Thursday 28 June 2012

Losing It, But did You ever Have it In the First Place.

A follow on from the previous post and then a rest from the e-book, honest!
    The book has created no small interest, not least on the technical side. It is no secret that technically on most things I'm as poor as they come. A year or two back I had a TGA, not for the first time. (See blog dated 18th May 2008 entitled 'Hooray for the NHS.) On querying the cause I was told being immersed suddenly in a freezing river or too violent sex could do it. I don't know about the river bit but I'm seventy two years of age for goodness sake!)
    The full effect I do not know, suffice to say I am told I suffered some brain damage, evidently to the frontal lobes. If you study what the front of your brain does you'll know more than me. Another problem is that I cannot retain some information for more than minutes. (Yet I can write about 1945. Scary!!)
    I do theatre reviews for a free paper.(Long Eaton and District Chronicle) One play I reviewed was a play called '2401'. It was based on a true story about a man who was the subject of a lobotomy that went wrong.He finished up with a memory span of around five minutes; for the rest of his life. After he died his brain was sliced into 2401 sections and toured the country, carried in a suitcase; the subject of medical lectures, hence the title. I related to this play profoundly; it almost mirrored my own situation, but in a much less dramatic way. Is this any part of the reason I am hopeless technically I wonder.
    Several people have asked my advice concerning self publishing. I try to help but I'm not the right one to ask. I do not know/understand computer language (I have books on computing for simpletons but I seem to be a lost cause.) I don't really understand what KDP means, or html. I don't really know what a browser is and I had to look up 'indie' when I chose to publish as an e-book. Tags and links, I know roughly what they are but forget five minutes later. Books on computers and computer people assume too much. I do realise that we do not necessarily have to know HOW something works when we use it. For example I can just manage a light switch but how it lights up my room is a mystery. I have included at the end of this post information from my learned, much valued friend Russell, information that some of my blogging friends have requested. I would love for some of you to comment, I am very interested as to how wide your experiences are; whatever we feel about computers, they are here to stay.

Here is that guidance link on how to go about publishing a book on kindle amazon as sent by my 'guru' Russell. Remembering how 'untechnical' I am, there is no chance of me ever mastering this sort of thing. Kindle reckon it is easy, not for people like me it aint! Hope it helps some of my readers.

https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help

The high level steps are:
1. Check the book formatting guidelines from the publishing system (note: I used kdp amazon so hence the above link)
2. Set up your font styles in MS Word e.g. headings, body text, paragraph styles etc.
3. Write the book
4. Perform regular Spelling and Grammar checks
5. Reduce book file size by compressing any photos / images
6. Generate a table of contents (TOC) when book and formatting is complete
7. Save as a standard MS Word .doc
8. Save a copy as a Web Page, Filtered (*.htm; *.html) file (available under Save As options in MS Word)
9. Publish with an online provider (e.g. KDP amazon)
If using KDP Amazon then make sure you have got yourself an account with them.
1. Register for free account with Kindle on their KDP website
2. Create a profile of your book on your KDP bookshelf e.g.
a. Book name
b. Edition number
c. Book Description
d. Author details
e. Add any contributors details (if you have any e.g. reference materials, photos etc.)
f. Choose categories (seven key words or phrases) that describe your book e.g. personal history, post war Britain, etc.
3. Upload your book cover - follow the image guidelines for sizes and formats
4. Upload your book – this should ideally be a compressed ZIP file containing .htm file and a sub folder containing all photos for your book
5. Preview and check your book. There are tools on the kdp amazon publishing site that enable you to simulate previews of your book on different devices e.g. kindle, ipad, phone etc.
6. Choose your publishing territories e.g. worldwide or individual territories
7. Choose royalties – either 30% or 70% (read up on the terms of how these rates are calculate)
8. When ready then save and publish your book following the on screen tools – then wait for approx. 12 to 48 hours for Amazon to review and approve.




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