more secure with the idea of writing from the perspective of a female warrior.
I’m very excited to be working with these characters again. My only worry at this point is how to jam so much action into one book! I’m sure I’ll manage.
Kincaid out, see ya later.
Hey This IS My Job 