Publishing an e-book has been an adventure. My first stop and what seemed the easiest was Amazon.com
When I thought I was on the last leg of my publishing trip I was, in reality, starting a new journey.
After writing, correcting, revising, re-reading, changing, re-correcting, re-revising, then creating a layout, checking styles, etc. etc. etc., a book, you would think it was done.
So I sent the book to be published at Kindle Direct Platform thinking it was a piece of cake. When I followed the instructions from Amazon they indicated that the best idea was to upload an html file. The problem is that they also instructed people to put all files for the book (html file pictures) in one folder and zip this folder.
When you save a document from Word to an html format it automatically creates a subfolder with all your pictures in it.
I thought if I moved the file into the folder with the picture all would be fine. Ok, what no-one tells you is that the path to the pictures inside the html file will be wrong if you do that. If you move the html file to be in the same folder as the pictures it cannot find them.
And because the only sample that you have of your final book is a horrible thingy that appears on a pop-up window, you have no idea how it is going to look! I just assumed that having followed all instructions it would be enough.
It wasn’t. It was horrible to see “my baby” published as it was: badly formatted with missing images.
I immediately took it off and started the adventure of finding a solution.
I am a writer, not an I.T. person, I have a good BASIC knowledge of softwares and stuff, therefore I had no idea what was wrong.
Amazon doesn’t help, they only sent me one of those “pre-prepared” e-mails. You don’t receive a sample of what your book is going to look like or anything.
First I found a way to see my book exactly how it was going to be published; a comment by a man named John:
http://forums.kindledirectpublishing.com/kdpforums/thread.jspa?messageID=47403뤫
It is a funny zip & zipping process. It worked.
Then I saw that the formatting was all wrong and the pictures not there yet. I even bought a Kindle to get myself into the e-book world.
Following I tried other formats to upload the book: pdf, doc, docx, mhtml, mobi, prc. I downloaded several e-book converters and readers.
The result was only one: disaster! Either the pictures were missing or the format was messy.
I wanted to cry.
When I was at the end of my limits I did what was left to do: I cried for help. And here comes a very handy facebook profile. I sent messages to friends and e-mails and asked for help on facebook.
My friend gave me the idea to Google the problem. Up to now I had been looking into Amazon forum for the answer.
At Google I found a website that was part of the solution:
http://www.cjs-easy-as-pie.com/p/about-kindle.html
But when I saw this tutorial I wanted to cry, at that moment I needed a solution to the pictures issue and that was all. I couldn’t even thinking of doing all that with the big issue fresh in my mind.
I tried the mobi converter to produce the document but the pictures still didn’t upload.
It was in a conversation with a very smart friend of mine that the solution was made obvious to me. He is what I called an assessor for all matters, he is one of those people that seems to know all about everything. He pointed out that if I moved the html pictures the path would be made invalid.
Then another friend helped me to transform a theoretical solution into a practical one. With a few minutes, some quick searches and the right computer knowledge this other friend sorted out how to correct the problem.
All you have to do is:
– Save your file as HTML, authomatically Word will create a subfolder with all your pictures in it.
– Move your file to the same folder where your pictures are.
– Then open the doc file with WordPad or any software that will read it as text, and search for the pictures’ names as they were put by Word in the folder.
– Re-write the path, the instruction to where your pictures are so the file can find them in the same folder as the text is.
For example, my pictures were named as image001, image002, etc.
My file was named “test file”
In my file the path to the pictures were:
src=”test_file/image001.jpg”
Meaning that the pictures were into a sub-folder called test_file.
All I did was take off that part of the instruction, leaving only the name of the picture instead:
src=” image001.jpg”
And it worked.
And suddenly, life was, once more, perfect. Knowing how to solve the pictures problem gave me the energy to go through C.J.’s tutorial, create a table of contents that would work, mark the start of the book, and prepare the file for Kindle.
John’s comment made possible for me to check if things were going the way they were suppose and at the end the book was sent!
“Fio da Meada” is a fictional novel based in real life. It is the story of a ghost that talks to a woman who lives in a faraway land. Itamar wakes up from his death to find himself following a ferry and having flashbacks of his life. He has humorous stories to tell and so does she.
The story follows his train of thought telling a story of family roots, the past and present, life in Brazil and in Australia.
This book is in Portuguese (Brazilian) and the first of many. I will shortly release it at Apple Store and possibly for Kobo. Then, the second novel, also in Portuguese, called “Simplesmente Gerva”. After that I will publish a book born Aussie: written in English.
If you have friends that read Portuguese, be kind by forwarding this information.
A few years from now you will be reading a best seller, or watching a movie or even a TV series and you will be saying you are friends with the writer of that story!
I will be able to say I have special regard for the people that were there at the beginning of this wonderful adventure…
Find the book here: www.amazon.com.au/dp/B007XAJOFM
(Orble Votes: 32)
Today one of them said:
– Ok, our washing machine is running away.
– What do you mean?
– It is shaking and moving out of the door.
Next time I looked there were 6 scientists discussing the issue.
The other day it was a group of them looking at a construction site picture. I was working at the other side of the devider. I couldn’t see the picture but could hear the talk. I am still curious to know what made them talk in one conversation about:
– blue smurfs, corrosion, sexy movements, a dwarf tree, protected shoes and sports cars.
Today this work got me thinking about electronic conversations. I asked one of the people who a document that had arrived was for. He answered me:
– send an e-mail to everyone asking who is waiting for this.
I thought for a second. Stood in the middle of the office and asked out loud, no need for screaming it is not such a big place:
– Who is the document regarding such and such for?
A woman next to me claimed it!
So simple!
I miss my window, though…
(Orble Votes: 44)
I used to be afraid of publishing my books. I am not anymore.
It is such a simple reasoning and yet, it evaded me like the vampire avoids the cross. I was so scared of criticism, of not being approved for publishing, of not being sold or not being liked that I stood frozen.
Suddenly (with a lot of internal mental work) I realised that nothing matters except putting the books out there.
If I don’t get a publisher I will pay for the publishing myself; if it sells, awesome, if it doesn’t, I’m a published author. At the very least I shall sell a few books to friends and family If people like it, great! If not, at least I have written and published a book, not everyone can say that.
Thinking of the books as stepping stones, as possibilities, as one of the ways that my writer career could climb, I can be happy with any results that come from them. Treating the books as my sole chance of success was absolutely killing my will to get published.
So you see, it is easy, forget all the reasons you have for not offering your book for publishing and send it out today.
A few months back I had two books that were written but needed revision to be ready for publishing. I then decided to take time and do just that. I have accomplished my tasks and completed them, they are fictional novels, written in Portuguese; one is about a colourful Brazilian guy who dates an Australian girl and the other has true tales from my grandfather’s life as a fictional ghost.
I have sent them to copyright; then distributed them to some chosen editors and finally promoted them at a specific website which distributes the books to potential publishing houses according to the book style and the editorial line of the publishers.
Now I am waiting for answers, let’s see how it goes. Wish me luck!
(Orble Votes: 82)
“The answers I would like to give to the guys’ really original flirting questions:
(From a Brazilian author living in Australia)
Hi… what’s your name?
Bla bla
Sorry?
Bla bla (b…l…a…b…l…a)
Ahh… ok. And where is this lovely accent from?
$#%^&^&**
Aaaaah Brasil! (Big smile on his face)…
Io hablo um poco de spanol!
Good for you… I don’t. I speak Portuguese.
Why did you come to Australia?
I came to Australia to buy a real Kangaroo’s baby, I think they are called joeys…
How long have you been in Australia?
3.5 years… I’m still trying to buy the Kangaroo.
How long are you staying in Australia?
As long as it takes, until I get my Kangaroo.
And do you like Australia?
No, I hate it. I’m here just because I like to suffer. (And to get the Kangaroo)
What do you do for a living?
I’m an overseas spy and as a disguise I’m a ventriloquist. (BTW: just in case you didn’t guess, my puppet is a Kangaroo)
What do you do for fun?
I like to blind fold guide dogs and see what happens.**
Or throw bread with butter up to check if the butter is going to fall upside down. 99% of the times it does.
**Note: this is a mean joke… disregard after reading and laughing.
Have you travelled a lot?
Yeah, yeah… I’ve been in a trip around the world in a balloon but I ran out of Tim Tams so I had to come back.
So… do you know how to samba? (Or do you like soccer?)
Yes… they teach us from the kindergarten to the retirement houses. 100% of the Brazilian population knows how to samba and play soccer.”
(Orble Votes: 132)
I don’t know for what reasons men seem to have forgotten about this wonderful tool available to them. I can think of several incidents in my life where flowers would have made things different.
Some may argue it is old fashioned and that the gifts wouldn’t change anything, but I think they do. It is an offering of beauty and abundance, of sweetness and surrender, because he is surrendering his control to court you, he is willing to let his romantic side show and he is committing any amount of money into it. It is a symbolic gesture and I would risk saying that most women would think it is a great one.
It is part of the masculine energy to be a “hunter” and “hunters” should not be too worried about their pride. It doesn’t matter people will see you are making an effort, that is how humanity was designed to be. Maybe it is primitive but still actual. If you really think this woman is great for you, just go after her.
Send her beauty and sweetness, communicate.
P.S. As a friend of mine used to say: “inefficient communication is the route of 90% of all relationship evils”!
(Orble Votes: 116)
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