Preparing the book - part 2 (and a Competition!)

In yesterday's post, I discussed preparing the book for Kindle. Today, I'll discuss the differences in preparing for actual hard-copy.

At the start, I didn't intend to make a paperback version available, but it seemed daft not to, and the thought of having a "real" copy of my book was appealing and there was very little additional cost in doing so.

There are a number of Print On Demand services available - CreateSpace and Lulu are probably the best know. I chose CreateSpace, firstly because Catherine Ryan Howard's book recommended them (and gave instructions on how to set the book up for them) and secondly because the are an Amazon company and I thought it made sense to keep it under the same umbrella (in the hope it would be easier to make the paperback available on Amazon).

Formatting the book should have been much easier with CreateSpace. Once you decide what size you want your book to be (I chose 8" x 5") you can download a blank template and copy your content into it. Unfortunately, that didn't work for me: it wouldn't run paragraphs across page breaks, so some pages only had a few lines if the next paragraph was a big one. That may be a quirk with Word 2010 - if you have Word 2003 it might be fine for you (you have to use the 2003 .doc format anyway).

So I had to set my page size and margins manually. I did this by copying the settings from the template. You need to be sure you set "mirror margins" and the correct page size.

Then you have to add various essential pieces into the front matter (you have to create front matter - Copyright pages etc - for Kindle, too, so this is just adding a few things). You need ISBN numbers (CreateSpace will provide these free of charge). Without ISBN numbers, CreateSpace will reject your book.

Once you've created all the additional pages and pasted your document into the template, all you then do is save the file in PDF format (later versions of Word can do this, earlier versions might need an external converter program - you can find them by searching Google).

Finally, you need your cover artwork. Again, I'll discuss this later.

Tomorrow - creating the SmashWords versions.

Now... the competition. If you've been following me on Twitter (@MarshallBuckley) then you have a slight advantage, but only a very small one.

The prize? Well, unsurprisingly, it's a signed copy of The Long Second. Perhaps even the very first copy (when it arrives, unless I have to make any changes...).

The question: I had a blood test yesterday to check my cholesterol level. (Yes, I know it's totally unrelated to the book, but it seemed like a suitably daft thing to do). I don't get the result until next week, so even I don't know the answer at this point but, what will my cholesterol level be?

Answers accepted in comments below, or by email, or you can send it via Twitter. If more than one person gets it right, then I'll put the names into a hat. If nobody gets it right then... well, we'll just have to think about that!

Preparing the book - part 1

On the one hand, Amazon's site says that preparing the book for Kindle is easy.

On the other hand, the forums are full of people saying how difficult it is, how their book looks so awful, and so on.

Was it easy? Yup.

Did I stumble across any problems? Of course. I didn't expect it to be a one-click process.

Once again I refer to Catherine Ryan Howard's 'Self-Printed' which helped iron out a few gotchas. I'll be saying this time and time again: if you're thinking of self-publishing, you have to get yourself a copy of this book and read it before you start the whole process.

Firstly, Kindle: following Amazon's guide, I downloaded MobiPocket then downloaded the Kindle viewer (I have my own Kindle, but this just emulates it on the PC so you don't have to transfer the files by wireless or USB).

First conversion: Pretty good, but there were many strange characters which I had to sort out. Blank lines had acquired the underline character, and some odd non-standard characters had been replaced with &#8209 (for example).

One of these was easy to fix: in the original MS I'd included some Chinese characters which didn't convert well at all dropping them was simple, with no adverse effect on the book.

The others (the 8209s) were an odd Word formatting thing - where hyphens had become em-dashes (or similar). I just did a global search and replace: replacing ‑ with -

The unexpected underlines were actually simple too: my chapter headings were all underlined, which meant that when I inserted some blank lines above the chapter heading, the blank lines were underlined: not visible in Word, but certainly visible when converted to HTML.

There were also a few lines where the indent was incorrect. It's essential that paragraphs don't start with tabs - you must strip them all out before you begin. Thankfully, Word is very good at understanding that you just want first-line-indent on new paragraphs, so I didn't need to delete any tabs at all, but still some paragraphs indented incorrectly. These are easy to spot when you scan through the book on the Kindle previewer, but it does mean you have to look at every page.

The next step was to set all first paragraphs in every chapter, and all after a scene break to not be indented. Kindle formatting automatically indents every first line, so you have to get down and dirty with HTML here. It's not too difficult, but it is a little time consuming. Again, Amazon gives clear instructions on how to do this (you set the indent to 0).

And that was about it. All that was left was to design the cover (I'll discuss that in another post), but for testing purposes I just used a quick downloaded image off the web and put the title on it. (Note: you know, of course, that you can't use this for your actual book? You need to either buy the rights off one of the stock photo sites or take the photo yourself - which I what I eventually did).

With the Kindle version ready, it's time to move on to the paperback version...

Why Now?

I'd be the first to admit that the decision to self-publish was one I never expected to make. Indeed, right at the start of this process I was firmly against it, and the more blogs I read on the subject, the more certain I became of that fact.

The Long Second was first submitted to some seriously large publishers back in September 2009. For the first few weeks I jumped every time the computer said I had a new email, convinced that the news I was hoping for would be there, waiting for me.

As the weeks went by, I became more relaxed about the whole process, and started checking email only hourly...

During this time, the writing of the sequel - Broken - was a welcome distraction, and when that book was submitted to my agent in January 2010 I thought it would kick-start the whole process. After all, here was a new writer (me!) who was able to deliver two quality (!) books in little over six months. That had to count for something, right?

Broken, like The Long Second, was well received. Optimism was high. More publishers were contacted...

And then the rejections started coming in. Some said that The Long Second was "too sci-fi" for their list (it does contain some time-travel), others said it "wasn't sci-fi enough" (there's much more to the story than just the time-travel). It was beginning to look like a story that fell between two stools.

And then we heard that it had reached the editorial meeting stage of a BIG name publisher. Collective breaths were held... but then nothing. Nada. Silence.

You then fall into the stage of "just how often can I ask my agent if there's any news?" especially when you know that if there was any good news, you'd know about it.

And then this year, 2011, things became complicated. Mixed messages were received. It was a bad time (I won't go into details). I seriously considered quitting writing altogether. Sure, it had only been two years, and I know of many writers who have toiled for far longer than that before their first deal. I actually did stop writing for a while, but found myself at a loose-end night after night, with a void I couldn't work out how to fill.

And so an ultimatum was made. The books were still with some publishers (including the BIG name mentioned above). They had never said no, but they hadn't said yes either. My agent said that, in her opinion, given the time that had passed, the silence was as good as a no. But she chased them anyway, giving them a deadline to respond.

They didn't.

As I mentioned in "Eyes Wide Open", the publishing landscape had changed. Self-publishing (especially electronically) was now so easy literally anybody could do it. Sure, that meant lots of people were writing rubbish and publishing it, but there are also plenty of people like me. People writing good, worthy, sellable books that somehow never find the right publisher.

I ran the idea past my agent: should we withdraw these books from submission and self-publish (chiefly on Kindle, but in other formats too). I expected a degree of reluctance from her. In fact, she thought it a great idea.

By the time we reached the deadline, the seed had been planted and was already sprouting. I'd become so accustomed to the idea that I almost hoped nobody would say yes (okay, that's a lie, if someone had said yes I would have jumped for joy); I'd already started preparing The Long Second for Kindle.

I downloaded (to my Kindle) Catherine Ryan Howard's "Self-Printed" (highly recommended!). I found it saying all the things I'd been feeling: sometimes a book just doesn't find a home. It might be a bad book, or there might be other, more complex reasons. But, if you're going to self-publish, make sure you do it right. Don't rush into it. Don't just grab your latest version of the Word document and upload it. Spend time with it, preparing it, reformatting it, making it the very best book you can (yes, you should have done this already, but another look is always a good thing. I found a typo on the first page. Only a " where a ' should have been, but nonetheless...)

Did I follow her guidelines to the letter? No, of course not. But I stuck pretty damn close.

The result is what I believe to be an example of how all self-published books should be. They story and story-telling has been independently quality-checked. It's been thoroughly and repeatedly edited. The cover has been designed with input from a professional designer.

I'm very aware that I'm setting myself up for abuse once the book is available. Am I over-hyping it? Am I going to be deluged with reports of typos and formatting problems? I don't think so (though, as previously stated) there are bound to be some errors, but I'll be able to correct those really quickly.

Perhaps the biggest barrier is accepting the fact, being able to hold your head up high and say "Yes, I self-published". I'm still working on that, because two years of being determined that I wouldn't do it are hard to brush off overnight.

But yes, I'm self-publishing, because I wrote a book I'm proud of and I want other people to read it.

The Book(s) That FaceBook Wrote

There may be a few new visitors to this blog who don't know the full story of Marshall Buckley - to be exact, I mean how Marshall Buckley came to be.

(If you are a new visitor, then that last sentence probably makes no sense at all).

Let's roll back about 3 years, to Spring 2008.

I had been doing the school-run for some time and was slowly getting to know the mums and occasional dads in the playground. One of the mums, whose youngest son was in the same class as my youngest, I'd known for some time as her eldest daughter had been in the same class as my eldest a few years before. Over some months we went from casual nods of hello to actually talking to each other. I'm sure many of you will be horribly aware of how lonely the school playground can be for parents if they don't have anyone to talk to.

Occasionally, her husband picked up her son and we, too, progressed from nods to brief conversations.

Then they announced they were moving to Canada. Soon. Off he went, settled, bought a house etc. A few months later and it's the final day of UK school for their children. He'd come back to collect them all and, as we parted, we exchanged pleasantries and business cards and promised to keep in touch, with the full expectation that it probably wouldn't happen (or, at best, would peter out after a few random emails).

I let them settle for a few months and then dropped him an email asking how things were going. His reply: "Great! Get on FaceBook, loads of pictures and updates there".

We kept in vague touch after that, odd replies to status updates, comments on photos, that sort of thing.

Then, one day, he posted an update: "I've a great idea for a book. Who wants to help me write it?"

All his friends replied along the lines of "Are you mad?", that sort of thing. I left it a couple of days and, having seen no sensible replies posted "I'll give it a go. Send me the details".

This is (part of) what he sent:

"Imagine a day where the choices you make determine how everything else progresses. Imagine having the ability to rewind to any given point in the day, to change the thing you did. Imagine having the power to affect something/someone else's life."

I was intrigued... a flurry of emails ensued and, three days later the story began. March 19 2009.

Two short months, a mass of emails and MSN conversations and 115,000 words later it was finished. Well, it's first draft anyway.

By the end of June 2009 it had been edited (repeatedly), tweaked and prodded and we began the process of finding an agent...

But that's for another time.

"THE LONG SECOND - The Book that FaceBook Wrote".

Eyes Wide Open

(This is a long post, please take a deep breath, grab a cup of tea, and dive in.)

And so, here it is, the news I've been hinting at for what seems like weeks, and something I thought I would never, ever say (which just goes to show you should never say never):

The first in the series of books known as THE LONG SECOND trilogy will be published on Amazon Kindle in June 2011, to be followed shortly afterwards by other formats. Later in the year its sequel - BROKEN - and also a third, unrelated book will also be available on Kindle and other e-readers.

Hurrah! Shout it from the rooftops! Rejoice!

It's not, of course, as simple as that.

I'm proud, and apprehensive, to say that I'm publishing them myself. Yes, I know what you're thinking. It's exactly what I've been thinking for most of the past two years, but let me explain...

This isn't failure. This isn't vanity publishing. Nor is this a short-cut to "traditional" publishing or a get-rich-quick scheme. It's none of those things, and more besides. But it is publishing. And, and this is actually pretty important so I'll do one of those rare things and use CAPS for emphasis: I'M DOING THIS WITH THE KNOWLEDGE AND APPROVAL OF MY AGENT.

I've watched the publishing world change beyond belief in the last two years. Two years ago the e-book was little more than a distant possibility, considered by most industry insiders to be at least ten years away from having any significant impact. A year later those same insiders were still insisting that there was a good five years to wait before the e-book became mainstream.

And then Amazon released their latest Kindle and all bets were off. It's hard to say why the current Kindle captured the public's imagination as it has, but there's no longer any denying it. You might still read Amazon's figures about the sales ratio of e-books to paper books and wonder if they are a little manipulated, one way or another, but you can't deny the buzz that now exists. E-books have arrived, big time.

With this arrival has come the ability to easily self-publish in electronic form. I've read countless pages and blogs on what that means, and I know that there are plenty of people who won't touch a self-published book, and for very good reason. I've read some and, to be honest, they've fallen short of the quality I'd expect from a traditionally published work - usually in simple areas such as grammar, spelling and basic story-craft. (I've started reading some books, not knowing they are self-published, but within a few pages the niggles set in, strange formatting quirks that make me go off and check. I'll still finish the book - if it's good enough, of course - but I read it with a different mindset).

Without a doubt, there is an enormous mass of awful, dreadful self-published work out there, and that mass is only going to grow.

So, why am I prepared to join it?

There's one simple reason:

The Long Second trilogy has not been picked up by a traditional publisher and, it would seem that after two years of trying, it's not likely to happen.

Does that mean it's not worthy of being published?

In my (admittedly biased) opinion and that of my agent: no.

But... doesn't that make me as deluded as all those other self-published authors, the ones I've alluded to above?

Hopefully, no. Here's why:

The Long Second has been through at least some measure of quality control, a level which I believe many/most self-published books don't achieve. Of course, friends and family have read it and loved it and told me how wonderful I am/it is, but that's not what I'm talking about.

The Long Second secured me an agent (and had multiple "full" requests before that happened). This means that there are independent people, people with no vested interest in telling me that it's a good story, well written, "tight", cohesive, who have told me these very things. My agent, at the very start of the submission process, told me that "it was in need of very little editing" (that may have been understating things somewhat, I've done plenty of editing on it since).

So, why has it not been picked up by a publisher? That's anyone's guess. Timing, in this business, is everything. There's "no market" for this sort of novel, apparently, or at least not one that's big enough for any of them to take a chance on, because they'll have to invest heavily in taking that chance.

And that's where self-publishing comes in. My investment, relatively speaking - at least in real monetary terms - is tiny. I can afford to take that chance.

Point number 1, then: I've had independent verification that The Long Second (and it's sequel) are worthy and of sufficient quality to be published.

And so we come on to the title of this post: Eyes Wide Open.

What do I mean by this?

Simple:

* I don't expect to get rich from this exercise (though that doesn't mean I won't dream about potential success and what I'll spend the money on);

* I don't think that this will be a short-cut to traditional publication (though I will continue to write to pursue that dream and, in the event that I do well out of this, it won't hurt);

* I am doing it to get feedback, and am prepared to take the bad and the good, in the hope that it will help me become a better writer;

* I do want other people to read the book - I've been told it's good enough and so it would be a shame to consign it to the virtual desk-drawer, never to be seen again.

So, I ask you to do what I've done: put aside your prejudices for a moment, stop seeing self-publishing as the last resort of the hopeless and talentless, and approach it with an open-mind. I know that there will be many of you who (if you would be so kind as to buy the book) will be acutely aware that it's self-published and will be looking for typos and formatting errors, and will see each and every one as justification for their opinion. I can only say this: I have worked really hard to make this book the very best I can, I have scoured it (more times than you would believe) for typos and errors but I don't doubt for a minute that some remain, I have tried to present it in a professional style - adopting (as best I can) the layout of "real" books.

(And if you believe, for one moment, that all traditionally published books are error-free, then I can give you examples including one, from a fairly major author, whose back cover contained a typo, and whose content contained errors. But I won't. I did, though, contact his publisher about the typo...)

I genuinely believe you will be pleasantly surprised. If you are, please tell me and tell your friends and the world. If, on the other hand, it reinforces everything you ever believed, please tell me, I'd genuinely want to hear what you have to say and, if possible, work to make it even better.

I've never believed I was about to be the next J K Rowling, and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be the next Amanda Hocking, but I'd love to be able to say that Marshall Buckley published on Kindle and, you know, did a pretty good job.

Over the next few weeks (months?) I'll be going into more detail about how I got to this point, what was tried along the way - the highs and the lows - and what I've had to do to get the book(s) fit and ready for self-publishing. I promised to blog much more regularly than before. There's even a new website in the making... I have, you might have gathered, been quite busy of late.

I titled this blog Publishing Dreams right from the start. It's just that those dreams have changed a little.

Thank you. (I'll be sure to let you know when it's finally available).

Countdown

Just a couple of days to go until the big decision is made...

Watch this space on 1 June 2011

New Beginnings

So, it looks like the minor dramas of the past few weeks have come to a satisfactory resolution.

Not, in truth, the resolution I was expecting, but that's actually a good thing. I was half-expecting to be revealing some significant, but not especially good, news. That's no longer the case.

So, do I have any news to share? Unfortunately, no. At least, not yet. Things are afoot. Changes are coming. Decisions have been made and, overall, I'm pretty happy with them.

Just a couple more weeks to wait, just to cross some Ts and dot some Is, then all should be revealed.

The sharp-eyed amongst you may have noticed that the "Current" gadget on the right has disappeared. That's because I'm not currently writing, not while all this "stuff" is going on - there's to much other "stuff" to be dealing with. At the same time, I am writing, but I'm not. And yes, I'm perfectly aware that that appears to make no sense at all. Trust me, though, it really does.

More news in early June. Probably. And hopefully that will be significantly less cryptic.