Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Sony…How many E-readers do I need to buy?

I wondered about this for a long time, but when it came down to it, all I need is one e-reader. I have a kindle, which I purchased direct from Amazon last year. One of my worries was the cover art i.e. how would it look on the screen for each e-reader…This is my first book, so I only want to send my best work out to the world.
One day I queried the cover art with Amazon, as they state it has to meet a specific size. Well I had GREAT difficulty, as the cover art I created was INDEED acceptable i.e. it meets the resolution requirements etc. but it was not the size Amazon specified. I created my cover (back and front) using Windows Paint and a free program called Irfanview, which I downloaded.
When I queried it with both the Kindle and Createspace community, they stated not to worry about it. The measurement Amazon wanted was meant to fit the Kindle Fire screen, but nonetheless it will just be a little smaller with the measurements I had. Now this may bother some people, but not me. I did the best I could and that’s good enough for me.
I’m not gonna buy any more E-readers. I feel all I need is one, but do what you feel you should do.

HOW TO PLAN A STORY

I like working in isolation so I can focus on my work, but do what works for you.   Think about the following:-

• Do I want my next project to be fiction or non-fiction?
• Do I want to write a novel, short story, picture book?…
• What do I want to write about?
• Where do I want the setting to be i.e. Los Angeles, New York?
• Outline the characters – virtues/flaws

Now write!

You MUST find THE TIME TO WRITE EVERY DAY

I know this is easier said than done, especially if you have a job, children and other responsibilities, but it’s necessary in order to finish your book. I’m an early bird, so I like to work on my manuscript first thing in the morning. I have more energy in the morning, and my mind is more active.

I’m not much into making sure I write a specific number of words a day. What matters to me is that I’m working on my book every day. But do what works for you. Go over your schedule and work out the best time to write. It could be 30 minutes, and hour, but whatever time you have, STICK to it. If something pops up that day where you can’t write at your normal time, then see what else you have to do that can wait, then use that time to write. REMEMBER: You MUST find the time to write every day.

MY EXPERIENCE WITH TWITTER

When I first heard of Twitter I said to myself, “uh-uh.  That’s too superficial.”  I hate superficiality, so that was that.  After I came upon articles on how other people successfully used Twitter to promote their business, I decided to sign  up.

When I learned how to use it, I typed in #Writers and my genre which is #AfricanAmericanFiction and #WomanCommercialFiction  Nothing came up, so I followed a few writers/authors that did come up.

It took me a while to find a group of writers/authors that I liked and it’s a continuing process.  Sometimes I see who they’re following.   But before I click on that follow button though, I always look at their previous tweets to see if I want to follow.  I don’t like to follow people who ONLY tweet about their book.  I mean WHO wants to receive tweets like this ALL the time.

I like to tweet about my progress with my book, current affairs and I retweet a lot.  Sure I’ve lost followers which upset me in the beginning, as I didn’t know what I was doing wrong.  Now it doesn’t bother me.   I’m always myself and I think that’s the best way to go.

1 or 2 are true followers.  What’s important is that I follow people who I can learn from, as well as other things that I’m interested in like voice over work, fashion, art, design.  I feel I’ll get more true followers when my book is published.

 

DO YOU NEED TO TAKE A COURSE TO LEARN HOW TO WRITE?

In my opinion, you don’t? In my opinion, writing is inherent, so you either have it, or you don’t.  I express myself better in writing, thank god.  I prefer this route of communication then the verbal.

Through the years, people had been impressed with my writing skills i.e. letters etc.  However it didn’t click that I could do something with it.  Even when I wrote my first novel, THE LEAD DANCER ALWAYS GETS FLOWERS  →  put in link.

Through the years I have come across article after article about learning how to write a book, and how to write creatively.  I just shake my head, but it still didn’t click until a few years ago and that’s when I dived in and wrote the book.

In my opinion, writing is inherent. You either have it, or you don’t.

HOW I STUMBLED INTO THE WRITING WORLD

I’m not book smart.  That title belongs to my brother.  I feel I’m street smart and loaded with common sense.  The latter my brother desperately needs.   I was always interested in creative things from a young age.  As I got older I entertained ideas of being an airline stewardess, a model, a career in radio…. My mother’s idea of security was a 9 to 5 office job.

When I finished the 5^th grade, she enrolled me in a typing course to get my typing speed up – they didn’t have computers in those days.  We used good old typewriters.  Anyway, just me and another girl showed up at the college for the typing class.  When the school year started back up, I was in the 6^th grade and all 6^th graders had to take a typing course.  You should’ve seen me.   I typed so fast I thought the carriage return was gonna fly off and hit someone in the head.  Everyone else pecked at the keys.  My teacher looked at me like “you don’t need this class.”

Fast forward to 12^th grade:  Career wise I never knew what I wanted to do with my life, but I was considering going to college – mainly because that was the thing to do.  A few weeks before graduation, the career counsellor sash-shayed in and gave us a form to fill out.  It was for us to see what career best suited us.  I can’t remember what the choices were, but I’m sure I ticked clerical work as that was the best of the worst to choose from.  If modelling or air stewardess was on the form, believe me, I would’ve tick that.  Just before the bell rung, the counsellor collected the forms and that was that.

Well my grades weren’t there to go to a state college, so I ended up going to a community college.  I took the basic classes as well as a sign language course which I did really well in.   Who knows what I could’ve achieved if I’d stuck with it, but college did nothing for me and after a year I dropped out.  Eventually I found that dreary 9 to 5.  I gradually advanced to secretarial work.  I just drifted along.  In the 90’s, destiny stepped in when I moved to the United Kingdom.  My life changed for the better on all levels.

Fast forward to how I stumbled into the writing world:  One day I saw a movie on television called She Devil. Just like that I suddenly knew what I wanted to do with my life.  I wanted to be a writer. Didn’t know what I was gonna write, but as soon as I put pen to paper it came.  I finished the book in a week.  I got it copyrighted and sent my sweat and tears to numerous publishers in the United States.

One after the other the rejection letters piled up.  “….is not what we’re looking for” “…does not fit our list.” List? I said out loud.   When I realised my manuscript wasn’t going anywhere I put it aside.  Sometime later I came across some information on a book called Writers Market, which is a guide for writers on how to prepare manuscripts and articles for publication.  I went on-line and ordered it from Amazon.  When it arrived I read it with great interest.  I also made notes to see where I had gone wrong with my manuscript such as formatting - I made tons of mistakes in that area.

When I pulled out the manuscript and re-read it, I was shocked.  Although I felt it was a good story, it seriously needed editing.  I’d saved the manuscript on a floppy disk and when I tried to access it, it got stuck in the disk drive.  When I managed to get it out, it tore.   I lost all my files.  I was so mad at myself for not printing out a hard copy.  This time I bought a memory card.  I really didn’t want to type all that over again, but that I did.   It was a headache trying to remember what went where and I even forgot certain parts of it.

Eventually I got there and I’ve spent many years editing it.  Last year destiny stepped in again when I came across an article about an indie author who got a book deal with a major publisher. ‘Indie author?’ I said to myself. ‘What’s that?’ Turns out she self-published the book in question and was in partnership with Amazon!  Again, just like that, I knew this was the route to take.

I have one more draft to read and then my book, The Lead Dancer Always Gets Flowers, will be published in May 2013 and will available to purchase to Kindle customers world-wide via Amazon.com and Amazon Kindle stores i.e. e-Books for digital download for use with the Amazon Kindle, Kindle Cloud Reader, and Kindle applications for PC, Mac, iphone, ipad, ipad touch, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone 7. Barnes & Nobles Nook, Sony Apple iBookstore, Diesel and others. Please click on the following link →