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Tag Archives: error
Indie Publishing – Another Guy’s Book

Okay, so if you’ve visited my blog in the past and peeked into the Writer’s Desk Logbook, you probably have read all you care to know about my struggles in the Query Wars and the recent departure from the front lines to independently publish my novel Pilot Error. If that’s the case, you can relax and continue reading. Please glance at the title again if that statement is confusing. A good friend and fellow writer (I’ll refer to him as Another Guy, or AG) is also an illustrator, which is where the fellowship stops. On second thought, that didn’t come out quite … Continue reading
Proofing the Proof

I’ve read that proofreading a manuscript is best done with a printed copy rather than on a computer screen. The reason has to do with the way in which the eye-brain connection handles the task of processing the words, and that it’s easier to catch errors when they are on paper. Over the years of toil with my novel, I’ve generally not bought into that theory, primarily because in practical terms my experience didn’t validate it. A far more relevant factor in determining the effectiveness of a self-edit seemed to be familiarity. I’ve read every sentence in one version or … Continue reading
Indie News – A Special Kind of Thrill

So you’re a writer, and you’ve had this dream of being published. Maybe it began years ago and took a while to gain enough traction for you to sit down and begin putting the words to electronic paper. But you finally do, and quickly discover that you had no clue how hard it was going to be. And then one day all the false starts, multiple revisions, doubt, and frustration fade into history as you gaze at the last page of a story that works. And it feels really, really good. Now it’s nothing more than a matter of finding … Continue reading
Indie War Dispatch – Wraparound Background

The short-version backstory on this continuing series of posts is very simple: with more time than spare change lying around, I decided to personally accomplish each of the tasks required to publish my novel as an ebook for all the popular ereading devices and make it available on as many distribution outlets as possible, along with offering a paperback edition through print-on-demand. At this point in my account of the war, I had been actively seeking help on two forums, one for Photoshop Elements (PSE) and the other for InDesign (ID). Etiquette as well as practical considerations prevent crossing the … Continue reading
Posted in Writing
Tagged background, brush, cover, error, indesign, indie, photoshop, pilot, raster, style, vector, war, wraparound
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Update From the Indie Publishing Front Lines

Recapping recent battles in the war: Scrub the original Word.doc file formatted for submission to agents to remove all the “messy” troublemakers like extra returns, tabs, spaces, etc. Follow the guidelines of Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), and PubIt (Barnes&Noble) to prepare a single .doc file for conversion to .epub and .mobi. Create another .doc file using the Smashwords formatting guidelines. Use Calibre to create the .epub and .mobi versions of the ebook. Design a cover for the ebooks with Photoshop Elements. Upload the .epub and .mobi files to PubIt and KDP along with the cover. Create a template for the … Continue reading

Posted in Writing
Tagged agent, blogger, epub, error, indesign, indie, kindle, mobi, photoshop, pilot, pubit, querytracker, smashwords
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