Tag: indie author

update

REBLOG: KDP Books Unavailable To International Readers — David Gaughran

Krista Walsh

I read this article earlier today and felt it was important for both readers and authors to know. Amazon has been instrumental in bringing indie authors onto the publishing playing field, but it does have its drawbacks, like some slow momentum in addressing issues as they arise.

A situation blew up at Amazon over the weekend which is ghosting most KDP ebooks (and many Amazon imprint titles) for international readers who use the US Kindle Store — which has also exposed a glaring security problem. 153 more words

via KDP Books Unavailable To International Readers — David Gaughran

update

KDP Printing

Krista Walsh

Another industry-related post before I return next week to my English pet peeves: the KDP print experience.

For reasons that I’m sure are easy to understand, I was anxious to receive my first KDP paperback proof. When there’s a change in the system, there’s always a chance that the quality is going to be…iffy.

And I can’t really say otherwise when my Veilfire proof arrived. The colours are a bit dark, the glue is showing under the cover, and the pages are filled with tiny black lines (no, not the words, don’t be silly). I’m hoping that the author copies are a smidge better, but at the very least, the proof still looks professional and sellable, so huzzah!

One thing you should be aware of if you haven’t started seeing this around the interwebs: unlike Createspace’s subtle but convenient PROOF written on the last page in the book, KDP has opted for a more “in your face” method of letting you know it’s an arc.

proof

Kind of hard to miss that giant NOT FOR RESALE that wraps around the entire cover.

Downside: It makes using your proof copy for promo a little bit of a challenge. It also means that you’re not able to get the full cover experience prior to setting your book to live and ordering your author copies.

On the other hand is that upside: You never need to worry about selling your proof copy by accident…

So take that as KDP’s starting point. Some people are already contacting them to voice their displeasure, so it might change as the growing pains are worked out.

What are your thoughts on the new KDP paperbacks? Yay? Nay? Voice your thoughts in the comments!

update, writing

Createspace to KDP

Krista Walsh

Oh Amazon, how you do love to change things on us writers. Just as I was getting the hang of Createspace, learning the process, mastering the behind-the-scenes, they scrapped it and moved us all over to KDP.

Thaaaaanks.

Fortunately, if you haven’t gone through it yet, it’s quite a simple process. You click “okay,” and KDP kind of does the rest for you. I can’t complain.

I did, however, run into some issues with the formatting of the new paperback I made, so figured I would share my experience with you in case you run into something similar.

I used inDesign for the first time to format my paperback interior (that was a whole lot of joy that I’ll share in a separate posts once I make sure it all worked out). My book is a lengthy 610 pages, so I made sure that my gutter was .75 inches. I triple checked. Yet I kept getting an error message that KDP wouldn’t accept a gutter of less than 0.75 inches.

You can imagine my frustration.

And I confess it took me longer than it should have to realise why I was getting that error message even after I checked my dimensions: it was only flagging three pages. On three pages that had italics at the front of the line, the descender on some “f”s and “y”s had sneaked out past that 0.75 gutter.

Are you freaking kidding me?

And unlike Createspace, KDP does not allow you to push these little things through.

I managed to fix it fairly easily—more of a pain in the butt than anything else—but it did teach me how particular KDP will be with things like this.

Have you learned any helpful tips and tricks with the new KDP paperback platform? Share in the comments below!

update

Open for Business

Krista Walsh

Step right in, gals and pals, and see what we have on the menu.

I’ve been wracking my brain trying to come up with a way to earn a living between publications and to keep the bank account green during the lean months (thanks, instability of a career in the arts!), and a few months ago I had an epiphany: I love proofreading.

Like, I really like it. I see posts all the time from people in the proofreading stage treating their bleeding eyeballs after a day debating comma placement, but I get a kick out of it. It’s relaxing, it’s satisfying, and I’m good at it.

“Finally,” I thought, “I’d be able to put my four years of university and the fancy piece of paper I got at the end to good use!”

So that’s what I’m doing.

As of now, I’m officially opening my doors to Raven’s Quill Press Author Services, offering proofreading to all genres and variety of writings. To learn more, or to contact me for details, just click here.

What does this change mean for the blog?

It means you won’t see any more posts directly related to my work as Krista Walsh, fantasy author. For those updates, you can check out my new fancy website, which I’ll be keeping up to date with all my publishing information.

Over here, you’ll find more industry-related posts: my experience as an independent author and how it might help others hoping to go in the same direction.

For example, right now I’m battling inDesign, trying to learn how to properly format my paperbacks. It’s a pain in the butt, and I have been able to find NO resources online. My solution is to learn it myself, and then post the step-by-step so it’s out there for anyone else who wants to give it a try.

There might still be a few personal posts as they relate to writing and publishing, but most of those will likely wind up on my author page.

So make yourselves comfortable, and let’s see what trouble we can get into.