Applefest wrap-up and Quest incoming
Did not sell as much as I had hoped at Applefest. But it is what it is. So onto the last event of the year, the Seneca V.F.D. Fall craft show.
By then, hopefully, Quest will be out and ready to order! (I don’t plan to have copies to sell by then, only because of the time it takes for books to be printed and shipped).
I am doing the read-aloud edits, then will be going to Atticus for the formatting and the last round of edits. Atticus has added new features that I really can’t wait to play with. It is much better than Word for formatting.
For the buildup for Quest, I hope to drop quotes and so forth, but there is so much going on. I don’t know.
For example, just gained another kitty cat (poor thing was on the bridge, covered in awful things and was skin and bones). Also, my new office is here, but I don’t think I’ll be able to fully move into it before the snow hits. Have to deal with other issues (involving our attic and a certain type of cute but annoying flying mammal), not to mention the costs of renovating the office. As things go along, we will see.
Add-on: A church member made me this beautiful dragon lamp! Extremely thankful for the generous gift! I will name her Lasrina, after a dragon that you lot will find about down the road. wink
Starting out self-publishing: Notes for new writers
Had a gentleman at Applefest asked me and my fellow writers about self-publishing. Thought I would share a few basics for those thinking of self-publishing.
Bowker is the only place to buy ISBNs. Amazon, Ingram Spark, etc. have their own ISBNs, but they only work through them on their selling platforms. You want to sell widely; buy ISBNs. You only need them for physical copies; ebooks are different. I repeat, you can only buy through Bowker. Ingramspark will do it for you, but it’s cheaper to do it yourself.
Atticus is best for formatting (at least for Windows. I hear Vellum is great on the Mac).
Copyrighting. Note: This is from my own research. I am NOT a lawyer. But the basics are you automatically own your words. But copyright registration through the Copyright Office is the best way to protect your work if you have to sue. It’s $60 per title. Also, when you do new editions, you have to do it again for that edition.
Where to self-publish?
I publish through Amazon for ebooks and Ingramspark for physical copies. Both have drawbacks. There are others such as Bookbaby, but I find them far too expensive.
You have to do your own research to decide which service is best for you.
Draft2Digital is another separate platform for ebooks. They go wide: Kobo, Google Books, etc. They charge an annual fee depending on how much you sell, and there is a onetime fee for signing up.
Beware of the scammers!
Professional editors will never approach you, nor will publishing houses, etc. Always delete them. There’s Author Beware that helps protect authors from scams.
There’s lots more, of course, getting beta readers, editors, etc. But these are the few things that I wanted to drop. I will add all of this to the writer’s tab on my website as well.
Pop Culture Corner
Nintendo proves in some ways they really are the best like no one ever was. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
Nintendo came out to say they are going to continue on with physical copies. Great. Drop the game key cards then and make the publishers fully load the game on the physical copy before the buyer puts in into the Switch. A good statement, but we need a bit more than just that, Nintendo.
YouTube Freebies: DC Comics’ Golden Movies
I randomly found a good amount of the DC animated movies are free to watch with ads (cough, use Brave browser, cough). Among the movies are the best of the best: The Batman vs Dracula (just in time for Halloween), Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, Justice League: New Frontier, Batman Ninja, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths (2009), and several other classics. Some of the newer ones such as Gotham by Gaslight (another perfect Halloween watch that I have talked about here on my blog) are still to rent/buy, but there are plenty of others to watch for free (again, download Brave to watch it; trust me). They have been there for about a year, which is news to me but whatever.
That’s all for now.
Lots of Love,
Dragonninjawriter
