Mentoring Power: Key to Sustainable Economic Growth and Innovation" [Kindle Edition],

Hot listed on Amazon the first day of its publication, the short Ebook is a mere 547 KB packed with useful information including how to mentor, career and vocational guidance directed to fields in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), but the beauty of the findings is that the principles of good mentoring can be applied to any subject area.

“Mentoring Power: Key to Sustainable Economic Growth and Innovation" [Kindle Edition], at http://www.amazon.com/Mentoring-Power-Sustainable-Economic- Innovation-ebook/dp/B00P9GZ2LM  is a bargain read at 99 cents!

Mentoring Power: Key to Sustainable Economic Growth and Innovation [Kindle Edition]

I uploaded an Ebook to Amazon.com's KDP in 5 minutes this morning which included correcting several typos which Amazon's system noted.

 

However, it took me another 3 1/2 hours to fix some HTML on the back end, which I chose to modify as I thought it might not render across all devices.

The 3 1/2 hours included making a simple cover of my book from a photograph that I own.

This short book was in Microsoft Word, I exported it (saved it) as a Web Page -filtered,
an .htm (HTML) file. I followed the directions exactly as posted in Amazon's easy to follow
directions, "Building Your Book For Kindle" at

https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A2MB3WT2D0PTNK 

The book has a long subtitle, but the title is concise.

 http://www.amazon.com/Mentoring-Power-Sustainable-Economic-Innovation-ebook/dp/B00P9GZ2LM

The photo on the cover is yours truly with my great-niece a most serious reader (photo was
about six weeks before her 2nd birthday in Dec 2013).

Walk Forward is #1

Walk Forward is #1 today and has been #1 in its category for a few days. Free downloads last Thursday and Friday moved the book to #1 and it has remained at #1 over the weekend.

Creating a paperback version has not significantly added readers when considering the book has been downloaded by more than 700 persons during its short life of almost two months as of this November 25, 2012, having been first published in ebook format on September 25, 2012.

The paperback version is available on two platforms, Amazon.com and CreateSpace a separate, but wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.

Although CreateSpace is owned by Amazon, the web interfaces for an author or reader differ from that of Amazon.com.

It may be of interest to information professionals and readers, that book titles are not searchable in CreateSpace as they are on Amazon.com. If I find a way to search a title on CreateSpace, as one would have to if one did not have the CreateSpace identification number for a book, I will post herein.

CreateSpace has some nice features including the option of setting up discount codes for a book. Up to 3 discount codes may be set up for a book, but not being searchable and not being able to search for a discount code, makes the feature useless to anyone, but authors of the book who discount copies to family and friends. An author has to give a potential reader the discount code and the URL (address) of the book on the CreateSpace website.

It was actually easier to create a paperback copy of the book on CreateSpace than it was to create the ebook on Amazon Kindle Select, because CreateSpace requires a PDF of the book (which Open Office is great in creating)!

Turning the Ebook into a Paperback

Some potential readers are asking me for a copy of my ebook, Walk Forward, as a paperback!

                                                                         

This means I must find a platform for publishing a hard copy of Walk Forward.

I checked out the following three platforms:

1. Espresso Book Machine
2. Blurb
3. Createspace

The decision as to which platform to use is not exclusive, I could go with all three.
However, I eliminated the first two per issues of either the information they requested, cost, or location.

We do not yet have an Espresso Book Machine in our area of Cleveland, Ohio. There is one in Austin, Texas, and my sister would gladly pick a paperback copy of the book to me from their location on the University of Texas at Austin campus, and check the book for me.

However, after looking at cost, prompts, and requirements, I decided to try Createspace which is fully owned by Amazon, where my ebook resides on the Amazon Kindle platform.
I hoped that since my book was an ebook on Amazon's platform that there might be an easy way to submit my Amazon contribution to their wholly owned subsidiary.

Unfortunately, there is no easy way my ebook for Kindle can be turned into a paperback without having me upload a manuscript to Createspace in their preferred format.

All three platforms, Espresso, Blurb, and Createspace use a print-ready PDF to make prints of the book, various formats are accepted, but they convert to a PDF for publishing. Createspace will do as much as one wants to do and offer various services, in addition to the free uploading of a PDF.Whether one creates a PDF, using the guidelines for each platform, or hire someone to do it depends on the time one has to spend on the project.

I chose to do everything myself using mostly free programs and read that Open Office makes an awesome PDF.

Per Open Office Writer one need only match the requirements of the target platform to options in making the appropriate PDF.

One obvious problem is that ebooks do not currently have page numbers. Pages in a book are also dependent on font size. I decided to make the font size in my book size 14, and in the 6" x 9" paperback,
my book turned into 226 pages.

After submitting a PDF with even numbers on the right side and odd on the left, Createspace emailed that my book is non-standard. A book must have the odd page on the right side! They suggested I add another page to the front of my book to make my text start on an odd page, on the right side.

It sounded simple, just add a page and all should be fine, right?  No, no, no, it did not work. I could add a page by placing a page break before a heading on page 2, however, when I inserted the pagination, all the pages had numbers, or none of the pages had numbers. Should I use Roman numerals for the pages, such as the copyright and dedication pages, restart the page numbering process on the first text page, or what?

I called Createpace as was not sure I understood their directions and what the pagination should look like.

Createspace has great telephone help. I recommend them for their helpful telephone response system with a live person. All I had to do was type in my phone number and Createspace called me back immediately, with and very short waiting period, practically no waiting at all to speak with one of their knowledgeable representatives.

Createspace explained that they only allow one series of numbers, the front pages should not have numbers, but must be considered in the page count expressed on the first page of text of the book.

In my case, the first page of text would be page 5.

I could not get the text page to say page 5. Thus, decided to move my Open Office document to Microsoft Word which for some reason, allowed me to add the page numbers more easily. However, the page in back of the title page had a page "2" on it. I did not mind this and as long as it truly is page #2 and page #5 is labeled as page 5,  Createspace would accept the manuscript as long as page numbers correspond to the actual number the page would have, counting blank pages or whatever pages one might include in the book.

Having had to redo my pagination many times, I quickly learned to understand the difference between changing properties of a paragraph versus a page. 


I went between Open Office and Word and Open Office. Setting styles for a front page (termed a "first page" in Open Office) versus a "default" style for text, seemed easy, but for some unknown reason, the extra page I had to insert, stayed as a "default" page rather than being a unnumbered "first page." I started over
several times adding or deleting page numbers. I tried both Open Office and Microsoft Word and seemed to have issues as could not remove the default style from the page I added.

Certain tasks were easier to perform in Open Office, like making an awesome PDF, while it seemed easier to add/delete pages in Microsoft Word, and add page numbers using Word. Open Office's footer got larger and larger, Word's page number did not take up much space on the page. 
 
 I did not want to purchase software or hire someone to make a cover or put page numbers on my book, but I might hire someone in the future to do what I did as it was beyond time consuming! I am thankful that my first 6" x 9" paperback was no longer than its 226 pages!

I uploaded several copies to Createspace, as I had a few words in italics that hung into the margin. It was easy to cut and re-paste the few sentences that had italic words in the margin area.

The reverse side of the title page has a little number "2" on the bottom, as I could not
get that page number to hide, without deleting all the page numbers! The next two pages
have no page numbers (as I wanted and Createspace prefers), and no number on the Title page.

The text of Walk Forward starts on a page which is numbered "5" and it is page 5 if one counts every page included in the book from its front cover. Page 5 is on the right side, where convention dictates. CreateSpace will not
accept text starting on page 1, my text started on page 5 and it must be so numbered, 5.

CreateSpace wants the text to start with the real number, counting from the beginning of the book
and they do not allow Roman numerals, or another numbering style, for those early pages. Createspace does not allow two numbering systems in one book.

They said my cover converted properly and I ordered 5 proofs of Walk Forward as 5 is the maximum number of proofs one is permitted to purchase.

My book cover is brown to convey a serious feel of the nonfiction book, with yellow words on the back and front of the cover to signify "rays of sunshine."

Marketing Your Book: Part 5, Updating

I published my book, Walk Forward, about the ongoing search for my lost sister, Eugenia Chimowicz, on Amazon Kindle Select. In choosing the "Select" program, I agreed that the book will be an exclusive on Amazon Kindle for the next 90 days.

One reason I chose Amazon as in the publishing directions, it appeared easy to revise a book.  When the book was a week old, a newly found cousin in Israel read the book and emailed me that my grandmother had a brother, and that brother was a twin of one of my grandmother's sisters. This was new information for my book which could lead to new information about my lost sister. Since my grandmother's brother had offspring, it was important to include their male ancestor in the book as it identifies not only how they are related to me, but to my lost sister.

Those who purchased the book, tried to purchase the updated copy, only to find out that this is not possible. Amazon only allows an individual to purchase one copy of a book, even if the book is updated.

Herein is a reply which I received from Amazon this morning in response to my question as to how the 24 readers that purchased the first, original version of my book might obtain the updated version:

Email from Amazon this morning:

Regarding your inquiry about notifying your customers, we have received your request to provide updated content to customers who purchased your book. Thanks for providing specific details about the changes made. We’ll perform a review of the changes to determine the most appropriate way to describe the updates to your customers. This review will be complete within four weeks, and the possible results of our review listed below.

1. If the changes made to your content are considered critical, we’ll send an email to all customers who own the book to notify them of the update and improvements made. These customers will be able to choose to opt in to receive the update through the Manage Your Kindle page on Amazon.com.  www.amazon.com/gp/digital/fiona/manage
2. If the changes made to your content are considered minor, we won’t be able to notify all customers by email, but we will activate their ability to update the content through the Manage Your Kindle page on Amazon.com.
3. If the changes made to your content have caused unexpected critical issues with the book content, we’ll temporarily remove your book from sale. We’ll notify of you the issues found so you can fix them. Once the improvements are made, just let us know and we’ll then email customers as in case 1. Once our review is complete, we’ll email you to share the results and action taken.

Thanks for using Amazon KDP.

I am publishing this in my blog herein, for any authors needing information per updating a book on Amazon Kindle. 

Marketing Your Book: Part 3, Twitter

Since my book is free this Thursday, October 11, 2012, I have been tweeting about my book and making sure I direct it to like-minded persons.

I am using the following hash tags (#) at the end of my tweet about Walk Forward, per my upcoming first day promoting my book as "free" in the Amazon Kindle Select program.

The hash tags which I have been collecting include:

#FreeKindleEbooks, #freebook,  #free,  #ReadThis, #Kindle, #authorshelpingauthors, #amazon prime,
#book, #ebook, #read, #writing, #writechat, #storycraft, #amwriting, #litchat, #journalchat

The tags which I added to the Amazon page of my book include:

"free ebook," and  "kindle freebie." I had to delete two of my 15 tags to make room for these two tags which I hope the search engines pick up before this Thursday!

The hash tag #SampleSunday directs tweets to your book's website.

Walk Forward was published on September 25, 2012, and appeared on Amazon on September 26, 2012.
To date (October 9, 2012), a total of 25 copies have been sold. I gifted 40 copies, but unfortunately, those to whom  I gifted books, did not understand that one need not own a Kindle or any reading device to read an ebook.

One can read an ebook on the Amazon platform in the free Amazon Cloud or download the book to one's personal computer and read the book via the free "Kindle for PC."

I will report on the progress of the book in real time on Thursday and continue tweeting with hash tags!

Marketing Your Ebook: Part 1

Many say that writing the book is the easy part, but marketing is the real challenge.

My book, Walk Forward, was published on Amazon Kindle Select on September 25, 2012. I told family and friends about the book, which because of some early purchases, had a high rating in its very narrow subject area of non fiction, historical, holocaust, young adult, and adult categories.

The reason the numbers were high on first publication was because family and friends purchased several copies, and because the book is in a very narrow subject area.

In hindsight, I discovered the secret of a preliminary high rating, a few sales in a narrow subject area, where relatively few publish. My subject areas not being in the mass market, nor would the masses have interest in my topic.

My book is about the search for my lost sister. A newly found relative read the book and emailed me that I left my great-uncle out of the book. I quickly added him and sent the book to Amazon to update.

Updating is easy, but for one problem. The author can not purchase more than one copy of a book, even if it is an update. I understand that this is true for everyone, one can not buy the original copy of a book and the update, a week or two later! Amazon will send the author the updated version, update the version of the book in the Amazon Cloud, but this might take a few days. Thus, it takes some time to see if the live links to websites included in a book, actually work.

Amazon is aware of the problem with readers wanting to purchase updates of books and I hope this issue is resolved quickly as in the case of my ongoing search for my sister, as more information is found, I hope to include it in updates to the book.

Since I had uploaded a MOBI file, the "preview" module does not include the option of seeing the HTML of the uploaded book. When I click on a live link in the book in "preview" mode, it links to the cover of my book, rather than going out to the link.

To revise a MOBI file, one has to recreate the MOBI file and upload the book once again.

Per updates, I emailed Amazon to find out if I could load a book in MOBI and update in HTML, for example, and they replied "Yes," but I decided to continue with MOBI, which was Amazon Kindle's native file, once-upon-a-time.

The "Look Inside" was immediately updated and Amazon sent me an email saying that my book, meaning my revision, was published. New customers purchasing the book would receive the revised book.

Come back to read "Marketing Your Ebook: Part 2," and follow my journey into the secrets and adventures in ebook publishing as it happens!

Clarification of ISBNs and Ebook continued

I called Bowker, the company from whom I will buy my ISBNs.  Bowker told me today that my ten ISBNs will wait for me. I do not have to pay an annual fee. For publishers who buy a multitude of ISBNs there is an option of accessing a spreadsheet including all their ISBNs. There is an annual fee for this spreadsheet.  For ten ISBNs no spreadsheet is needed. Since I know I will need two ISBNs, I decided to buy ten as two are the same price as ten.

My book is in final review. I hope to format my book in some generic file so that I can prepare a version for each of the ebook platforms. I wrote my book in HTML, inserted it into Open Office and saved it in the format preferred by each of my reviewers.

Because I wanted to write at the most generic level and hate to do any kind of formatting,  I rather insert style via  codes in my word processor than have to delete extraneous code from my document.

Fixing extraneous code is labor intensive!

I wrote my book in the most simple, generic HTML. I limited myself to the opening and closing tags, no font tags included. Formatting codes will be added to my simple document in Open Office.

Ebook Covers

I am editing my first ebook and wondered what to do about the cover. I tried making a simple cover by taking a photograph, bringing it up in Microsoft Paint, adding my book title and saving as a .jpg file. The problem is that when I made a tiny thumbprint of the cover or exploded it, the letters of my title were not readable. I read whatever I could find on the subject and realized that I need to use a graphic program based on vectors rather than pixels.

The ebook publishers, like Amazon, include requirements for ebook covers, such as the size should be 800 pixes in height and 600 pixels in width.

I searched for free graphic and file converting programs. I took Photoshop classes years ago but thought it too complicated for me at this point. I have little experience in the graphic arts but am a bit persistent. I am however, not at all artistic.

I tried a few programs and quickly realized that it would be easier for me to take another picture than play around with the graphic programs. I decided the less I have to rely on any program the better.

I reduced the size of my photograph and cropped it using Faststone. I saved it as a .png and brought it up in Inkscape where I added my title words. I saw the similarity of Inkscape to Photoshop per layering. After having to name my layers a few times, layering became routine. I added text words, the title of my ebook  to the photograph using Inkscape and saved the file as a .png. I then put the .png product back into Faststone to create a .jpg for the ebook vendors. I double checked my final .jpg file size per publisher requirements.

Inkscape does not have the bells and whistles or the precision of Photoshop but if you are starting with a graphic and need only to add the title of your book, you can create an acceptable cover in a few minutes. After about 5 covers, I created one that my husband likes. He is my most difficult critic. I don't know how to use either program very well, but think I assembled an acceptable cover in a few hours.

If I hire a graphic artist to make a better looking cover, at least I have an idea of what may be involved in the process. I still  have a "homemade" website!

If anyone has any great free programs for making an ebook cover for Amazon, Smashwords or any other ebook publisher, please respond to this post or send me an email at rosaraskin@gmail.com and I will be glad to add to this blog.

One of my favorite "how to author" blogs to date is Copple's Writing and Coffee Blog. If  you are interested in ebook publishing. I highly recommend Copple. His blog is the best kept secret in the blogsphere of ebook creation. I tried many graphic programs in trying to make an ebook cover today, as well as several file converters. Copple's suggestions work and I ended up with what I think is more than an acceptable, free, ebook cover!

Please stay tuned as I will be posting more about my journey into ebook publishing live, as it happens!