Tag: E-book

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” →

Blogging, eBooks

How to write a book one blog post at a time

Mandy Webster
Let's Pretend
Parts of Jenny Lawson’s book, “Let’s Pretend this Never Happened” first appeared on her blog. | Photo credit: artbybernadette

The prospect of writing an entire book can be daunting. It’s a lot of work and can take a LOT of time to complete. All the while, you might find yourself wondering if you are good enough or if anyone will ever want to read it. One way to combat this anxiety is to write your book one blog post at a time.

Whether you write serialized fiction (like blogger/author Amanda Martin’s Two-Hundred Steps Home) or creative non-fiction (like The Bloggess’s Let’s Pretend this Never Happened – A Mostly True Memoir,) you can write the first draft of your book-length manuscript one blog post at a time.

There are many benefits to writing a book this way. Check out my list below and then feel free to add your own ideas in the comments at the bottom of this page. Continue reading “How to write a book one blog post at a time” →

Blogging

Keeping tabs on my online activity

Mandy Webster
Coloreando en Amistad
This picture has nothing to do with tabs. Zemanta suggested it. I thought it was pretty. There you go. | Coloreando en Amistad (Photo credit: PatWH)

Author Charlotte Rains Dixon recently ran a blog post in which she listed all of the tabs she had open on her internet browser. I thought it was interesting to see what all she has open for research and such, so I thought I would do a “my tabs” post of my own. So, these are the tabs I have open in my browser at this time:

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” →

Education, Publishing

How to self-publish your novel

Mandy Webster
An on-demand book printer at the Internet Arch...
Today’s print-on-demand technology allows you the option of printing one book or a thousand. | An on-demand book printer at the Internet Archive headquarters in San Francisco, California. Two large printers print the pages (left) and the cover (right) and feed them into the rest of the machine for collating and binding. Depending on the number of pages in a given book, it might take from 5 to 20 minutes to print. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yesterday I attended a seminar on self-publishing with author/publisher Cornel Rosario at my local technical college. I have been doing a lot of research on publishing recently and wanted to see if there was anything new he could teach me that I hadn’t figured out yet on my own. I am glad I did. Prior to the class, I had learned a lot about ebook publishing, but the process of publishing actual books had been a bit of a mystery to me.

Much of the information Rosario covered in this three-hour session was old news to me, as far as ebooks go. But when it comes to printing actual books, he was a wealth of knowledge on both old-fashioned printing and print-on-demand. I also learned a lot about the costs associated with publishing your own book. Continue reading “How to self-publish your novel” →

Blogging, eBooks

Would you buy that book?

Mandy Webster
English: A Picture of a eBook Español: Foto de...
Will you buy my eBook if I write one? | English: A Picture of a eBook Español: Foto de eBook Беларуская: Фотаздымак электроннай кнігі Русский: Фотография электронной книги (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’m thinking about compiling some of my blog posts on novel writing and putting them together in an eBook. I don’t think I quite have enough blog posts yet, but it’s something I think I could manage over the next year or two.

I’ve been blogging about the first draft novel I just knocked out in 16 days, and I think this could be a strong string to tie my eBook together. I’ll keep blogging as I work my way through the process of revising and self-publishing this novel. Then in a year or two, I’ll put all of the blog posts together into one document and revise those into a cohesive whole. So, it will be a book on how to efficiently write, self-publish, and market a novel.  Continue reading “Would you buy that book?” →

Blogging

10 Day Writing Blogger Challenge: Day 5

Mandy Webster

Day 5 - 10-day-write-blog-challengeDay 5 Prompt: Show off 3 of your best blog posts (with links!)

Uncategorized

When words get in my way

Mandy Webster
American Author Ernest Hemingway aboard his Ya...
You don’t have to be the next Ernest Hemingway to sell a ton of books.

Are you over-educated? Do you ever feel like your over-educated mind gets in the way of you enjoying activities that you used to love? Does it seem like your brain analyzes everything you read whether you want it to or not? Believe it or not, this happens to me. I used to love to read, but I have recently found myself incapable of finishing a book due to my brain’s insistence on over-analyzing every word I read.

Before I returned to school to pursue a master’s degree in professional writing, I used to be able to read four or five books a week. I could tear through each book and really enjoy each one without giving much thought as to how well-written they were. But these days, my over-educated brain seems to get in the way of me enjoying a hobby that used to be my favorite way to pass the time.

For example, I recently decided to read 50 Shades of Grey to see what the hype is all about. I knew going into the experience that the book wasn’t likely to be very well written. I didn’t buy the book because I was looking for an example of good writing to follow. No, I bought it because I occasionally enjoy a nice, trashy romance novel and thought this might be an entertaining read. Continue reading “When words get in my way” →

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” →