TheFullFang

Are you still writing your New Year’s resolutions?

If you are like many (myself included) you may find exercise to be listed among the many numbered lines. It’s on mine. So I started thinking about that. It didn’t help that I got this new planner that gives me a motivational blurb about exercise.

Yesterday’s blurb said:

Set aside time for exercise. Put it on your calendar every; make this appointment part of your routine, like brushing your teeth.

That advice sounded oh so similar to the advice that I give to writers about writing. Write daily and consistently. Make an appointment in your calendar to remind yourself. Keep the appointment as if you knew you were going to win money at the end of the session.

But that’s the key isn’t it. If your craft is writing, exercising your craft daily will spark the creativity, eliminate the blockages because you will be able to hurdle over them, sprint around them, or charge through them. Consistency produces.

Now if only I could apply the same determination and will to my physical exercise…. mind you I have been walking more. I have seen a few characters on my walks that I’d love to put in a story… and other times while the wind is blowing the cobwebs out of my gray cells, I find new ideas surfacing. So getting away from the computer, while still a challenge, has been quite fruitful.

I’m a loser!

Well in truth, I’m just not a winner. I was not one of the few that received the coveted pink banner under their Nanowrimo profile with the word WINNER on it. I was just very thankful that the I wasn’t titled a loser no matter how I felt inside.

I stopped about 4K words shy and have a plethora of excuses ranging from the most recent, I fell asleep in my chair on the last night and mid month I stopped writing for a week or so due to the minor requirement of needing to revise my short story compilation.

List of Excuses

What ever the reason or excuse for not finishing something, not meeting goal can sometimes be emotionally devastating.

So I ask you to use another perspective.

There are times when we each set goals for our writing. Whether it be 500 words in a month or in the case of Nanowrimo 50,000 words in a month, often life or writers block happens and we may not achieve our goal. You know yourself best and it may be time to reset goal making. Start with smaller targetable goals so you can credit yourself with an achievement.

Can you write for 15minutes per day? Plan and make those the best 15 minutes. After all we must agree it’s consistency that produces.

Here are a few tips.

1. Walk with a small notebook and a pen to jot down thoughts as you progress throughout your day or if you are a paperless or digital user use an app like Evernote that you can pull up on your smartphone and computer to look at your notes.
2. Last thing at night write down what you’d like to write about the following day.
3. When you are writing and your time is up (the bell has rung) keep writing if you want to but if you need to stop write a line in CAPS or highlight it on the scene that you’d like to write next. This doesn’t have to be long, it can be a word, two words or a full sentence if your muse is with you. You may also want to write in your notebook or note-taking app so you are thinking about writing all day. The key is to think about it often so when you are in the moment of doing, that your fingers can translate your thoughts via the keyboard onto the blank page.
4. If neither paper nor the digital aspect is working for you, try using voice notes or snap a picture and upload it to your note-taking app like Evernote so you can work on it later.
5. Doing internet research copy and paste your research link or paragraph with citation for later reference into your notes. The key here is keeping it all in one place so that you have the ability to scroll through your notes easily to check references.
6. Always look for the positive. If you set a goal and missed it reset the date to one that is achievable based on your daily or weekly rate.
7. Remember to push yourself. If you don’t who will? But keep it realistic as biting off more than you can chew can be just as detrimental.
8. Keep it fun and simple.
9. Find ways to let technology work for you. Set yourself reminders and appointments to write. Keep them – remind yourself of the importance of writing.
10. Understand how deep your passion for writing runs. It is a hobby or do you see yourself in business. Set your expectations appropriately.

Setting goals helps to motivate us. Did you ever wonder why Nanowrimo charts your progress? As people we need to see something tangible. If we were using a pen and paper we would accumulate a stack of paper and have some level of satisfaction being able to see that tangible stack rising. That tactile satisfaction is a little lost when scrolling through our word processing software. So what will motivate you to push harder or do more?

1. Make yourself a goal poster. This can be as simple as writing down your word count on a piece of index card and sticking it on the fridge, in your purse/wallet, in the visor of your car, and on a post-it note on your monitor. Doesn’t that sound childish? Be that as it may there’s proof that this constant visual will help us to achieve our goals.
2. Create your own chart. If you are the type that outlines then you should be able to estimate how long the book will be. Chart your progress.
3. Figure out what works for you and create a plan to motivate yourself.
4. Get your family and friends behind you or better yet join a writing group with like-minded writers.

Whatever your strategy just remember that consistency with some level of planning will help you to produce your writing.
Be a survivor! Grrr.
If you didn’t make it this time like I didn’t, there’s a next time.

So the month of November has rolled around and many writers are getting the itch. Some are responding by picking up the proverbial quill and giving a good scratch before dipping the nib in the inkwell and scratching out a novel or short story.

The big contest going on right now is NaNoWriMo.

What on earth does that mean? Like a little dinosaur? (ok so I don’t write humor)

It stands for National November Writing Month and this is the opportunity that many authors jump on to allow the pressure of a contest deadline to help them output word count in the shape of a novel.

you can find the details of the contest at:
http://www.nanowrimo.org

The goal for that contest is 50,000 words.

Oh My Goodness.

(Well at least one person said that I’m sure)

How do you sit down and simply pound out a novel?
Well there are many techniques that can be used and we’ll blog about them over the next few days; but the goal is simply word count. Quality is not the focus right now.

This is a good time to just push yourself as a writer. If you haven’t written one word. Do so. If its been a while since you’ve done a whole sentence. Great time to start. Move to a paragraph. How about a short story?

Whatever your delimiter? Try hopping over that hurdle. So many writers will be in one place add them as writing buddies and get some online help. Join the forums and discussed. Writers write. Surround yourself with like minded people and those who you aspire to be like (or at least write like).

If joining the herd that wants to write 50K in one month is overwhelming try something a little slower paced.

Lulu is hosting a short story contest. Very short clocking in at 600 words max. Very doable.
Check out Lulu’s blog for details.
Lulu Short Story Contest

Whichever contest you opt for, I challenge you to push yourself. Who knows you might surprise yourself with the results of your efforts.

Happy Writing.
B

Even with ePub becoming the standard format for eBooks, formatting an eBook can still be tricky. So we have put together a list of tools to help you make your books available in the eBook form.

Here is a list of six tools that can help you format an eBook into ePub and from common formats such as HTML and Word documents:

1. Calibre: This free tool will let you create an eBook for all of the major eReaders, including Kindle, Nook, iPad and Sony eReaders as well as a bunch of others. You can transform news from websites into readable files on eReaders and even make DRM-free eBooks. But note that it does not support Word files.

2. Aspose: Using Aspose.Word plugin, you can convert a Word file into an ePub file. It is a pay service, but you can test drive the application with a free trial.

3. Mobi Pocket: This free tool lets you create an eBook from HTML and Word and image files. Image files –GIF, JPEG, PNG, BMP– get automatically optimized for a PDA viewer.

4. Jutoh: This $39 tool lets you make books for Kindle, iBooks and Nook, among other formats. It can ePub, .mobi, .txt and .odt files through its in app text editor. It works in Windows, Mac and Linux.

5. Feedbooks.com: This free tool lets you create your own ePub, Kindle and PDF files from within its software platform.

6. BookGlutton: This free tool lets you turn HTML books into ePub files

Six eBook Formatting Tools – eBookNewser.

So you labored over your novel and produced a 100,000 word work of art. What’s next? Editing… check…. Editing… Check Check… and just to be sure… Editing! Perfect, now the content is ready for Cover Art and Distribution.

But how is the work of art to be distributed. Well Amazon has the Createspace tool. That’s easy enough, isn’t it?

True Amazon has provided the means to create an eBook and they will give you an ASIN as they do not require you to use an ISBN if you use their Createspace product. What will you be left with. In fact, you will have an eBook that can be sold anywhere on Amazon that your rights permit you to sell.

Can you take that singular product and sell it on Barnes and Nobel or other mediums for distribution? That answer unfortunately is no.

What is an ASIN you ask?

As ASIN is an Amazon Standard Identification Number. In other words its Amazon’s sku… a unique number for Amazon to locate the product within its databases. Each product sold on Amazon is given an ASIN. If your book has a 10digit ISBN (traditionally bound) then the ASIN and the ISBN could be the same.

If you have an eBook with a 13digit ISBN that also does not have a print edition, Amazon will usually only display the ASIN.

So why use an ISBN?

What is an ISBN?

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is 13-digit number that uniquely identifies books and book-like products published internationally, allowing for more efficient marketing of products by booksellers, libraries, universities, wholesalers and distributors. The ISBN Agency assigns ISBNs at the direct request of publishers, e-book publishers, audio cassette and video producers, software producers and museums and associations with publishing programs. Bowker is the Official ISBN Agency for the United States. The ISBN will establish and identify one title or edition of a title from one specific publisher and is unique to that edition. The ISBN, coupled with a descriptive meta-data record, ensures that information needed to make a level purchasing decision is communicated to the consumer accurately and reliably, particularly in cases where the same product or format is available for purchase on multiple channels. In the digital supply chain, most major search engines, e-tailers, library web sites, social network applications, mobile phones and other entities cataloging information about books continue to leverage the ISBN as a cataloging mechanism and to search-optimize such information for consumer discovery. The Internet has enabled an entire new paradigm of book discovery, whereby consumers can directly research and purchase books, perform price comparisons across multiple different sales vendors or channels and even download partial components of the books they seek on a preview basis. For e-books, the ISBN and a descriptive meta-data record can be utilized to communicate format-specific information such as compatibility features, accessibility and/or usage rights to specific versions of a product. This is particularly important for e-book formats that are available for discovery and sale on multiple channels, including and not limited to e-book retail web sites, within online library catalogues and search engines. While today, many e-book retailers and their respective business models are focused within single channels or a host of channels that are proprietary to their businesses, Bowker believes that it is inevitable that in order to maximize their marketing efforts, sales and distribution opportunities, many publishers will make their books available as e-books in numerous formats sold on multiple channels, similar to their traditional hardcover/soft-cover distribution and retail strategies.  Bowker 2010

If you create your eBook outside of using the Createspace tool, Amazon and others will require you to have an ISBN for your eBook. By converting your eBook professionally to the ePub and other formats you will be able to easily upload to other distribution sites with next to no additional financial output without being locked into a singular site. Barnes and Nobel along with Apple also welcome authors and small presses with professionally represented eBooks i.e. ePub conversion and ISBN number.

Think about the big picture and how you would like to position your book in the long-term.  Most readers resources use the ISBN to list your book. Make the marketing of your product that much easier by doing research to situate your content in the best position possible.