The book is finished. Soon, very soon, everyone will be able to read Xmas Carol. I'm not sure how long it will take before it appears in the Kindle bookstore. I'm working on that now. Once the Kindle version is out, I'll figure out how to publish the other versions. It's like the PC/Mac divide -- there are different e-reader platforms with different rules.
I spent the morning wrangling with formatting. Professionals want a lot of money to format your ebook. Not gonna happen. If the book is successful, I'll return to the formatting issue one day. But for now I'm just going to put out a clean-looking, basic book (with a fabulous cover).
As for the blurb, I think I've got one that works. I looked at the blurbs on current ebooks and didn't like them at all. Everything is written in the present tense, like this:
I'm a bit worried about the length of the book. People don't seem willing to read a "long" book these days. It might hurt their head, I guess. Current fiction is quite brief. The books are more like novellas than novels. My book is more than double the length of most horror novels out there. But I swear it's a quick read. Readers just fall into the book and tumble out the other end. Xmas Carol goes down like candy. I really can't see anyone (except religious wingnuts) wanting it to end until the final page. Even then, they'll want more. So I'm going to toss my worries aside and release a 200,000-word novel to an 80,000-word public. We'll see how it goes.
I'll report back when I reach the next stage. But hey, the book is done!
I spent the morning wrangling with formatting. Professionals want a lot of money to format your ebook. Not gonna happen. If the book is successful, I'll return to the formatting issue one day. But for now I'm just going to put out a clean-looking, basic book (with a fabulous cover).
As for the blurb, I think I've got one that works. I looked at the blurbs on current ebooks and didn't like them at all. Everything is written in the present tense, like this:
When Ginger realizes that Bubba intends to kill her, she pulls out all the stops and tries to kill him first.The present-tense seems clunky to me. Mine will be different. That's all I'll say for now.
I'm a bit worried about the length of the book. People don't seem willing to read a "long" book these days. It might hurt their head, I guess. Current fiction is quite brief. The books are more like novellas than novels. My book is more than double the length of most horror novels out there. But I swear it's a quick read. Readers just fall into the book and tumble out the other end. Xmas Carol goes down like candy. I really can't see anyone (except religious wingnuts) wanting it to end until the final page. Even then, they'll want more. So I'm going to toss my worries aside and release a 200,000-word novel to an 80,000-word public. We'll see how it goes.
I'll report back when I reach the next stage. But hey, the book is done!
2 comments:
Remember when hit songs were like two minutes max? When "Like a Rolling Stone" came out radio didn't want to play it because it was too long. Nuff said.
Thanks, C. Not one of my readers told me "it was long", never mind "it was too long". Not one. My next book, The Worlds, is much shorter, maybe 1/2 the length of Xmas Carol. For the quickie crowd.
Hey, I uploaded to Amazon. Should take 48 hours to clear. That's what I hear, anyway. I'm working to get it up at Smashwords now. They supply all the other book dealers, like B&N and Apple. I'm having trouble formatting it for them, but I'll keep at it.
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