I’ve been away for Christmas, hence the lack of posting - hope everyone had a good one!
While away I kick started the third Portal book (although Nano 2008 is still there in my head and I’ll get back to that soon too.) But it’s been easier than I thought to get back into the mind set of the Portal world. I’ll be working on that during 2009 but don’t hold your breath, it’s not going to be ready for Christmas 2009, it won;t even be finished.
Now, I need a favour from someone - I’ve been getting some nasty spam in the comments here and it’s a pain to moderate so I’ve installed a spam trap, which seems to be working. Can someone please try to leave a comment and let me know what happens?
Thanks!
Sarah
I got my retail sales figures through and it was five. But who sold those five books? Was it Amazon? Was it Tesco? Waterstones? Because some of them were people I vaguely know, I know that two at least were through Amazon, but the others? I’d like to be able to track where sales are happening so that I can target any marketing I do.
So, this email from Lulu is very welcome indeed! (more…)
Here we are at sarahbarnard.co.uk, you might want to bookmark the new blog page, or update your RSS type feedy things….
The new URL - Internet address - is: http://sarahbarnard.co.uk/blog/
I’ll be tinkering and playing around with the site over the next few days, please do drop in, have a nose around and tell me what YOU would like to see?
But did you see? All the posts from the old blog have come over nicely haven’t they? Anyway, back to Sam, who is plunging through the forest with Drummer hot on her heels……
This is a steep learning curve. Although technically, as a self published author, I am free to produce my work in whatever format I want, there are certain conventions that are worth following to help make the whole thing look more professional!
So far I have;
* Indent on every paragraph apart from the first in each section/chapter - which should be fully left aligned with no indent - Exception to this is where an Illuminated/Overlarge initial letter is used. I don’t like that and find it hard to read, so I don’t use it.
* Font should be a standard and easily read one - most prefer Times new roman and I use that even though I don’t like it, I prefer Arial, but most books are in Times New…
* Page numbers should start at 1 on the first page of the actual text/story, not on the title page, copyright or any other page and they should stop at the final page of text/story.
Aside - I worked out how to do this in Word today. I’ll write up a how to set of instructions in a day or so, more to remind myself than anything! It involves splitting the document into sections and messing about with the footers…
* Chapters should start on a fresh page and it’s preferable to leave a large gap so they start half way down the page. Opinion seems divided on this and does seem to depend on if there is any additional information at the start of the chapter, a chapter title or just a number.
There are other legally obligated things that need to be included too, another post and another day for that I think.
Eagerly (and impatiently) awaiting the first sales figures….
The figures from any sales made during April are due to be reported in the next 10 days or so. This is the first time I’ve not known what’s happening with book sales. Up til now I’ve had access to sales through Lulu and I’ve known when each sale has happened.
This is a bit scary, but exciting scary if that makes sense.
Considering the delay in the Portal Between coming through the retail distribution channels, I’m not expecting big numbers. This time ANY numbers will be great to see, but I’ll report back here when I know!
It’s my birthday today, I’m 39! So a quiet day at home was called for, with cake baking, gardening and other domestic type activities.
I also sent the legally required copy of The Portal Between off to the British Library so it can be added to their catalogue. It’s one of the last steps in the journey now, the next one is to see the book on Amazon, which proves that the book has made it through the distribution channels successfully.
After that the hard work starts, I have to market and promote it!
The Portal Between has cleared Bowkers approval process. I knew it would, honest, but it still feels so very good to know it’s taken another step towards Amazon and from there into book shops and libraries.
I am using the Amazon listing as a marker really, as once the book appears on there it means the distribution process is complete and working properly. This journey is a series of steps and as each one is completed I’m getting all excited, even though I know there is a lot of hard work to come after it hits Amazon. It’s a lot of fun.
In the meantime I’m working on the second book, working title is “The Portal Sundered” and it follows two sides of the portals. We see the lives of Lily and Kate as they get used to life without Sam living in our world now, and we follow Sam’s struggle to gain control of the realm on the other side of the portal.
This is week two of a possible three, at the end of which I will either have an email telling me to change something or the book will be approved by Bowkers. I can’t see anything that would cause it to fail but you never know.
In the meantime The Portal Between is on my Lulu store and it won’t be long before it will be will be appearing on Amazon. It’s only the paperback that I’ve put through this process, but the hardback (without an ISBN) is still there on the Lulu store, with the same new cover and the same manuscript inside. It’s just a different binding and doesn’t have the distribution package. I figure the paperback will sell better, and so does my PR and marketing friend.
The ISBN is 978-0-9556887-0-6 but it’ll be another couple of weeks before it’s in the distribution channels and you can order it from your local library or book shop.
It’s on Janey Lee Grace’s Imperfectly Natural site, in the Reviews section here. You’ll have to go down to the bottom of the page to find it.
I’m pretty pleased, dead chuffed actually!
