Walk Forward - Housekeeping

I felt courageous and clicked on the "look inside" my 3-day-old book, Walk Forward, and noticed two conversion errors in the first 10% of the book. One word was repeated, and a hyphenated word did not convert correctly. I had read about the second error type, but not the first. I wish I did not have any errors in my first few chapters and am perplexed as to how the errors happened. Fixing them is simple, if one likes to format and convert files, but I have no plans to format in the near future,  am seeing code in my sleep, and continue to search for any secrets to the process of ebook publishing!

When some of my paragraphs failed to indent, I could verify that code was missing, I saw the missing symbols, but no matter what I tried, I could not add the needed code. I finally had to alter my content to fit the formatting -- luckily, I am the author of the book and can add or delete content!


Many of you are formatting, please share any and all secret fixes, so that we might all save time!
Seems like a  list of common errors observed after formatting or sending a file to be ground up, would be well received, certainly by this author!

Starting with plain HTML is my secret and  made the process easier than those I read about. I had little manual labor to do, did not have to go through pages correcting code. I had no extraneous code in my manuscript. Using Open Office has some advantages and Word has others, but since I am not comfortable with the new Word program on my computer, I used Open Office and recommend it.

Breathing on a manuscript seems to propagate extraneous code, and holding one's breath, as I did, apparently makes some needed code mysteriously disappear!

There is much housekeeping to do the first days after publication for a single platform. I have not found
a "to do" list anywhere, but am  finding out by the helpful hints of those reading Walk Forward.

One reader emailed that she loved the book, would like to "like" my tags, but I have none!
Another told me she could not find me in "author central" -- maybe an issue per my maiden name?

Amazon prompted me for an RSS feed to my blogs, and I have no clue how to do, but will be reading about it in the wee hours of the morning!

I want to respond to the email and telephone calls I am receiving about the book. I am being asked "Rosa, where did you get all of those details?" -- the answer is that I was lucky that my mother kept a journal which I found after she died last year. Adding details to the stories I remembered was easy, as she wrote them down. This was long before I was serious about writing a book. It remains a very emotional process, because I miss her very much.

Summary, one can not do a half decent job if attacking all platforms at once. The housekeeping tasks are keeping me busy 24/7. I am glad that I am only on Amazon!

My book keeps moving from #6 to #4  and  back again, in several of its categories, and I can not help scrolling back and forth between Amazon's incredible report module and my book's web page.

I highly recommend checking Amazon's incredible report module which includes statistics on my book in real time!

Walk Forward

The picture on the cover of my book is a picture of my mother, Louise V. Shine, taken in 1938.

                                                          

I published my book, Walk Forward, yesterday, and am truly amazed at how quickly Amazon loaded the book on their platform!  I am also impressed with their "Author Central" option and "Report" module to keep track of everything.

I decided to try the Kindle Select program, which has an exclusive on my book for 90 days, as I like having the book available in the Kindle Lending Library. I love libraries and hope to get hard copies of my book into libraries one day.

The book is targeted to young adults and adults, has one five star review, and sold two copies in its first few hours of life on the Amazon Kindle Select platform. A few hours later, 5 copies of the book were downloaded.

I will be pleased if the book helps uncover a single new secret about my lost sister.

If you have any interest in family relationships or history, please send the link for the book to your family and friends:

http://www.amazon.com/Walk-Forward-ebook/dp/B009H6Y7AC

Editing the Book

O.K. I made mistake #1 by sending out my first completed draft. The idea was to get comments from close family and friends and do one major edit!  Guess I was more than a little naive?

After my Israeli cousin's edit, I did my first major rewrite of the entire book and wondered if my work was worthy to go forward?

Mistake #2, I revised the entire book quickly and immediately sent the next version to family members who kindly replied, they would keep editing the first draft! Not only was I adding to their reading load, I was filling up their email program with my short book, yet too long a file for daily correspondence.

The same cousin that reviewed the heck out of the book, was the most encouraging as she had gone through the same process. She had written a book about our family, her inspiration being a long letter that my father and his brother wrote to her mother, their first cousin.

Yes, her book is in a foreign language with a few captions in English. My book includes both my parents, not just my father. My book is in English with the hope for translations.

My advice is to keep encouraging persons and other writers around you, as you continue to write, rewrite and edit your book.

If you wish, include a hook at the end of your book for the sequel!

I am getting advice from my college adviser of 40+ years to publish a few hard copies in addition to the ebook.

-- Yes, one of the best kept secrets is to never lose connection with your college adviser. 
He just emailed me to consider CreateSpace and Blurb for hard copies. I had read about both but no time yet to compare!

If your adviser is as incredible as mine, he or she will continue to be at least one step ahead of you,  like in days gone by when you were the student.

I love mine, hope you at least keep in contact with yours!

Keep on writing. 

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.

ISBN's, How Many Does One Ebook Need?

My book is going into final editing, I have a possible ebook cover for Walk Forward, what do I need next?

Time to think about ISBN's for each version of my book. Since I want my book to be available in various formats, I will most probably buy the set of 10 ISBN's. I know that I will have a .pdf, ePub and maybe a few hard copies of the book down the road. I want to be able to track the book myself. I know that many books have similar titles but each has a unique ISBN.

I plan on uploading the book to Amazon, Smashwords and any vendor that will take my ebook. Down the road, I might want a hard copy too. I know that the ebook cover I made will have to be revised for a hard copy book where the cover wraps around the book. I have no idea now as to how many pages a  hard copy of my book might have. In hard copy, my text might appear in larger font for my target of young adults, but then again, the book is also for adult readers.

I want to submit my book to any online publisher willing to let me upload it, thus, expect more than two book formats. Perhaps, I will publish a version with photographs and one without, this would require another ISBN! Maybe my book will have a new cover or need revisions sooner than I might expect.
Guess it is better to buy the batch of 10 than run out!

The ISBN is the unique identifier for a particular format of the book. I don't think I really need 10 ISBN's but since 10 cost the same as 2, and I am sure I need at least 3, I might as well buy the set of 10.

Are there any negatives to buying 10 ISBN's and not using them all immediately? I don't know but plan to call Bowker, the only company allowed to sell ISBN's. I wonder if there is a penalty in not assigning all 10 ISBN's in a reasonable time period? I can not imagine that it will take me 10 years to write a second book although I have been writing content for my first book for more than 20 years!

Is there a fee or penalty for holding my 10 ISBN's, which I assume will be numbers in a series? I don't know for sure, heard there was some sort of  annual fee? I must find out as hate to commit to annual fees.

What about translations? I assume if someone creates a translation of the book, the new translated version will need another ISBN. If I change the cover design and a few photographs, this would require ISBN's!

Maybe my first ebook will need more revisions than I can now possibly imagine?

Ten ISBN's seems much for my first attempt at an ebook and my second book is but a vision. I have read Bowker's section on why one should buy an ISBN.

No matter the price or how many, as a librarian, I know that an ISBN is priceless!

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!

Treasure Hunt for Missing Funds

It is incredible that each time I search names of family members on missing funds websites, names that I recognize turn up! My niece recently claimed funds and the process was grueling but she got the funds. I see my sister's name on various lists as well as the name of neighbors and friends!

Missing funds sites, sometimes termed "unclaimed funds" or "unclaimed property" are organized in aggregate but knowing the state helps in double checking results. Whenever I check a list, I find a relative or friend's name. I check the names on as many sites as possible but not as often as I should!

To start your search, below are a few of the sites for identifying missing/lost funds:

National list: http://www.unclaimed.org/

Ohio:      http://www.com.ohio.gov/unfd/treasurehunt.aspx

Other Sites: http://www.dc2net.com/unclmdprpty.htm
                    http://www.missingmoney.com/

The last site above, missingmoney.com, is great if you do not have  a clue as to which State you should be searching!

The treasure hunt is fun and can be rewarding! If you ever find my name on your search
(Rosa Raskin, Rosa Shine, Rosa Shine Raskin), please let me know!

Happy treasure hunting!

Rosa

Butterflies as Models for Fabric Fiber Colors

Like butterfly wing structure, fibers of various thicknesses have been found to determine colors. Thin films of polyester or nylon of 70-nm thickness are laminated in 61 alternative layers, By controlling layer thickness according to visible wavelength, four colors are produced without using dyes or pigment: red, green, blue and violet.

The butterfly-inspired fibers produce diverse colors, improve material quality and are expected to be used in painting, cosmetics, crafts. The invention is patented, commercialized and identified as "Morphotex" used for clothing, nail polish, mascara, coating musical instruments and fishing rods as reported in NASA Tech Briefs, July 2011, p. 33 -- see also www.techbriefs.com/tow/201107a.html for the full report.

Laboratory Supervisor Opportunity in Applied Coatings R&D

Coatings Research Group, Inc. (CRGI) located in Independence, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, has an interesting opportunity for a Laboratory Supervisor. Coatings Research Group is an international association of paint and coating manufacturers dedicated to the benefits of shared research and development.

Dr. Jackie Savoca, Executive Director of Coatings Research Group, and her team, created the "Green Wise" paint certification program. CRGI is certified as an ISO 17025 accredited testing laboratory by Laboratory Accreditation Bureau. Through a system of international agreements, this accreditation is recognized worldwide.

CRGI operates a 6,000 sq. ft. (550 sq. m.) applied technology laboratory staffed by 6 full time professional employees. The laboratory conducts private studies for global member companies and cooperative R&D projects on raw material evaluations, worldwide product benchmarking (often more that 100 products are evaluated), and paint formulation optimization.

If you are interested in contributing to applied R&D paint and coating research as CRGI's Laboratory Supervisor, contact Coatings Research Group, Inc., in Independence, Ohio.

Research Trends in Anti-corrosion Additives

Research trends in identifying novel corrosion inhibitors include identifying natural extracts, creating new compounds via biomimicry and nanotechnology, studying conducting polymers, incorporating noble metals in coatings and recycling waste streams.

If your goal is to reduce costs of environmentally friendly additives that protect our marine infrastructure, water quality and human health, you might wish to read the current article in APCJ: Asia Pacific Coatings Journal entitled "Research Trends in Innovative Anti-corrosion Additives", Volume 24, Number 2, pages 20-21, April/May 2011.

Reprinted with permission from APCJ at http://www.raskinfo.com/corradfinal.html