Still writing

[thealtruismsociety]

Your instinct is right, in my opinion—write to the story, not what you read someone said somewhere on the Interweb. There is no hard and fast limit. I believe Harry Potter was JK Rowling's first and is nearly 200k for her first book. It's all a matter of persistence and luck—if the right people find it and like it, they'll work with it whether it's longer or shorter than they'd like.

 

Here's an editor who talks about books that were self-published that lead to deals:

http://www.alanrinzler.com/blog/2010/03/11...real-book-deal/

And in this case, it doesn't matter at all how long they are, the books found an audience and the publishers took it.

 

Just make the story great, and the rest will go from there.

 

Orren

 

Hey thanks for that link, checking it out.

 

And correct me if Im wrong, I thought if you publish to say Amazon.com, you ruin your chances of get your book bought by a major publisher. I thought I read somewhere they won't touch it after that.

 

Oh and my final fight is freaking AWESOME. (I think)

[orrenm]

And correct me if Im wrong, I thought if you publish to say Amazon.com, you ruin your chances of get your book bought by a major publisher. I thought I read somewhere they won't touch it after that.

 

You're wrong. Read the editor's thoughts I linked you to.

 

Do you see what I mean by don't believe everything you read?

 

From a business point of view, there is nothing more lucrative than a "sure thing." If a book is making money already, that's as close as you're ever going to get in the publishing world. Self-publishing is a way of saying "this book is making money, and if you professionally print and market it, it will make much more."

 

The people who tell you "nobody will publish a self-published book" are probably operating on the idea that you put out your own work, and it sells 25 copies in a year. This tells a publisher that there isn't much interest, and *that book* probably isn't going to seem like a sure thing to a publisher. But if you sell 1000 books in a year without the help of a corporation, that's a big deal (I believe that most corporate fiction doesn't sell much over 2000 in a year unless it's a hit).

 

Orren

[thealtruismsociety]

You're wrong. Read the editor's thoughts I linked you to.

 

Do you see what I mean by don't believe everything you read?

 

From a business point of view, there is nothing more lucrative than a "sure thing." If a book is making money already, that's as close as you're ever going to get in the publishing world. Self-publishing is a way of saying "this book is making money, and if you professionally print and market it, it will make much more."

 

The people who tell you "nobody will publish a self-published book" are probably operating on the idea that you put out your own work, and it sells 25 copies in a year. This tells a publisher that there isn't much interest, and *that book* probably isn't going to seem like a sure thing to a publisher. But if you sell 1000 books in a year without the help of a corporation, that's a big deal (I believe that most corporate fiction doesn't sell much over 2000 in a year unless it's a hit).

 

Orren

 

Oh I thought there was some contract you signed with say Amazon (Or Createspace rather) that barred any other publisher from ever picking up the work later.

[orrenm]

Oh I thought there was some contract you signed with say Amazon (Or Createspace rather) that barred any other publisher from ever picking up the work later.

 

I'm not familiar with CreateSpace, but Lulu, etc. are all non-exclusive, so you can do whatever you want. Also, if you are "self-publishing" you own all copyrights, so there's no other rights holders to ask for permission. Amazon's Kindle program makes you give away some rights, I don't remember which. But you can always use smashwords to get in the Kindle store and retain all rights. It sounds like the iBooks store will (at least eventually) deal directly with indie publishers and self-publishers, and the only requirement is that the iBooks store price can't be higher than other eBook store prices (in other words, if you decide to lower your price on Kindle, they want it lowered on the iBooks store too).

 

Orren

[thealtruismsociety]

I'm not familiar with CreateSpace, but Lulu, etc. are all non-exclusive, so you can do whatever you want. Also, if you are "self-publishing" you own all copyrights, so there's no other rights holders to ask for permission. Amazon's Kindle program makes you give away some rights, I don't remember which. But you can always use smashwords to get in the Kindle store and retain all rights. It sounds like the iBooks store will (at least eventually) deal directly with indie publishers and self-publishers, and the only requirement is that the iBooks store price can't be higher than other eBook store prices (in other words, if you decide to lower your price on Kindle, they want it lowered on the iBooks store too).

 

Orren

I may lean heavily on you if I decide to self publish, idea wise

[thealtruismsociety]

Has finished the first draft of his novel. Total words - 96,302, Total number of pages - 395, Total number of months to write - 5.

[orrenm]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

 

A great feeling, to finish the first draft of your novel, isn't it?

 

Have fun rewriting the whole thing!

[Steve E]

Has finished the first draft of his novel. Total words - 96,302, Total number of pages - 395, Total number of months to write - 5.

 

 

Writing is re-writing.

Enjoy.

- Thoth.

[thealtruismsociety]

My last chapter is significantly shorter than the rest of the chapters in my book however. Is this a problem? Is there a set ratio or does each chapter need to be as long as it needs to be? For instance most of my chapters hover around the 5k mark but this last chapter is 1900.

[orrenm]

There is no set ratio. The "style-istas" like to suggest that having varied chapter lengths are good, keeps things interesting, etc. But do whatever is natural. In my novel, I have some chapters that are 800 words, some that are 4500. (and if you think 800 words is short, I've outline an apocalyptic sci-fi novel in which one chapter is a single sentence!)

 

My only piece of advice is that I have sometimes had EXTREMELY long chapters (15,000+ words) and those got tedious, and I ended up splitting them up. That's not to say if you have some 15k chapters you need to split them up, they might be perfect. But that was my experience.

 

BTW—these kinds of issues are exactly what a good editor will tackle.

 

Orren

[thealtruismsociety]

[thealtruismsociety]

 

On a Gen 1 Kindle.

[Steve E]

I admit it. I'm impressed.

- Thoth

[thealtruismsociety]

I admit it. I'm impressed.

- Thoth

 

Thanks, that was done with the tools Amazon gives you. I plan on paying for the final one and it will look stellar.

[marguerite]

Thanks, that was done with the tools Amazon gives you. I plan on paying for the final one and it will look stellar.

TAS, congrats on finishing your first draft! That must feel great. Love the cover, too. Did you design it yourself?

 

For those who aren't quite ready to publish, you, too, can produce a Kindle file from your novel that looks just as good—or even better on Kindle for Mac (free: click on the download page at this link, although full disclosure requires me to state that Word has been acting funny ever since I installed Kindle for Mac).

 

When Steve adds the promised ePub support to Storyist, the process will be even simpler, but at the moment you can convert the files via Word and calibre (also free).

 

Export your manuscript as RTF. Open the RTF file in Word (or, probably, NeoOffice). Choose File > Save as Web Page (i.e., HTML).

 

Open calibre. Add the HTML file you just created (drag it into the window or choose Add Books and navigate to it). When calibre stops spinning, select the new file.

 

Click on Edit Metadata and set the author and title. Choose a cover image if you like.

 

With the file still selected and a Kindle attached via USB cable, choose "Send to Device." If you don't have a Kindle but you do have Kindle for Mac, choose Convert file instead, and make sure the file type is set to MOBI.

 

calibre converts your file to MOBI and shoots it over to the Kindle, where it appears on your Home Screen. It stores a copy in your calibre library, which will be in your home folder or wherever you told calibre to store it the first time you launched it. Go find the MOBI version of the file and drag it into My Kindle Content inside your Documents folder. Next time you open Kindle for Mac, it will be there.

 

A particularly nice side-effect of this is that you can mark up a file on the Kindle and then drag the file and its associated .mpb file (where the notes and marks are stored) into My Kindle Content. Then you can see it on your computer, with all the notes and marks in context, while you're trying to edit the original in Storyist. But even if you don't do this, the results look like a regular Kindle book, which is very cool. And it saves paper, too.

Best,

Marguerite

[thealtruismsociety]

I used Stanza to convert to .azn, I used Amazon's easy cover designer. Final book if I have to self publish I plan on paying for the cover design. It will be much better.

[marguerite]

I used Stanza to convert to .azn, I used Amazon's easy cover designer. Final book if I have to self publish I plan on paying for the cover design. It will be much better.

Yes, you can use Stanza to convert directly from .doc to AZW, too. It just trashes all the bold, underlining, and italics (although it's pretty good at recognizing chapter titles). calibre preserves them. When I save a Storyist file for Stanza, I use the export assistant to convert all the fancy formatting (curly quotes to straight, etc.). Stanza then converts them back properly.

 

If you read the file through Word, use File > Properties before exiting and set the author and title there. Otherwise your book shows up as "Unknown" by "Unknown." Modesty is good for the soul, no doubt, but that's carrying things a bit far.

 

BTW, this refers to Stanza for Desktop. I understand that Stanza for iPhone is more competent, but I've never used it. I don't have an iPhone. I'd like to get an iPad, once I have a chance to hold one in my hands and see for myself what it looks like (especially if it will run Storyist—Steve, hint, hint).

Best,

M

[Steve E]

Hi TAS,

 

Just wondering: would you be interested in putting a Storyist badge on your back cover? If you don't like the ones available I'm sure Steve would be happy to whip one up for you in his copious free time*. (Right Steve?) I think you'd be the very first.

 

Curious.

- Thoth.

 

*'Cause, y'know, all software developers just laze around the pool at their MacMansions all day long, drinking champagne out of the navels of their concubines and eating caviar out of you-don't-want-to-know.

[thealtruismsociety]

I was already planning on lavishing praise on Storyist in the thank you section of the book, link to the website in the front cover and link to it on my new blog when it's finished. I'll thin about a logo on the back but it would have to be the final design. The free one I used for the above cover doesn't really let you randomly add a photo, it has to be in the design already.

[Steve E]

You do us proud, TAS.

[thealtruismsociety]

The proof copy of my book has been mailed, I should get it early next week!

[Joolissa]

Most Awesome! And very exciting!

 

I'd love to see a picture of your proof when you get it. What place did you use for your proof? I could be misunderstanding, but I'm thinking a proof a printed copy of the book, cover and all. In that case, I'm really interested to hear what place you're using and your thoughts on them. I've used Blurb in the past for a story-book wedding album for a client. I'm not sure if that's similar to what you're doing though.

 

- J

[thealtruismsociety]

Most Awesome! And very exciting!

 

I'd love to see a picture of your proof when you get it. What place did you use for your proof? I could be misunderstanding, but I'm thinking a proof a printed copy of the book, cover and all. In that case, I'm really interested to hear what place you're using and your thoughts on them. I've used Blurb in the past for a story-book wedding album for a client. I'm not sure if that's similar to what you're doing though.

 

- J

 

I took advantage of the free one from Amazon using the code here.

 

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node%252F3470212

 

Yeah I'll post a picture. And yes it's a full book cover and all.

[Joolissa]

Cool, I'll check CreateSpace out. Thanks for the link!

[thealtruismsociety]

 

Sorry for the picture quality but I'm dead tired after work.