AN INDIE AUTHOR’S JOURNEY: Cracked, But Not Broken

 

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I’m delving into the world of indie publishing. Some authors go the quicker route and use a source like CreateSpace or Kindle Direct to immediately get their books out there.
There’s nothing wrong going that route, but I’ve decided to take a different path.

First of all, I need to apologize for the fact my Monday post is dragging in on the coattails of my Tuesday post. I have so many plates spinning in the air right now I should have joined the circus.

Adding to all the spinning plates is the fact I sent a formatted file to be converted to an ePub and Mobi file but as soon as I hit the send button, I watched as my file shifted just slightly…but just enough for me to realize the formatting will be off by a line or two.

I call the company, hoping they could kick the file back to me so I could make the corrections and resend.

No such luck.

I’m told, sure they can fix the file…FOR $50 PER HOUR PER LINE! What that boils down to is the formatted file slid out of line on page one, line two, which in turn kicked each and every line after that initial line down a notch out of sync…for the next 382 pages. And they can fix it for about $4000. Definitely NOT within this poor gal’s budget. Then they sent me the ebook file I now can not use.

So I shopped around and came across an ebook software program called Calibre (http://calibre-ebook.com/). It’s free to download but has a learning curve. I’m running out of time so I’m scrambling to try and learn this program. Cross your fingers and wish me luck!

If anyone out there knows of a free software program who can convert my formatted manuscript into an ePub and MOBI format for ebooks, please let me know in the comments. I’ve got about ten days to hit my deadline and trying not to panic. Right now my indie journey is slightly cracked, but not broken…lol…

 

 

 

donna

 

International best selling, award winning author, Donna L Martin, has been writing since she was eight years old. She is a 4th Degree Black Belt in TaeKwonDo by day and a ‘ninja’ writer of children’s picture books, chapter books, young adult novels and inspirational essays by night. Donna is a BOOK NOOK REVIEWS host providing the latest book reviews on all genres of children’s books, and the host of WRITERLY WISDOM, a resource series for writers. Donna is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators and Children’s Book Insider. She is a lover of dark chocolate, going to the beach and adding to her growing book collection. Donna’s latest book, LUNADAR: Homeward Bound (a YA fantasy) is scheduled to be released in ebook edition by June 2018 from Story Catcher Publishing, with the print edition hopefully coming out late fall 2018.

 

Donna L

Hybrid award winning author; aspiring sketch artist; and 4th Degree Senior Certified Taekwondo Instructor. Host of BOOK NOOK REVIEWS. Member of SCBWI. Mom to fabulous son and adventurer delving into the tricky world of indie-publishing.

2 thoughts on “AN INDIE AUTHOR’S JOURNEY: Cracked, But Not Broken

    • June 30, 2018 at 1:26 am
      Permalink

      Thanks, Tiffany! I’m still plugging away at trying to get things working. Crossing fingers it won’t be too long now…

      Thanks for stopping by and come back any time!

      Reply

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