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.

Barnes & Noble

Natalie's Story has been for sale on Amazon since July 2010. Now, it's on sale at Barnesandnoble.com. Same price $2.99. You can get the free Nook app for your computer or phone, just like Amazon. Or if you have a Nook!!

If you could go to the Barnes and Noble page and click the FB like link, that would help me out!

I've been working on formatting Teagan's Story so I can get that out. It's ridiculous. Why hasn't anyone come up with some software that easily converts a document into different things? I finally got the indents looking somewhat normal... but the table of contents... UGH!!!!

Book Covers

I'm naive in this area. For Natalie's Story I just uploaded a picture of the beach from when we went on vacation a few years ago. There is a beach scene in Natalie's Story so it's not a huge stretch, but still not the picture I'd like to use for the cover.

I've read about websites where you can buy a photo and use that for your book, but I have no idea how these things work. I need simple instructions in English, not lawyer talk, to follow.

Can anyone clue me in?

Times To Write

Finding time to write can be difficult sometimes. I'm not a morning person, so writing in the morning is pretty much OUT. Late morning and afternoon can work sometimes, other times, there's too much happening with the kids. Forget after school and dinner time, too chaotic. That leaves night. I like writing at night. I can put the kids to bed, put on a show or music and let the words flow.

But, there are nights when I'm tired, nights when I'm physically exhausted, nights where I get the kids to bed too late and I don't have the UMPH to write. That sucks. I need to be able to get my creative juices flowing and get these books done.

I'm currently working on book #3 and I'm trying to get the timeline down. I have most of the story written, but it needs some fluff in the middle. I can't write anything more until I pin down the times. So, that's my plan today. Get off the blog and do the timeline! On a piece of paper so I can see it laid out.

Book Reviews

I've gotten excellent reviews on Natalie's Story so far. But, there are only a few. I could really use anyone who has read the book to write a review on Amazon. Doesn't have to be a lot of words, just be honest.

Book Sales

I think a lot of people got Kindles for Christmas. In the week after Christmas, my book sales went from just a couple to 16. Then someone returned a book. LOL! Guess they didn't like it? Or maybe they thought it was paperback and when they realized it was an eBook, they returned it? Whatever it was, not a big deal. That leaves 15 sales for December, not bad. I realize that it's not 1500, that's okay. Maybe someday I'll get there. And when I checked today, another 2 books sold. So, it may be one here and one there, but each sale is a possible fan and that fan might spread the word!

My New Year's resolution this year is to write more. I'd like to finish the book I'm working on and I'd like to get Teagan's Story uploaded to Amazon.

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!!