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Hello SErs. Harmony here.  As promised, here is  part thirteen in the post series dedicated to taking a step-by-step look at how to get your finished manuscript from your computer and on sale on Amazon in both ebook and paperback.

If you’d like to take a look back at the previous posts in this series, please click on the links at the end of this post.

So, here’s Part Thirteen: How to Upload Your Paperback.

Access your KDP dashboard. You will see something that resembles the image below >>>

At the top of your list of books (if you have any here yet), you will see two options:

1. + Kindle eBook
2. + Paperback

Select the second option: +Paperback.

The following ‘paperback details’ page will open >>>

This page is where you input such things as the language of the book, the book title, a subtitle if…

Hi, SEers! Mae here with you today. Thanks for joining me as I ruminate over three items writers hate to write. Seems odd, doesn’t it?

Most of the time, we love to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and let inspiration fly. But, if you’re like me, there are several writing tasks that make you groan. Let’s take a quick look at each.

THE SYNOPSIS
I love writing the synopsis for my novel—said no author ever.

Well, maybe that’s too harsh. Some authors write the synopsis before the manuscript, so they know exactly what journey their characters are going to take. Not me. For most of us, writing a synopsis after completing a 50K-90K novel is sheer torture. I’ll be the first to raise my hand and admit the mere thought gives me a pounding headache. To make it easier, I keep the following in mind:

Each…

Hey, SE Readers. Joan with you today. For those in the Northern Hemisphere, I hope you’re enjoying the summer. Those in the Southern Hemisphere, well let’s just say I’m not a fan of winter. But let’s talk about writing, not the weather.

Choosing a title can be one of the hardest parts of writing a book. Yet it is one of the most important. A title should capture the reader’s attention and also encompass the essence of the story.

You want the name to be unique. Because titles are typically short, they don’t fall under copyright protection. (Some titles, such as The Da Vinci Code and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, are trademarked.) You could name your book Gone with the Wind or In Cold Blood, but it’s not something I would recommend.

The Girl on The Train was a best-selling thriller a few years ago. Around the…

Hello SEers. It’s John with you again, and today we are going to discuss dialogue tags.

Photo from Pixabay

Hold on. Before you run off or decide to take a nap give me a moment to introduce the subject.

Photo by Pixabay

We all know dialogue tags are intended to make it very clear who is doing the talking. Especially if there are more than two people involved.

Photo by Pixabay

Many authors also use dialogue tags for emotions or other indications about how the words are delivered. There is nothing wrong with this but the chance of overdoing it to a point of complicating the action and confusing the reader is always present.

Photo by Pixabay

So, what do I want to accomplish today? My objective is simple. I want to cause a little thought about dialogue tags. “Yes, the person with the raised hand. You have a question?” “Why…

Ciao, SEers. Have you ever heard the term polymath? I had to dig deep into my college days to remember the definition. (We won’t discuss how long ago that was.)

A polymath is a person with knowledge in a wide range of topics. Polymaths go far beyond the Jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none level of understanding and experience. These are experts in multiple fields. We often think of the Renaissance when we think of polymaths, Leonardo DaVinci being among the most famous. But there have been several throughout history. And Aristotle was one of them.

We tend to think of him as a philosopher. But among his many fields of expertise were arts, sciences, economics, politics, and metaphysics.

As this is a writing site, we’re going to talk about Aristotle’s contributions to literature. Not his work itself, but his defining of the terms comedy and tragedy.

Aristotelian Comedy
In an Aristotelian comedy, the…

Hi gang, Craig with you again. Most of my posts seem to be about characters, so why should today be any different? Today, I’m going to share a little tip to help your main character get that all-important character arc.

Every person out there has an idea of who they are. There are things they take pride in, enjoy, that motivate them. There are also things they hate, loathe, and demotivate them. I’ll refer to this as the character paradigm. It’s the whole of who that person is.

Our job as authors is to put those characters in the crucible to make sure they have a way to change over the course of the story. One way to do this is to destroy the character paradigm.

I don’t consider this plotting, pantsing, or something in between. All of us do some kind of character development. Maybe you use Character Sheets

Image courtesy of bigstock.com

Hello SErs. Harmony here.  As promised, here is  part twelve in the post series dedicated to taking a step-by-step look at how to get your finished manuscript from your computer and on sale on Amazon in both ebook and paperback.

If you’d like to take a look back at the previous posts in this series, please click on the links at the end of this post.

So, here’s Part Twelve: How to Edit Your eBook.

If you need a recap on how to get your Word doc ready for conversion in Calibre, you can see an older post of mine HERE (How To: From Word to Book).

This will take you through all the formatting steps you need to complete before importing into Calibre.

Once you’re ready, you can check out another step-by-step post HERE (Transforming Your Book). This shows you how to convert from Docx…

Hi, SE friends! Thanks for visiting. You’re with Mae today. Do you remember when no one uttered the word multitasking? When, in the (dinosaur) days of business, projects were conducted one at a time? That manner of productivity seems to have gone the way of roller skate keys and S & H Green Stamps. Who among us doesn’t multitask? I do it on my day job and as an author. It can be mentally exhausting, stressful, and not as efficient as we think.

The other day, I left a simple two-line message for a group I’m connected with through a social platform. Eleven words total. When I went back and looked at it later, I realized there were two typos. Not the end of the world, but it’s embarrassing, and I find myself doing it more frequently. Throughout my (day) career, I have been known as a perfectionist, yet…