Tag: Amazon Kindle

Short Story

Now available on Kindle: Rain at Three (with a bonus free download!)

Mandy Webster
Rain at three, short story
“Rain at Three” is now available on Kindle for 99 cents.

My short story, Rain at Three, is now available on Kindle for 99 cents! Here’s a brief description:

Can you ever really know the man you’re marrying until you’ve really gotten to know him? Vicki is beginning to learn just what kind of man she has married. Is the honeymoon over so quickly? It may be 73 degrees and sunny in Hawaii, but it always rains at 3 p.m.

Download your copy of Rain at Three today! If you like my story, please do me a favor and review it on Amazon.

As an added bonus, for today only, you can also get a free download of my son’s book, Avery Moves. Avery was eight years old when he wrote and illustrated this book for a school project. He had so much fun with it, we decided to take the fun one step further and publish the book on Kindle! He would love to see that people are downloading his story. If you have any words of encouragement for him to keep writing, please post them to the review section on Amazon.  Continue reading “Now available on Kindle: Rain at Three (with a bonus free download!)” →

Book Reviews, eBooks, Poetry, Poetry by Mandy Webster, Uncategorized

Mother’s Day Special: Free download of “Loosely Collected”

Mandy Webster

This weekend only, download the Kindle version of Loosely Collected: A Book of Poems FOR FREE for your favorite mother (including yourself!) This offer is good May 7 – 11, 2015.

Get your free download May 7 - 11, 2015!
Get your free download May 7 – 11, 2015!

Continue reading “Mother’s Day Special: Free download of “Loosely Collected”” →

Book Reviews, eBooks, Mount Mary College, Novel Writing, Publishing

Now available on Kindle! Papers: A Master Collection on the Art of Writing

Mandy Webster
Kindle cover for my new book, Papers: A Master Collection on the Art of Writing.
Kindle cover for my new book, Papers: A Master Collection on the Art of Writing.

It’s finally here! My new book, Papers: A Master Collection on the Art of Writing is now available for purchase on Kindle for only 99 cents!

There is so much content packed into this one book! In addition to all of the academic papers that I wrote while pursuing my master of arts in English with a concentration in professional writing, you also get several original short stories, poems, and a behind-the-scenes peek into my as-yet-unnamed fantasy novel in progress.

Challenge: Upon reading my creative thesis, which is contained in the pages of this text, help me come up with a title for my novel! If I decide to use your suggested title, I will send you a free signed copy of the print edition of Papers: A Master Collection on the Art of Writing as soon as it becomes available!

I am currently in the process of formatting this book for print and should have it available within the next few weeks. In the meantime, get your Kindle copy today! Thank you for supporting my writing journey! Continue reading “Now available on Kindle! Papers: A Master Collection on the Art of Writing” →

Publishing

KDP publishing lesson: Convert your Word document to a webpage prior to publishing

Mandy Webster
Word document to web page conversion
Here’s a screen shot of me converting my Word document to a “web page.” Click the image to “enlargen.” (Yes, this is me making up new words again. I’m a writer. It’s what I do.)

They say you learn something new every day, and I tend to agree. Today, I learned something new that is worth sharing with anyone who is considering publishing their own work via Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).

If you have ever published an eBook via KDP, you are probably familiar with that moment of frustration you experience when you realize that the Word document you so carefully edited and formatted has not rendered properly in Kindle format.

When I published my poetry collection last year, I spent hours flipping back and forth between my original Word document and the converted Kindle file, fixing one formatting error after another. I then had to re-publish the book with the new, updated version of my Word document. I am still not happy with the results, but I eventually just got sick of messing with it! Continue reading “KDP publishing lesson: Convert your Word document to a webpage prior to publishing” →

NaNoWriMo, Novel Writing, Romance

2014 NaNoWriMo Trashy Romance Challenge: Finish writing Act II

Mandy Webster
It's time to wrap up Act II and get ready to write Act III.
It’s time to wrap up Act II and get ready to write Act III.

By now, you should have just about completed the middle third of your novel. It’s time to wrap up Act Two and set the scene for Act Three.

Writing assignment

Write a scene in which your characters admit that they like one another and are interested in maybe starting a relationship. Continue reading “2014 NaNoWriMo Trashy Romance Challenge: Finish writing Act II” →

NaNoWriMo, Novel Writing

2014 NaNoWriMo Trashy Romance Challenge: It’s time to write a sex scene!

Mandy Webster

Did you hit 25,000 words by the end of the day yesterday? If so, great work! It’s time to reward yourself by writing something fun.


Embed from Getty Images

Writing assignment

Write a sex scene. Continue reading “2014 NaNoWriMo Trashy Romance Challenge: It’s time to write a sex scene!” →

Novel Writing, Reading

How to ensure your novel is what’s read next

Mandy Webster
Goodreads Avatar
Determining what to read next can be far more complicated than simply grabbing a book off the shelf. | Goodreads Avatar (Photo credit: minifig)

I have a complicated system for deciding what book I want to read next. First, I constantly keep my eyes peeled for books I might want to read. For example, this morning I read a blog post interview with self-publishing author Aimee Kuzinski. She caught my attention when she mentioned that the hardest part of writing her latest novel, Eye of the Storm, was realizing during the editing phase that she had a major plot hole that needed to be fixed. The fact that she took the time to go ahead and plug that hole rather than rushing her book to publication made me want to read her book.

I should probably mention that the premise of Kuzinski’s novel sounded promising as well. Seriously, what is wrong with me that the writer’s effort to produce a quality product is more likely to catch my attention than her story telling? Maybe I need to work on that. But I digress. Continue reading “How to ensure your novel is what’s read next” →

Writer's Block

Try this new motivational strategy next time you’re stuck in an unproductive day from writing hell.

Mandy Webster
This is reading. Old school
This is reading. Old school

Want a rush? Try this little motivational strategy I just stumbled upon. I was having one of those really productive days where I had so much I wanted to do I ended up taking a nap instead. I needed to do a read-through of my current novel draft, but I was SO sick of looking at it on my computer screen. I considered printing it out, but my printer can’t handle such a large job. And I wasn’t in the mood for an expensive trip to the library printer. So yeah, I took a nap.

I woke up groggy and continued to accomplish nothing for the rest of the afternoon while I watched cruddy daytime television and the minutes crawling by on the wall clock. My kids were going to return from school soon. After 3:00, my chances of accomplishing anything for the day would drop to around 0%. Continue reading “Try this new motivational strategy next time you’re stuck in an unproductive day from writing hell.” →

Book Reviews, Publishing

You must read Hugh Howey’s novel, Wool

Mandy Webster
Hugh Howey Wool
Hugh Howey’s novel Wool is now a New York Times Bestseller.

A long time ago, I thought about writing book reviews for every book I read. What an easy way to come up with content for my blog, right? But for some reason, the books I had read just kept piling up around my desk without me ever getting around to writing those reviews. Until now. Now I have finally read something so good, I feel compelled to blog about it.

I just finished reading Hugh Howey’s novel Wool, and I must say, it is the best book I have read in a long, long time. Wool is a futuristic dystopian novel that follows the story of a people who have been living in underground silos since the destruction of the outside world several years in the past. Continue reading “You must read Hugh Howey’s novel, Wool” →

eBooks

I’ve decided to write an ebook

Mandy Webster

html tattoo

I like to build websites. No, I am not a website designer. I have a basic understanding of HTML, but I am in no way “experienced” with it. The type of websites I like to build are WYSIWYG websites like those you can create for free using Weebly.com and similar content management systems (CMS). These systems are so easy to use, I don’t know why every small business or non-profit doesn’t have a website. But then again, I guess they probably don’t have a thorough understanding of how best to set up a simple site in a way that will draw traffic. Maybe they think it’s too complicated to even think about doing it themselves. I think they’re wrong. So, I thought maybe I’d write an ebook about it. Continue reading “I’ve decided to write an ebook” →