Taking the Next Step: Ebooks

Let's talk book covers. It was fun to go into the bookstore with my friend and graphic designer, Dee. She began by asking me, "What stands out for you?" What followed was the kind of discussion you always dream of having where you get to match the cover to the content of your book.

Authors rarely get a say into their covers and maybe there's a good reason for it, but yesterday I couldn't find one. With Dee's knowledge of design and my knowledge of what was in the book, we came up with a terrific concept. Since each entry in the memoir will be its own 99 cent book, we needed a design that we could use about twelve times, altering the image and background colour.

Since, the book is about the back-to-the-land movement, I'm favouring 70s colours like lime green which was the colour of my parents' walls. Very 70s. Not only were the walls lime green, they were textured with a very sharp gritty substance, so whenever anyone scraped against the wall, they left some blood behind. But that's another story.

So, I'm feeling good about the process so far. I've got design and production covered. Last night I wrote up some of the information at the front of the book such as the disclaimer and copyright information and a list of contributors. I wrote up the author biography. The memoir is edited and ready to go. Dee will deliver the cover as a JPEG.

But what then? How do I convert the doc. file to the necessary ebook formats? Today, I discovered that Mobi is the format for Amazon and ePub is the format for Sony, B&N, and Apple. I need to find out a lot more about conversion. Who is doing it and what does it cost? Online, I found a company out of England that will give me both formats for a total of $160. They called it their standard conversion package.

I checked into Bookbaby which starts with a $99 fee, but adds on $39 for converting a PDF and then about $20 for an ISBN number and an annual fee of $19. But it wasn't the money that made me nervous; they take over the process too much for me. They convert the file but they also "deliver" it. Then they also collect your money for you. So when Amazon pays the author royalites, it goes to Bookbaby. Bookbaby doesn't take a cut of it, but they do charge an annual fee. It's not the kind of arrangement I'm looking for.

I know I can deliver the book to Amazon myself and cut out the middleman. But how?

I'm still exploring all my options, but I'll let you know what I find out.

Why just talk about ebooks? Why not do it?

I've decided to test the ebook waters. I'm going to take one of my memoirs called My Father's Parrot and sell it on Amazon for $1.99. It's 2000 words in length. It's part of a series I'm writing called, Back to the Land and it's a humorous account of how my father hauled his family out of city-life and into rural Ontario.

It starts with my father's purchase of a parrot and his dreams to give this parrot a better life. In order to build the bird an aviary, we pack up everything and head north where land is cheaper and the living ain't so easy.

But before I get ahead of myself, I thought I'd document all the steps I'm taking to learn about ebook publishing. Like anything, it's going to require some work. Here's what I've done so far:

Step 1: I've decided to go through Kindle Direct Publishing, Amazon's self-publishing site. It is full of good information.
Step 2: Talked to my friend who is a graphic designer and asked her if she'll help design a cover. According to everything I've read, covers are very important. I need a brand, a cover that my readers will recognize and say, "Ah, the latest chapter of that Back to the Land saga -- that crazy father and all his zany ideas."
Step 3: Looked at Amanda Hocking's covers. Not that my memoir is about vampires (although there are plenty of bats) but Hocking's got the right idea when it comes to thumbnails, branding, and colour.
Step 4: Booked myself an author photo shoot with a fabulous photographer: Ryan Rock. Also a friend!
Step 5: Edited my manuscript. I was very fortunate to have My Father's Parrot edited by Pam Chamberlain who put together the anthology, Country Roads, and who is currently putting together an anthology about animals and their importance in our lives.
Step 6: Started to make notes about formatting the book. I've been reading about Amazon's requirements.

So, already this project of mine is involving a graphic designer, a photographer, an editor, and me. Oh, and I can't forget, the friend who initially sent me all these wonderful articles that got me excited about ebooks, so that makes five people so far. It really does take a village! I'll let you know how it goes.

Sell a Short Story as an E-book for .99

I never thought about selling one short story as an ebook. What a concept!

This article has some fascinating information about ebook publishing and authors who are making good money from their books. It opened up my eyes.

http://thenextweb.com/media/2011/03/07/the-economics-of-self-publishing-an-ebook/

Amanda Hocking E-book Success Story

She's 26 years old and she's selling her e-books like hotcakes. Here's an article about Amanda Hocking:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110324/ap_en_ot/us_books_amanda_hocking

E-books

I just read a very informative article about creating e-books. You might want to check it out:

http://reviews.cnet.com/how-to-self-publish-an-e-book

Suspense

I awoke after last night's writing with some thoughts about this question of when to cut away from a scene. So let's say you get the action up and running. That's good. In fact, that's a feat in itself. Get the action happening on stage, get it happening to the right person, build some tension and then cut away.

But I realized, last night I'd cut away too soon. It's not enough to introduce the big dilemma if you don't play with it a bit. So this morning I went back in and added another scene so the reader could enjoy the suspense of the thing a bit more. I wanted the reader to feel like I do when I watch a good movie and I'm hanging onto the dog, and telling the person on the screen, "Don't do that. Don't turn the door knob. Don't go inside."

I'm not writing a thriller but I understand the importance of suspense, at least I'm starting to. It takes a long time to understand where to cut to a new scene in order to build suspense but also when to LINGER in order to create suspense. I'm starting to listen to my body more when I write, if that makes any sense. I'm starting to feel my way through the story.

I read a graphic novel recently that might work well here as an example of this idea of lingering a while in order to build suspense. The novel is Ethel & Ernest by Raymond Briggs. The story opens on a Monday in 1928. A woman is dusting and a man rides by the house on his bicycle. The woman shakes her dust rag out the window at the exact time that the cyclist rides by. He thinks she's waving at him and he smiles at her and tips his hat. Tuesday, it happens again. The shake of a rag, the big smile from the cyclist and an even bigger wave of the hat. Wednesday, you think it's going to happen again, and the reader anticipates that Ethel and Ernest might exchange a greeting. But no. The writer, wisely, introduces some suspense. Wednesday, Ethel is at the window but gets pulled away by the voice of her emloyer. It is raining and the cyclist rides by in the rain, but no Ethel. Thursday, no cyclist. Ethel stands at the window waiting for him until again she's pulled away. Friday, again no cyclist, but lots of rain. Saturday and the weather has improved. The cyclist rings the doorbell, presents Ethel with a bouquet and asks her to the movies.

It's such a simple example, but you can see what would have happened had Ethel and Ernest met on a Tuesday instead of a Saturday. The passage of time and the rain and the forlorn expressions on their faces made the pleasure of their meeting all that much better.

I'm going to try to keep Ethel and Ernest in my mind. Delay gratification. Delay, delay, delay.

Building Blocks of Plot

Here are some steps that may be helpful to you in terms of structuring the plot:


1. Initial philosophy revealed, the status quo established. (The story doesn't have to start here, but you should know your central character's baseline.)

2. Inciting incident. Something happens to kickstart the action.

3. You have one central character and only one. She wants something intensely and it is this intensity that will motivate her to act. (No passive central characters.)

4. She struggles to achieve her goal. (And you see to it that her struggle is as difficult as possible). Escalate the difficulties. Struggle implies a protracted effort. In the scenes that build the character resists change. Holds onto belief system.

5. Midpoint of the story/chapter, the character is closest to achieving what she/he wants. Within grasp but he or she loses it.

6. Crisis: The character faces such questions as: Do I give up? Do I change what I want? Do I dig my heels in deeper? Do I fool myself into thinking I don't care? What am I made of? Biggest dilemma of her/his life. The central character is the furthest away from success. Zero hope.

7. Climax: Show how the narrator has changed. What does the character do?

8. Resolution: End with a different belief system. As a result of her struggle, she gets what she wants or does not. Maybe she gets something else, but there is a resolution.