Nancy's How-To Guide Part II on eBook Publishing

All right, you've gone through the first twelve steps on how to self-publish your own book and now you have an edited manuscript all ready to go.
What's next?
1.  Consider how to get a cover made.  Why a cover, you may ask, since there's no physical book?  Kinda goes along with the mystery of the sphinx.  Guess people want to look at something even if it's really teeny and a lot of times in black and white, but whatever the case, you do need one.
2.  Thoughtfully rub your chin awhile, then check online for book cover artists.  Maybe buy an e-book from someone whose covers you like and see if the cover artist is listed inside.  Read blogs about self-publishing and see if cover artists are advertising.  Or, get creative yourself and expect to become really close friends with i-stock photos.
3.  Buy an ISBN number.  Repeat that.  Buy an ISBN number.  Didn't know they were for sale, but they are.  I bought mine at Bowker.  What?  Bowker.  It's online. (ISBN's seem kinda spendy for what they are, but okay.  Gotta have 'em.)
4.  So, now you've got your manuscript.  You've got your cover.  You've even got your ISBN number.  The last piece is putting the whole thing into HTML programming.
5.  HTM. . .what the?  L?
6.  Am I going to take the time to learn this?  LOL
7.  Or, okay, maybe you will.  You might want to learn something new, like HTML programming.  This may take awhile, so I'm going to go get a glass of wine and sit outside for a season or two while you perfect it.
8.  Go back to Step 2 and search for someone who does HTML programming.  (If his name is Guido, I'm gonna bet he's our guy.)
9.  Send your manuscript electronically to Guido or your other chosen HTML programmer.
10.  Question yourself:  What?  But that's my manuscript!  I can't just send it to a stranger!  What if they steal it from me?
11.  Send it to Guido anyway and then marvel at what comes back to you.  Wow.  It looks GREAT.
12.  Go onto the publishing sites for Amazon, B&N, i-Book etc. and follow the directions on what to do next.
Simple as 1, 2, 3....456789101112.

FYI: The HTML programming for JESSE'S RENEGADE just got finished tonight, so I'll be putting it up soon!
Thanks, Guido.

Nancy's How-To Guide To E-Book Conversion

I've spent a lot of this summer transferring some of my backlisted books -- older ones that have been out of print for sometime -- into e-book form.  Here's a 12-step program on how you do it:
1.  Read your contract and try to decipher what it says.  Force majeure?  What?
2.  Find the clause that deals with out of print books.
3.  Read the clause sixty-seven times to see if you understand what it means on how to contact the publisher and ask for your rights back.
4.  Write a certified letter asking the publisher for your rights back.
5.  Wait awhile, oh, six months or so, depending on what the contract says.
6.  Chafe at how long it's taking for those six months or so to pass.
7.  Receive a response from the publisher, telling you that some of your works are not yet vulnerable to reversion, but they would like to publish the others as long as you sign your e-rights away to all of them on this dotted line.
8.  Politely refuse said offer and tell them to send you your rights back....please....with an undertone of legal action pending....
9.  Receive a letter from the publisher granting you your rights back.  Unbelievable!!  Yay!!
10. Figure out how in the world to now convert that old book in your hand into Word -- scan it?  Write it in because scanning sucks?  Use Dragon-naturally speaking and talk it in? -- so that you can prepare it for HTML programming and then learn the next set of steps to self-publish.
11. Find wine and Skype or sit by yourself in a dark room and contemplate the meaning of life.
12. Open up Word and the book, and type in: Chapter One....

There is a second set of steps that follows this one on how to actually get your Word doc onto Amazon, B&N, Apple etc. sites in order to actually sell your book....more about that later....

The People In The Basement

They appeared after the Fourth of July.  What did they want?  Merely a roof over their heads and maybe a bed or two, and a place for their dog, and two parking spots, and access to the refrigerator and washer/dryer and possibly a subscription to TV Guide.  We told them they could live in the basement and all would be granted except the subscription.  Why did we allow them into our house?  Momentary lack of judgement? Altruism at its finest?

Actually my friend and fellow writer, Roz Noonan, and her family are between houses. Their house sold, but they can't get into their new one until the end of the month. When I wrote for ALL MY CHILDREN in New York, I lived with Roz and her family in Queens and took the train into the city. So, the least I could do is return the favor for a few weeks. However, since they've arrived they have already broken the toilet. Okay, that's not completely accurate. I had this tile art piece on the wall that fell down and crashed into the toilet and cracked the tank so water started spewing everywhere about midnight last night.  Me?  I slept through the whole thing and learned about it this morning while they were all scrambling around trying to stop the water that was rushing out the door and down the hall. They succeeded in stemming the flow and turning off the water, so all is well now. My husband and I already purchased a new tank this morning and are having it replaced this afternoon.....so the people in the basement can stay and have restroom facilities at their disposal, which, as we all know, is a good thing.

Writing-wise, Roz and my sister, Lisa, and I just signed a contract this week to write a story together that is set in Wyoming, so one of the people in the basement will soon be my writing partner as well!  Looking forward to it!

The minibar

I'm in NYC with my daughter and sister for the RWA conference.  That would be the Romance Writers of America, although I have yet to set foot in the conference hotel.  On Monday I did "take a meeting" with my publisher, Kensington Publishing, and discussed many, many issues facing the publishing industry today.  My head still reeling with the amount of information I'd received, I returned to my hotel room and decided I needed something from the room's minibar.
Now, in the past I've played fast and loose with the minibar.  I pull something out with the intention of replacing it before the hotel employee comes to check because I refuse to pay $1300.00 for bottled water.  However, THIS minibar has an electronic code which flips up the price as soon as you pick up the item.  Good God.  I could die of thirst because I can't pay that much.  I refuse.  What is it about hotels that makes them overcharge so MUCH.  I know they have me over a barrel but they're flogging me, too.
Today -- top of my list -- a trip to Duane Reade and a purchase of bottled water and Toblerone.  (I don't usually eat Toblerone, but it's always in the minibar and now I want some.)
More later as I work on this problem...

HUSH is on the stands!

I've been waiting for my muse for way too long.  So, forget it.  I've got to just get going.  HUSH, my next thriller, hit the stands this week.  Check it out.  Yay!

And some said I wasn't a 10....

It happened.  I am a ten.
WICKED LIES is #10 on both the NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY bestseller lists in the same week.  Booya!

More about WICKED LIES

Okay, WICKED LIES is pretty much all I know anymore.  For the past ten days my sister and I have been stumping our latest co-written book hard on radio and satellite television.  Our efforts seem to have paid off as last week the book reached #18 on the New York Times bestseller list and #16 on USA Today's!  Yay!

What I have learned:
1.  I used to have a writing career but the amount of words I'm committing toward paper/word processing has diminished proportionately with the amount I've been TALKING about writing.
2.  I suspect it is a cosmic joke that now, when I could really use some horrible weather to keep me inside, the sun has finally decided to come out.
3.  My sister knows way more about what kind of makeup to use to look good on television.  I sort of stopped learning after 'beach makeup'.  She has promised me a shopping trip to purchase said new product.  I fear this may mean I'll encounter salespeople behind the makeup counter with enough blue eye shadow to give a Cirque du Soleil performer pause.
But....I really could use her help, so I'll keep those thoughts to myself....and to my blog.
Check out WICKED LIES!