Sunday, May 1, 2011

Short Sunday and Word of Mouth (Yes, Again)

This has been a busy week for me.  Formatting took longer than I thought.  I blame Kindle.  Do you know how impossible it is to put a table of contents into a mobi doc?  Seriously, I hope they change this, because Kindle is not up to industry standards on this one.  Consequently, after many hours of swearing and copious coding, it STILL doesn't have one. I'm pissed.  Of course, if anyone buys it on B&N, it will have a table of contents.  Because that's just easy peasy.  But mobi wants a WHOLE OTHER html page, and it just will NOT link in.  I'll figure it out eventually, even if I have  to crack mobi open like an egg.

Anyway, enough bitching.  hahaha  This coming week will be a busy one for me because Compis is online and ready for people to buy it.  I think it will be awhile, because it's not even searchable on goodreads yet, meaning, there is no way for the public to know about it.  :)  But it's there.  
I forgot to share the cover with you earlier.  Here it is.  Didn't my artist do a bang-up job?


Gorgeous!  I'm so lucky!
In other news, my book Six Keys will be featured on the website http://dailycheapreads.com/ on Tuesday, so that is exciting too.  They just sent me an email about it yesterday.  I'll probably comment on the results on Wed. check-in.
My goal for this weeks 80 day writing campaign: Write every day.  I've been getting up at 5:45, because with a kidlet, you don't get a lot of writing time, and I'm admittedly one of those annoying morning people.  If I try to write at night, I read it the next day and I'm like... "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!?!?!"  So I avoid it at all costs, get up early, and go to bed early.  I still want to get my novel done in the 80 days, but 30 days have passed, and I have barely anything written.  Yes, I did write another short story in that time, but I'm anxious to get as much writing as I can done before this baby gets here.  I'm hoping I'll get two books written.  That way I can work on editing and releasing them when I'm up at 4 in the morning. hahaha

New Subject:  Word of Mouth.  
So I was in the library last week, because kidlet needed a new stack of books of his own to read (yes, we are readers in this house!) and while my son was playing on the little computers they have there, I inched over to the YA section and started looking over their "new books".  There were two girls in there, working on a homework assignment (they were trying to figure out how to spell polio, so I can only assume that's what it was).  Most of the books I had read already, but the book Shiver caught my eye and I picked it up to read the blurb on the back.
"Oh my God," said a voice behind me.  "You HAVE to read that book!"
I looked back and one of the teens was staring at me earnestly.  "This one?" I asked, holding it up.
"It's like my all time favorite book.  It's scary good!  You have to read it, you'll love it," she said, nodding her head.
"Okay, thanks," I said, and walked out with it.

My point?  I LOVE READERS.  Seriously.  I know we were in the library, but how many times have I seen someone reading a book in a coffee place or at the park and stopped to talk about it?  I feel like, as a reader, I have this wonderful community of people around me, who can't wait to tell me what they liked and didn't about a given book.  It's amazing.  Yet another reason I love goodreads.  I know I plug them all the time, but I can't help myself, they are a wonderful website.  I don't know what I'd do without them.  

Thank you, readers of books, for your recommends.  I'll be sure to pass it on!

8 comments:

cleemckenzie said...

We annoying morning people need a support group. Good luck with your ROW80 goals.

Nadja Notariani said...

Hi! I'm stopping by via ROW80 and offer congratulations on your book. And yes....the cover is nicely done. This is the first I've happened by your page during my 'check-in rounds', and I'm looking forward to reading/following. As for the morning people support group....well...I've always been a night owl. I would love to rise with the birds and feel chipper and ready to go, but my body protests loudly if I dare rise before the sun. ~ Nadja

alberta ross said...

night person me especially for writing - I started seriously writing when nursing my mum and the evening and early hours were the only time I had to myself and I do try to move writing to the morning - I find my most productive work is still the feww hours around midnight!!

Wonderful feeling seeing someone reading your own work

Claudia Lefeve said...

Congrats on Compis! It is a great feeling :) I will definitely check it out!

Did you know you can add your book mannually on Goodreads?

And I think a lot of folks underestimate the power of 'word of mouth'. Last week I got my co-worker to shell out some serious dough on a Kindle 3G, based on my recommendation!

Deniz Bevan said...

Congratulations on your books - that's a gorgeous cover. I love it when readers get excited over books like that. Though my shyness won out the other day, when I felt like doing the same in a bookstore. I ended up keeping my mouth shut instead of blabbing about how good a book was. Should have spoken up!

Vicki Keire said...

Ok, I'm going to download a copy of your book tonight! Your excitement has rubbed off on me, which I sorely need. I love Goodreads too. I tend to hang out there a lot more than Kindleboards. I never could get my TOC to link with Kindle's GUI, but it IS navigable within the book itself. One suggestion I've heard is to run it through Calibre first- a freeware conversion program that I also use to organize my ebook library. But I agree that Kindle is behind the curve on that one. At any rate, congrats on your book and good luck with the forthcoming!

Kate said...

@Nadja, Alberta... I envy your night owl writing abilities!
@Claudia: The book actually showed up pretty fast, and so I didn't have to add the book manually. But thanks for the advice!
@Deniz: Now I'm dying to know what book you wanted to recommend!!!
@Vicki: I own Calibre, and I did try to use it, but it's got nothing on mobi. It was nice, though, because it confirmed that my TOC was working for epub. There is a free sample of Compis at Scribd if you want to try before you buy. It's linked in my blog sidebar.

Deniz Bevan said...

Oh, sorry Kate! It was Joanna Bourne's books, The Spymaster's Lady, the Forbidden Rose, and My Lord and Spymaster.