Anne K. Albert: Jill Paterson's Murder at the Rocks

Anne K. Albert: Jill Paterson's Murder at the Rocks

SELF PUBLISHING - UPDATING YOUR EBOOK AND PAPERBACK

After publishing Murder At The Rocks in both eBook and paperback formats, I found I wanted to make some changes.  The thought was rather daunting in case I destroyed what I’d originally published, but because I can’t stop myself once I have a bee in my bonnet, I went ahead, into the abyss!  I should add that I was helped along by a friend on Goodreads as well as KDPs support team.

I had published through Smashwords, Kindle Direct Publishing KDP, and Createspace.  I decided to start with updating my Smashwords eBook first.

Smashwords

I found making changes to my Smashwords version the least complicated.

1. Make and save changes to your file, and go into your Smashwords Dashboard.

2. Under Operations, click on ‘Upload New Version’.

3. Under Select File, press the ‘Up-load button’.

4. Return to your Dashboard.

5. You will see that under the heading ‘Premium Status’ it will now say ‘Pending’.  This will remain so for approximately 24 hours until your updated version has been approved.

Kindle Direct Publishing KDP

Making changes to my KDP version was a little more difficult, but only because I wasn’t aware that, depending on what kind of file you originally loaded, the process for updating is different.  In my case I had originally uploaded a MOBI file.

MOBI file

1. Make the changes to your original file, and save it as Web Page, Filtered (*Htm & Html).

2. Open MobiCreator.

3. Select “HTML Document” from Import from an Existing File

4. Press “Import”

5. Select “Build”

6. On the Build page click ‘Build”.

7. Once completed you should see the message “Build Finished”.

8. You will find the file in your ‘My Documents\My Publications’ folder.  It is supposed to have a PRC (or prc) extension, although, mine said Kindle Content.

You can now upload this updated file to KDP as you did your original.

HTML or Word docs

1. Sign in to KDP

2. To the right of your ‘Bookshelp’ screen click the Actions drop down menu.

3. Choose ‘Edit Book Details’

4. The details of the book you published will come up.

5. Scroll down to Preview Book

6. You will see your book as it is in your KDP account and the ‘Download HTML link should be at the top of the Preview screen.  Click on this to download the content and make your changes before resubmitting it.

*I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Kindle system updates from the CLOUD so that anyone who has bought your eBook previous to the update will automatically receive the updated edition.

Kindle publishing video tutorial at https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A2M7MM0UP7PHK0

Createspace

As you know, the paperback format is a PDF file so you need to make the changes to your original PDF file and then upload it onto Createspace.  It will automatically replace your original.  There will be a down-time for this updated version of your book until you have approved the new proof.  In my case this only took a week.

What are your experiences with updating your book(s)?

Indie Writers Zone: Indie Insider - Jill Paterson

Indie Writers Zone: Indie Insider - Jill Paterson: How long does it take you to create a book from start to finish on average? Murder At The Rocks, took me approximately two years to write...

BALANCING YOUR WRITING AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is a wonderful thing.  It enables us to interact with our readers, advertise our work, as well as keep in touch with family and friends.  But have you ever felt that it is taking over?

The merry-go-round

You jump on and don’t get off.  It can change all the plans you had for your day.  That book you are writing isn’t getting written.  At least that has been my experience, so I decided to do something about it.

Setting limits to get the balance right

For me there were two options.  To spend my mornings writing or my afternoons writing.  This wasn’t a difficult choice because I knew that if I turned the internet on first thing in the morning, I would invariably get caught up, and never get around to my afternoon’s writing.

This is what I came up with.

Resist the urge to connect to the internet and spend the morning writing.

Depending on other commitments, blog writing, postings and maintenance of the site, in the early afternoon.

Emails, Twitter and other social media between 3-4pm.

Have you  found that your writing time has shrunk? 

A SPECIAL PLACE TO WRITE - YOU DON'T NEED ONE

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 I’m lucky I guess.  I do have my own study, albeit very small.  It houses three bookcases, a filing cabinet, a large desk, two printers, my chair, my cat Fergus, and me.  It’s saving grace is a floor to ceiling window enabling a good deal of natural light and, for me, alleviating possible claustrophobia.  For Fergus, it means many happy hours of feline growling at the birds in the bird bath outside.

Of course, you don’t need a study because you can write anywhere.  I guess that’s the beauty of it.  All you need is a pen, some paper and somewhere to sit.  I’ve written on trains, planes, airport gate lounges, the park, the hairdressers, the dentist’s waiting room (ugh), my back patio, the dining room table, the couch in the living room.  One of my favourite places is the coffee shop at my local aquatic centre.  With two 50 metre swimming pools, it tends to be a noisy place, but I can’t say that I notice once I start writing.  I wrote much of ‘The Celtic Dagger’ and ‘Murder At The Rocks’, at this coffee shop.

So why am I telling you all this?  Because, as I said before, you don’t need a special place to write.  You can write anywhere.