I'm opening shop as a freelance ebook formatter. Years ago I wrote a guide on the (then new) KF8 formatting issues and consequently wrote an (almost) fool proof way of formatting an ebook so that the issue didn't arise. For years it has been an often visited page on my blog, even after 2 years I regularly see people link to it from different parts of KB.
But I also know that not everyone has the skill, or the intention or time to learn the skill, to format their own ebooks. That is where I come in.

I offer basic formatting, which for most people is enough, but I also offer special formatting (Smashwords files, Short Story options, Bundles), images (in text, as headers, as fleurons/dividers), colour (for headers, subheaders and other things), and a few more options that might be better suited for non-fiction (text blocks and glossary linking).

You can find what exactly I do for each option and the pricing scheme on my website: http://formatting.5timeschaos.com/

Have a great week and I hope to see you soon!

Cheers!

Kia

Amazon keeps eating the image on my title page...

I use an image as my title page title, and when I put the file through the previewer it shows up exactly like I want it.
When I upload the file on KDP, wait for it to go live and check out the previewer, the image is gone.

It doesn't matter if I put a cover in front of it or if I don't put a cover in front of it. By the time the book is live the image is gone.


After trying for days I did get it to work, but the solution is... clunky...


As you can see coloured in yellow, I put some text before the image and now it works fine.
Only problem... In many of the newer models for the e-ink readers, and the tablets, this title is not there (which is what it is supposed to do).
In older models, the iOS apps and the previewer on the website, the text is there even though I hid it in the code.
I did previously try to use the   but it didn't work.

So, no text at the top -> no image
hidden text at the top -> image (yay) but also text in many of the apps and readers (boo)

Anyone who knows how to solve this problem? Am I missing something obvious?

For a project I need to create an index in the back of my ebook. The problem?
The book is two parts, with separate chapter numbers.

I first thought I could list a chapter number, until I remembered there are two of those, one in each part. A part/chapter/section idea didn't seem that ideal to me since that requires a lot of weird numbers.

I do have the official page numbers from the print book, but I would prefer to use a more ebook-native way.

Anyone who has a good idea?


Just to sum it up:
I need something that feels comfortable to someone who reads the ebook to refer from in the index. Like a print index uses:  Magical 99, 455-800, 600
I want something that feels more natural in an ebook than page numbers (since ebooks don't have page numbers that mean anything).



Before anyone points out, yes, people can use the search function. I didn't come up with this requirement, it was part of the assignment.

So, since I'm finally getting my feet back under me I've been focusing on upgrading some of my books.
The first book in my Otherkin Spirits series, Disturbed Fate, will have a KB add next Monday (featured book) and I'm changing the blurb and the categories for this book because of that. It's something I've been meaning to do for a while but never got to.
The keywords playing I haven't done yet, though I've got a list ready to upload.
The blurb on the other hand is more important, as Harvey will grab that a few days before.

I won't list the old blurb you can see it when you click on the cover or the link. And also because I want the focus and style to be different.

The genre is Urban Fantasy, the main characters are gay though that shouldn't matter for the blurb I think.


Here it is:

What is meant to be a fun night clubbing for four friends, turns into a night where their whole lives unravel.

During the day Marc runs a pet shop, but when he falls asleep he sees the future. On impulse he hires, Galen, a young man he meets on the street, to help him out at the shop. What he doesn't expect is that they are so compatible, inside and outside the shop.

Keiran is an intern at a hospital, making long days. His free time he spends between helping his best friend Marc at the store and obsessing about a stalker. One night he confronts the man following him. He knows Devlan is trouble the moment he lays eyes on him but he can't help himself falling in lust.

They don't even make it into the club before all hell breaks loose. A past that never was is unveiled, and now the four men need to figure out how to fix their future.
They only have one clue. A dear friend drowned on his birthday seven years ago. At the time it was ruled a suicide. Now, they're not so sure.

Can they find out who changed their past before another one of them dies?



I'm not sure on a few things:
- present tense, it felt right for the blurb but the book itself is in past
- length, I tried to make it shorter but wasn't sure how (according to my calculations Harvey's grab of the blurb should end about on "how to fix their future" if I calculated correctly)
- last prase/question phrase. Does it make sense in this blurb or is it too random?


Thanks for any help you can offer!!!

I'm going to the London Book Fair soon and I've been breaking my head about the question how to make my business cards.

My idea was to have one card for my actual name and one for my pseudonym. BUT, I also run a small publisher... So I wanted that included somewhere on my actual name card.
Then I realised that of course my pseudonym is an author at that publisher, so maybe I need to list that somewhere too on that card.

Then I got scared and thought that maybe including the publisher at all is a bad idea since it might be seen as bragging on my real name card and seen as if I only write for that publisher (which I do at the moment, but that can change at any time) for my pseudonym.

What I'm left with is less and less time and more and more head breaking over this issue...

Sooo, my question to the WC:

How do you handle business cards for your real name and your pseudonym when you want to keep them as separate entities (especially the pseudonym from the real name, but also the other way around) while also not exactly showing as two different people?

Anyone with more experience who can help?

I'm looking to run a sale for the next couple of days because of the 1 year release anniversary of Black Sheep: Letting go of the Past.

On my last sales run it took Amazon 7 days before it would finally raise the price back to normal because of all the different outlets and I don't want that to happen again.

So my question is, is it better to just pull out of the premium catalogue during the sale or to use coupons?

I could use coupons but I'd rather just lower the price because that could also give me organic sales on Smashwords during the sales time, instead of keeping the price higher and use coupons that other people can't see.

Any ideas?

I'm wondering if it would be allowed to put a small banner on my cover to say "temporary sale because of NaNoWriMo" or something like that.

Who knows if that would be allowed on Amazon, Kobo, SM and stuff like that?

Looking for authors of gay paranormal or horror fiction for Halloween giveaway!

What is better than doing promo? Doing promo together with a group of other authors.
The idea is simple. Starting on the 15th I'll run a rafllecopter giveaway and by liking on fb, following on twitter and subscribing to newsletters readers get entered into the giveaway. You don't have to provide all 3 and readers don't have to do all of them but each thing they do provides them an entry.

So here is the info quickly listed:
time: running from the 14/15th until the 29th (giving the authors 2 days to provide the reader with the book after the giveaway ends)
type of books: GAY paranormal, horror or other "halloween-y" books. Romance and erotica are fine, as long as they are the right genre.
what will readers win: Winners will win 1 book of the list.

If you'd like to join, please sign up at this form: http://bit.ly/16RITr4
Sign-up ends on the 13th of October.

what can I add?
Preferably ebooks. You can provide print books but the giveaway is international so it might be that the winner lives on the other side of the world.


Anyone here who wants to join?

My birthday is in about a month (1st of September) and I'm thinking of doing something for it.

I was thinking of doing something like a giveaway of 2 or 3 of my books or making a combination of my own and other people's books.

The thing is, I've never done this before. So I don't know if it would be a good idea.

The tour for my next release ends on the 27th of August so I don't know what timeframe I should use for the birthday bash/giveaway.

I'm wondering things like:
- Should I let the giveaway run for a week after the tour (like 28th of august - 3rd of September) or the week leading up to my birthday (26th of August - 1st of September)?
- How many authors should I try to get on board, or should I just do my own books?
- Should I have blogs market it with multiple blogs per day or just 1 blog per day, or have multiple blogs run posts but only 1 day out of the whole week?

- Is something like this worth it?


Who can help me out a bit?

So, I've been trying to come up with a good blurb for this story for a while and coming close to release I'm trying to decide on one of them. I'm really bad with blurbs but I like these 3 I came up with.

Genre: Gay Paranormal Romance

Last/latest version:

A werewolf and a vampire, forbidden love. What could go wrong?

CHRIS, a werewolf on the run from his abusive clan, hides in a vampire house. ALEC, a vampire who has comfortably lived in the house for years, has no intentions to ever leave it.

Their connection is obvious from the first time they meet. But the house rules are strict, werewolves and vampires can not date. Unable to fight their attraction and unwilling to leave, they instead choose to hide their love.

Then Chris’ old clan finds him and takes him back. Will Alec ever see Chris again?




Here are the versions:


1.
CHRIS is on the run from his lycan clan. His best friend Travis offers him a solution, move into his vampire coven house, the clan would never think to look there. In the coven house he meets Alec, an irresistible kickboxing fanatic.
ALEC has been pining after Travis, the guy across the hall, for the last four years until Travis suddenly moves out of the coven house with his new boyfriend. Alec then meets the new occupant, Chris; a tall, long haired and sexy software developer.
But luck is not on their side, Chris is a lycan and Alec a vampire. Both clan and coven rules are against them ever dating and then there is Travis who can’t seem to accept the friendship between the two men.

Then Chris is kidnapped and Alec, Travis and everyone they know need to work together to get him back.


2.
A lycan and a vampire, forbidden love, what could go wrong?

CHRIS, a lycan on the run from his old clan, hides in a vampire coven house. ALEC, a vampire who has comfortably lived in the coven house for years, has no intentions to ever leave it.

Their connection is obvious from the first time they meet. But clan and coven rules are strict, lycans and vampires can not date. Unable to fight their attraction they instead choose to hide it, acting like they are simply friends.
One misstep exposes their relationship to Travis, their best friend, who, jealous at their happiness, tries to pull them apart.

And then Chris’ old clan find him and take him back.



3.
CHRIS is on the run from his abusive lycan clan. His best friend Travis offers him a temporary solution: hide in the vampire coven house, where they won’t think to look for him, until he finds a better place. Chris jumps at this opportunity but it puts him in a weird situation, right across the hall from a guy he has had a crush on for years.

ALEC has an easy life: his best friend Travis lives across the hall, he loves kickboxing and is good at it too, and in his spare time he makes incense for local esoteric shops. Then Travis moves out to live with his boyfriend and a new guy moves in. He knows that the coven rules forbid Chris living there but from the moment they meet he can’t seem to get him out of his head, let alone kick him out of the house.

It’s a forbidden love, they know that, but they can’t let go. Until the clan finds Chris and take him back.
Will Alec ever see him again?



I'm trying to decide between these three, but I'm not sure which one is best.

I signed up with ARE but am waiting on acceptance at the moment.

I seem to remember someone saying that the new releases list on ARE is for 2 weeks? I can't seem to find anything about it on the website but I think someone here mentioned it once.

I know that when I first looked at this over a year ago tables and images weren't that easy to do in ebooks.
We're a year on, we now have the KF8 format and I'm wondering now.

How easy is it to put images and tables in kindle and Smashwords ebooks?

I'm looking to turns some of my blog posts for one of my blogs into ebooks and was wondering if it has become easier to do now.

If I remember correctly you used to be able to make Amazon show you prices and items of different regions on the US site.
Like if you would put in UK you get different prices then China or US.

But it seems that option is no longer there?

Is there another way for me to see real US prices on the books I look at?
Like, I know that Black Sheep 1 is now free at the US store but still shows me (being in the UK) that it is paid. I remember that I used to be able to see real prices.