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Posts Tagged ‘createspace’

ROW80 Check-In 10/15/14

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on October 15, 2014| 13 Comments »

I just checked in two days ago! Wait…I was a day late. 🙂

I’ve been making some progress. In the last three days, I’ve written for about an hour and a half, 1908 words. I didn’t write last night because I was SO upset with CreateSpace. When I got my proof, the cover of Fire Wizard was so dark and bland. Nothing like the colorful cover Anya had made for me. 😦 I just couldn’t focus. So I went to my friend’s Jamberry Nail Facebook party. Retail therapy is so effective. You know, that’s the first Facebook party I’ve ever attended that wasn’t an author’s party. It was the first party I’ve ever attended on my “real life” Facebook account. And I won something!

I did write about 30 minutes during lunch today. Wednesday isn’t usually a writing day, but since I was feeling sorry for myself last night, I thought I better make it up a little. LOL

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Sunday Update 2/3/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on February 3, 2013| 23 Comments »

I had a disagreement with my youngest son last night, so my heart is hurting a little this morning. Oh, who am I kidding…a little?…I can’t stop crying. But that’s life, I guess.

This week it’s time to get the ball rolling. The first thing I need to do is finish reading a manuscript for a friend. Then, I need to get Soul of a Vampire uploaded to CreateSpace for print. I plan on doing those two things today. Then, tomorrow, I’m going to start on a new story. I’ll probably make notes on that today, so I’ll be ready to actually write tomorrow. I haven’t gotten a new office chair yet…that might have to wait due to lack of funds. So I guess I’ll just put a cushion in the chair and go about my writing. 🙂

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Wednesday Update 7/25/12

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on July 25, 2012| 18 Comments »

Nothing earth shattering has happened since Sunday. LOL. Good word counts the past couple of days. No exercise…my walking partner is on vacation…I’ve been a slacker. I haven’t felt very well, either, but I suspect exercise would make me feel BETTER. Silly me for not doing it.

I’m 2/3 through proofing Vampires’ Curse for print. A word about that. If it were just for my benefit, I’m not sure I would even put anything in print, although it’s nice to hold my book in my hands. But there are still readers out there who want a print book. It’s for them that I do this. It would be free if I didn’t want expanded distribution, but I pay $25 to do that. However, I make only about 50-75 cents per book when bookstores (other than Amazon) or libraries buy it (versus about $2.75 if readers buy it from Amazon). Is it worth it? I haven’t yet decided. I hate to limit where readers can buy my books, but it will take a long time, if ever, to make up that $25. It seems I spend a lot of time and money sometimes doing things to benefit other people. But…I sort of feel like that’s one reason we’re put on this planet. What do the rest of you think? Should I stop paying for expanded distribution? What would you do? It’s free to distribute to Amazon, since Amazon owns CreateSpace. But I have almost as many sales from the expanded distribution venues. I can’t decide what to do with this latest print book.

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Quick ROW80 Check In 11/30/11

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on November 30, 2011| 19 Comments »

Just a quick check in since I’m at work and I’m SWAMPED with figuring prices and making spreadsheets.

I finished the third (and last) Libby Fox novella Sunday night. I think the cover is ready. I just need to 1) Edit, 2) Send to beta readers, 3) Think of a title!

Also, I sent my Starfane files to CreateSpace and have ordered a proof copy. Keeping my fingers crossed that it looks ok.

How are the rest of you doing?

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Vanity Presses

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on September 23, 2011| 8 Comments »

I published my first print book, A Rocky Path, with a vanity press. I paid about $450 for the privilege of publishing with them. At the time, ebooks weren’t an option, and I don’t think affordable places like CreateSpace were available. My biggest beef with this vanity press is that they charge $19.99 for my fairly short paperback novel. The only people who have ever bought one have been family and friends. Since the time I published with them, they bug me constantly, wanting me to pay for this or that, mostly marketing. But how do you market a $19.99 book by a fairly unknown author?

The advantage of using the vanity press was all I had to do was send them a word document and a picture that I wanted on the front cover, and they did the rest. The inside looks fine, but the cover wasn’t that great. I had my cover artist redo the cover for the ebook. When I published a book recently with CreateSpace, I had a great cover done by my cover artist and I did all the formatting myself. And it only cost me $39! And it wouldn’t have cost anything, but I wanted the expanded distribution.

Anyway, what got me really going on this today was that I got an email from them saying they would do a book trailer for me for ONLY $999. Yeah, right. And not long ago, they offered to pay half for shopping my book for a movie deal. My half was only $1500. How can I make these people leave me alone? I don’t answer my phone when they call, but they keep trying.

When I published with this vanity press, they assured me that I could remove the book at any time since I had all rights to it. But I wonder if that will be as easy as it sounds. I’m filled with a sense of dread every time I think of dealing with these people. I want to republish it eventually with CreateSpace after I have all of my other ones done. Has anyone else had any experience with taking down books from vanity presses, or are all of you so young that other options were available when you first published? 🙂

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Haunted Lake – In Print

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on August 11, 2011| 5 Comments »

I submitted my files to CreateSpace just a few days ago. Yesterday, I got the proof copy back. They are so quick! They were the same way when I did a print book for Jonathan Eli. I was very pleased with the way the book looked. The cover that Anya and I agonized over looked fine. So Haunted Lake is now available in the CreateSpace Store and will be available at Amazon in just a few days. Squee!

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CreateSpace/Haunted Lake

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 5, 2011| 6 Comments »

Today I submitted Haunted Lake to CreateSpace for a print version. I’m really nervous, and I think my cover designer, Anya Kelleye, is nervous, too. The cover is going to be iffy. I love it, but sometimes there’s an issue with color on this particular cover. And it looks different on the computer screen than it does when I print it out on our color laser here at work. Also, I hope all the errors in the interior have been fixed. When Anya and I did the print version for Jonathan Eli’s book, The Last Cabbandeum, we were delighted at how it turned out. Her cover was perfect. The interior I did looked great. So, hopefully, we did okay on this one. If not, we can always redo it and order another proof. It costs more to do that, but it has to be right.

After this, I’m going to work on getting Starfane in print. Then, I’m going to do a three novella set in one book with Club Blood, See Me, and Guardian Vampire. I may have said this before, but I joked about calling it “Loving the Dead and the Undead”. :0)

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ROW80 Check In 7/31/11

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on July 31, 2011| 20 Comments »

As of last night, I was 6522 words ahead of my cumulative goal. I feel like my story is slowing down a bit, but I think it will pick back up.

Also, one of the goals I didn’t state at the beginning is that I’m working to get my novel, Haunted Lake, in print. I’m in the process of proofreading it one last time. I have it printed out in the format in which it will go to CreateSpace, so I’ll be able to see any formatting errors, too. I’m over halfway through that read. And, I’ll have to say, I’m really enjoying reading it. I think it’s still my favorite of all the books I’ve written.

How’s everyone else?

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