Indie Insider - Tracy Falbe

How are your book covers designed?

For Rys Rising: Book I my newest release I hired the company AvatarArt.com to development a scene featuring two major characters. After getting the art, I added in the title and author name with Adobe Illustrator and then exported the image in the formats and resolutions I needed for various digital and print uses.

What do you do when you get writer’s block?

If I’m having trouble deciding what to write next, I spend time reading and editing chapters I’ve already written. There’s no shortage of editing and proofreading and contemplating that needs to be done. These activities usually get the juices flowing for writing again.

How many hours a week do you spend writing? Editing? Procrastinating?

Between writing and editing, I put in a consistent 15 to 20 hours a week unless those pesky “life issues” get in the way. I don’t really do much procrastinating. My time to focus on these tasks is restricted because I’m raising small children. So when it’s my time, I don’t waste it. Anyway, I love writing. It’s what makes me feel good. Why would I put it off?

How long does it take you to create a book from start to finish on average?

My novels are very long, ranging from 150,000 to 220,000 words. Including writing, reading, and editing, each one roughly represents two years of effort.

Where do you get your ebooks formatted?

I do all of my own ebook formatting. I recently obtained Sigil, which makes creating an epub very easy. I use the Mobipocket creator software to make my Kindle versions. I have Adobe Acrobat professional and with that I make pdf files out of either Microsoft Word or Adobe InDesign. I always teach myself as many technical skills as I can. I need the money I make from my novels for living expenses. I have to be careful about throwing it away on services. As any businessperson can tell you, there are always many vendors out there ready to take your money. I only outsource when I feel I can derive real value from it, like with my recent audiobook production of another novel Union of Renegades.

Do you use a professional editor, critique partners, or beta readers? Briefly describe your process.

I go over every word of my novels numerous times. I read my work. I edit it. I rewrite it. I proofread it. I once estimated that I spend from 10 to 20 hours total on each chapter. Part of my process is to read my work from the point of view of a reader. I’m capable of wearing many hats. I can sit back and relax and just consume the story, and I then I can become an editor and deeply analyze every paragraph. I’ve never sought beta readers. My novels are long and it would seem like too much of an imposition. Also I’m not really interested in a bunch of feedback from some committee. How would it be my novel if I was making adjustments based on other people’s opinions? That sounds too much like a job.

As for an actual editor, the thought of someone cutting a word or adjusting anything in my manuscript is horrific to me. An editor might cut a phrase thinking it’s extraneous without realizing that it adds meaning hundreds of pages later. I’ve considered every word and detail in my novels carefully. That’s my purpose as a novelist. I know you’re thinking that my novels are long and need editing, but I assure you I’ve cut thousands of words from each manuscript before publishing. My novels are long because I write epics with dozens of characters, multiple races, and two or three separate civilizations. I very much take to heart the advice in the little book The Elements of Style. Just the other day I changed the phrase “failed to hit” to “missed.”

I also very much enjoy editing my novels. They are born of my deepest thoughts and feelings, and I need to be the one attending to the details. I am qualified. I have a journalism degree that trained me as a writer and copyeditor. I always got A grades in writing courses in high school and college. I’ll grant that there are probably a few errors within every hundred thousand words, but I can live with that. I put my name on my novels and accept the judgment of the public. I stand by my work and some people enjoy my novels very much and ask me to write more.

Which is the most important social media platform and why? Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, LinkenIn, or any other one you use.

I wish I knew! Personally I enjoy Twitter, so that is the one I use the most. I suspect that Goodreads might be the most valuable to authors because everyone there actually reads books. I should do more there. I honestly don’t know what to make of Facebook. I’m on Facebook but don’t have any clue if it accomplishes anything for me. In general I don’t have any advice about social media. It seems like it could be useful but I’m not sure how to use it.

What are three resources/websites that are indispensable to authors?

Indispensable:

Smashwords http://www.smashwords.com

Kindle Direct Publishing http://kdp.amazon.com/

Is there anything else you would like to share?

I’ll be brief and just quote AC/DC…

“It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock’n’roll.”

I invite readers to discover my epic fantasy. I am the author of two series: The Rys Chronicles and Rys Rising.

Free samples at Brave Luck Books

Union of Renegades: The Rys Chronicles Book I

http://www.falbepublishing.com/braveluck/free_ebook.html

Rys Rising: Book I

http://www.falbepublishing.com/braveluck/free-fantasy-ebook-rys-rising.html

Also see all my titles at these retailers:

Smashwords http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/braveluck

Amazon Kindle http://www.amazon.com/Tracy-Falbe/e/B002BLWI3S/

Barnes & Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/tracy-falbe

Apple iBooks http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/tracy-falbe/id365797627?mt=11

Sony Reader Store http://ebookstore.sony.com/author/tracy-falbe_160285

KindleProcessor - Fast And Easy Kindle Conversions

May I introduce Brian Kittrell, fabulous author and inventor of the Kindle Processor...

Thanks for contacting me, Patricia, and thank you for your interest in the Kindle Processor project. It's been in development since November, 2010, when my first book came out. A few people complained about the formatting of the book, and I went back and found out that none of my formatting from my word processor "stuck". So, my book didn't have indents, spacing, or really anything to make it easy to read. Thus, Kindle Processor was born in its earliest form, a few simple lines of code to go through my book's body and format it to read better on the Kindle.

Q: Can you tell us about KindleProcessor?

A: Sure. KindleProcessor is a tool that takes the body of a book and formats it for the Kindle in HTML with CSS styles. Basically, a Kindle is nothing more than a portable web page viewer, so the books distributed for it need to be optimized like a web page would. KindleProcessor goes through the file, adds indents, centers chapter headers, and so forth. I've been adding and tweaking features as time has gone along, and I have a whole new phase of the project in mind. I'll discuss that a little later here.

Q: Where did the idea for it come from?

A: As I mentioned before, the idea came about from my own personal needs of having my books formatted properly. I didn't want to go through and code the thing myself from start to finish, so I started writing a little bit of code. That little bit of code is now several hundred lines long to account for all the extra options and preferences that I had for it. As time went along, I saw lots of other people having problems getting their own books formatted properly. Even people who had software designed for this specific process were experiencing difficulties. So, I decided to make it available for public use.

Q: How can it be so cheap?

A: Originally, I was charging $0.35 (35 cents US) for the processor and unlimited support while using it. Unfortunately, I discovered that PayPal was taking the entire amount in processing fees after the second person used it. So, I had to up it a bit. I could easily charge much more for the service, and I've actually been advised to increase my prices by people who have used the service. If that's not satisfaction, I don't know what is!

But, back to the question at hand. It's cheap because I choose for it to be cheap. Some of the money from the $0.99 fee helps support the server equipment to host the tool online, and part of it goes toward securing unlimited support from yours truly. Yeah, it usually takes me about 30 minutes to 1 hour to fix a book if something went wrong, and I know that most people wouldn't accept mere pennies to offer support; however, I enjoy offering the service to people and helping them. So, I only charge what I think is necessary to keep the service going. I'm an author, too, and I know how expensive really everything is for publishing.

Q: How long does it take to format an ebook?

A: The average promised turnaround is 10 minutes, but just about everyone has gotten their book back in under 3 minutes. Once you upload the book, it is added to the queue for processing. Since this is a relatively new service, there aren't going to be many in front of you at any particular time. So long as the processor succeeds, it's done in no time at all.

If you have to utilize support because something went wrong, I usually get it processed and back to you the same day.

Q: Can you convert an ebook to any other formats with this?

A: Not yet, but it's coming. Plans for Phase II are being drawn as we speak. The plan is to convert the processor into an ePub format compiler. The reason this is good is because both Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing and Barnes & Noble's PubIt! service accept ePubs for distribution. That would mean you could pay once and receive one file that was properly formatted for both services, and it would include the book's cover, proper formatting, and a table of contents.

Phase III of the project is moving the service to be free for users with advertisements supporting the server costs, and a premium option for those who want the highest priority for their books. The premium service would give authors the ability to be placed in a separate premium queue so their books are processed almost immediately. (in under 10 minutes every single time.)

Q: Are there any other products like this on the market?

A: Yes and no. There are plenty of other products that will turn your manuscript into an eBook, and they vary in cost. Some are free, of course, and a Google search will bring up several options. I don't know of any others that cost $0.99 that come with unlimited support, though.

Q: Do you have any other projects in the works?

A: Of course, there's Phase II and Phase III of Kindle Processor that I'm working on. Of course, I am a writer, too, so I write and publish my own books as time goes along. Those are much more time consuming than working on KindleProcessor, and they demand the highest level of attention. I always find it funny how writing hundreds of lines of code is so different from writing a book; the software will tell you when something's wrong rather quickly, but it takes several people hundreds of hours to find all the errors in a book, and there are usually still some errors when you go to press. Ah, the curses.

Q: What else would you like to tell us about yourself?

A: I'm just a guy who tells stories and writes programs, really. I'm content to live out my days and design little things like KindleProcessor or my books. As long as there are people out there enjoying my little contributions, I will keep making them.

Thanks for the opportunity. I always enjoy interviews and publicity stuff. It's so much more interesting and engaging to me than simply putting up advertising, so I welcome these opportunities. I have been writing books for about 7 months so far, and my book publishing website is http://www.latenitebooks.com. My stories are available just about everywhere books are sold online.

Thanks so much Brian!  

Patricia