Kindle

If You Think It’s Easy, You’re Probably Doing It Wrong

DISCLAIMER: I have not self-published (yet … I know, I keep saying that). That said, I’ve gone through a lot of the necessary processes—practicing, if you will. I’ve played with designing covers, some of which you can also see by clicking the title tabs at the top of the page. I’ve done interior formatting and had proof copies made. I’ve made eBooks in both EPUB and MOBI formats (not just preparing my Word doc for some company’s automated conversion process—I figured out how to do it myself).

So that’s the headspace the following chunk of opinion comes from.

There’s a lot of buzz lately about literary agents forming e-publishing wings. Some are set up more to facilitate their existing clients’ self-publishing efforts, while others seek to be full-fledged publishers. The latest is over at Bookends, with lots of very passionate responses on both sides of the is-it-ethical and is-it-smart debates.

I’m not going to weigh in on those aspects. People far more intelligent and experienced than I are already doing that. But there’s a particular idea in the responses that I’ve seen many times. Not just there—I’ve seen it in various writing forums whenever self/e-publishing comes up:

“Do it yourself. It’s easy.”

Okay, the physical act of uploading your manuscript to Amazon, B&N, or Smashwords is easy. But I’ve been scoping out the results, and it’s clear many writers are missing the truth:

Doing it is easy. Doing it well is hard.

Forget the trials of marketing, getting anyone to even find your book among the many on Kindle. I’m just talking about the front-end job of getting it prepped for daylight. Let’s look at the aspects that as a reader make me tear my hair out.

* * * * *

COVERS

Oh, my … covers. My brother is a graphic designer. I don’t know nearly as much as he does, but I’ve absorbed a few things through conversations with him. And I’m not saying my covers are super-fabulous—remember, I’m just playing and experimenting so far. (But an editor at HarperCollins did compliment my Fingerprints cover. *blush*)

Do you honestly have a good eye for design? Or do you think most things look “good enough”? Scanning the Kindle listings, it’s not hard to spot a “homemade” cover. (And I will say, certain smaller publishers aren’t much better with their cover designs.) If you’ve cut elements from different images and stuck them together, have you really made it look like one seamless whole that was meant to be that way?

In most cases, no.

So, what to do? Pay for a graphic designer? Maybe. But if so, beware. I’ve seen freelance graphic designers with credentials and everything who create crap cover designs. If you’re paying far less than $100, you might get a very nice (but basic) cover, or you might get something my high school students could out-do during their lunch break.

If you want something really high-quality, that doesn’t scream DIY from a mile away, you have some options. Invest some real money in it. Have/develop the skills and tools yourself. Or be lucky enough to know someone with the talent who’s willing to do you a favor.

And for goodness sake, make sure you have the proper rights to use any stock images you need. Just because you found it on the internet and did a right-click/save doesn’t mean it’s fair game. Same goes for fonts. (You didn’t know you can’t just use whatever fonts you have installed on your computer? Go do some homework.)

* * * * *

E-FORMATTING

I’ve already done a full rant on this subject before, so I’ll just reiterate a few things.

If you use a meat-grinder, you get hamburger … not steak.

Maybe you like hamburger. If you do it very carefully and make sure the “meat” going in has everything just right, you might be able to get a five-star, gourmet burger out of it.

Personally, I have a hard time trusting automated conversions, even specialized ones like Kindle uses. I really don’t trust an automated process that takes one file and spits out five or six different formats. You don’t have to be a control freak like me, but triple-check your results in ALL formats to make sure the result is pristine.

* * * * *

EDITING

Oh, yeah, this is about a story people will (hopefully) read.

This is the biggest roadblock for many. To get the kind of intense, whip-it-into-shape editing my friends with Big-6 publishing deals have gone through, you would have to spend more than $1000. It’s not just proofreading, though some of the errors and typos I’ve seen in self-pub’d works still make me shudder. Here’s a little story to illustrate:

Once upon a time, there was a novel posted at an online writers’ community. I read the first few chapters and thought it was marvelous. Surely this would be picked up by an agent. Surely it had a better shot than most at being published.

Alas, it did not happen. Eventually, the author decided to self-publish. I remembered loving what I read, so I gladly made the purchase.

As I read the whole thing, I was heartbroken. It quickly became obvious why it didn’t make it on the traditional route. Nothing to do with the mechanics of the writing; everything to do with the craft of the story. Repetitive recaps every time a new character entered the picture. Disbelief that could no longer be suspended even by a reader eager to love the story (such as myself).

There are those who say you can edit well enough if you have a good critique group. I believe that can be true. But is your critique group tough enough on you? Do they know enough to spot overarching problems, or are they just good for helping you polish and tighten sentences?

If you can’t afford a 4-digit editing bill (and really, how many of us can?) there are other options. Read with a critical eye, not just for the words on the page, but how the story is shaped and woven together. Look at some books on craft until you find some that work for your style, genre, etc. Maybe take a class or two.

And if you’re lucky enough to find critique partners who really know what they’re talking about and can tear your work apart in a way that makes you thank them for the torture … dig your claws in and never let them go.

* * * * *

I’m sure I’ve only scratched the surface of what goes into making a self-published book top-notch. It’s NOT easy. (Neither is going the traditional route.) It doesn’t mean you necessarily have to spend your life savings. It does mean you should work your tail off … and put in some major time between finishing the “writing” part and putting the product on the market.

Is it worth it? After all, you’re probably only charging around $1-5 for your eBook, right? Maybe you’re embracing the concept of a pulp fiction revival and are glad to be a part of it.

That’s great. But I say you should still respect your readers enough to make sure anything you put in front of them is nothing less than awesome.

Did I miss anything? Other pet-peeves in self-published work? Or am I just way too picky? 😉

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An "App-ic" Battle (groan)

Yeah, okay, I admit it—that title’s lame. Sometimes we have to embrace our inner cheesiness (ooh, gooey!).

The apps I want to talk about are e-reader apps. Some people have dedicated e-reader devices (i.e., Kindle, Nook, Sony eReader, etc.), but smartphones and tablets seem to be taking over the world. There are lots of apps available, so I’ve been checking them out.

In case you missed it, I’m kind of opinionated about this sort of thing.

All of the apps listed are free (though the books you read may or may not be), and I’m testing them out on my iPhone 3GS.

The contenders:

• iBooks (by Apple)
• Kindle (by Amazon)
• Nook (by Barnes & Noble)
• Kobo (associated with Borders)
• Stanza (by Lexcycle)

iBooks

Pros: This is by far my favorite when it comes to the interface. Looks and feels “bookish,” with page-turning animation that’s fast enough, yet smooth. Appearance of the text is comfortable to read. Six fonts to choose from. One-tap access to ToC. Notetaking/highlighting are the easiest of any of the five apps. Easily my favorite for reviewing my own manuscripts. I also like that I can email my ePub file to myself, and my phone gives me the option to open in iBooks.

Cons: Can’t lock orientation to portrait or landscape, which can be annoying if reading in bed. You can turn full justification on or off in the main Settings menu, but this often forces things that are supposed to be centered to become left-aligned unless the publisher was very careful in the coding of the file. Also, in certain lighting situations, white text on a black background is preferable, and iBooks lacks that option. (I know, I can achieve it using the Accessibility settings, but that requires leaving the app and turning everything else on my iPhone to a negative image as well. Annoying.) Also, the iBookstore reportedly has less selection than many of the alternatives, though I’ve yet to come across a title I couldn’t find there. (I also haven’t shopped much yet.)

Kindle

Pros: This one has the white-on-black option (yay!). Interface is pretty simple. LOADS of eBooks available on Amazon, some free or cheap (often self-published), and others from big-name publishers. Formatting looks good as long as the publisher did their job right (which lots of the self-published don’t quite manage, unfortunately). Also able to open .mobi file attachments directly from my email into the app.

Cons: Also can’t lock orientation. No choice of font type (though size is adjustable). If there’s a way to take notes/highlight within this app, I’m missing it. I know you can on the Kindle itself, but if the function exists on the app version, it’s well-hidden. A lot of the books I’ve checked don’t have a linked table of contents, and when they do, it looks like a page of hyperlinks. (Not a problem, just not very pretty.) It can be a problem when the font size I was comfortable reading with turns out to be too small to easily get my finger to tap the right chapter link. Also, if there’s a way to specify what type of alignment you prefer (left or justified), I haven’t found it.

Nook

Pros: White-on-black option. In fact, page, text, and highlight color are highly customizable. Eight fonts to choose from. This one can lock orientation. Can turn full justification on/off and publisher settings on/off. Note-taking/highlighting is reasonably easy, though it takes you to a separate screen to choose between a note or a highlight, rather than the small, unobtrusive pop-up menu of iBooks.

Cons: The only one I can’t open my own eBook file with. As far as I can tell, unless I bought it through B&N’s website, I can’t read it here. Also, the margins are a bit wide on the books I’ve looked at, varying from just-a-touch to more-margin-space-than-text-space. The app has a margin setting with two options (narrow/wide), but changing does nothing to most of the books I have, and another book already had too-wide margins on the “narrow” setting.

Kobo

Pros: Lots of options, including page-turning style (page-flip animation, page-fade, or scrolling continuous), alignment (publisher default, left, or justified), orientation lock, and four fonts to choose from. Can open files directly from my email.

Cons: It is SLOW. The “social networking” features and “achievement badges” are distracting, annoying, and possibly contribute to the slow performance. Note-taking/highlighting are done similarly to iBooks, but the page often attempts to turn when I want to highlight (even in the middle of the page), and to highlight more than one word, I first have to get it to select one word, then use the “handles” to expand the selection.

Stanza

Pros: Black-on-white option (in fact, several regular and nighttime color themes and customizability). One-tap access to ToC. More fonts than I care to count. Ability to use your own background image and set opacity. Select alignment (full, left, right, or center … though choosing full had the effect of forcing my centered scene break markers to the left). Slider control of margins, line spacing, paragraph spacing, and indent. Orientation lock. Choice of page-turn, page-slide, or none. Sliding your finger up and down the middle adjusts the brightness—that’s kinda cool.

Cons: Took me a while to figure out how to select something to highlight or annotate. Again, it takes the text to a separate screen, and you have to broaden your selection from there if you want more than one word. Not quite as arduous as Kobo’s, but more bother than iBooks or even Nook. The page-turn animation is either jerky and distracting or too slow, depending on the duration settings—just not as smooth as iBooks’. Tapping to bring up the menu options seriously clutters the screen and blocks the text with a “Chapter/Page/Percentage” text box right in the middle.

So, there it is. If someone took these pros and cons into account, they could easily make a perfect e-reader app … for my personal preferences, anyway. (Doesn’t the world revolve around me? Too bad.) For looking over my own manuscripts, I’ll stick with iBooks for now, since its note-taking feature is the most comfortable. If/when I get to the point where I’m interested in buying a lot of eBooks (rather than hard copies I can keep on my classroom shelf for my students to borrow), I may reevaluate.

Anyone know of other e-reader apps I should check out? Have more pros or cons to share about those I’ve listed? Have I missed something in my quest for supreme nitpickiness? Let me know.

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