All these fiddly little problems in electronic publishing

[I. J. Parker]

Well, they've got the three-volume HOLLOW REED up on Smashwords and a lot of other venues. It took forever: issues of copyright, problems with font size on the title page, problems with centering, potential problems with tab keys, my retyping a title page and getting the date wrong, devising blurbs no longer than 400 characters counting spaces, etc. etc.

But I've taken the first step in electronic publishing, and they made samples available.  Now let's hope for the best.

 

My thanks to the lovely people here who helped me with advice!  I couldn't have done this without you (and someone at my agent's office who struggled mightily with Smashwords and will soon struggle with Amazon DTP).

[Mark Young]

Congratulations for braving the digital, I.J. I hope this does weli for you ... Mark

[Benjamin Sobieck]

Can you provide the Smashwords links?

[I. J. Parker]

Thanks, Mark.
Benjamin, the trial version can be accessed via Google: I.J.Parker THE HOLLOW REED. It may be that the actual downloads are also ready. Let me get back to you. I know the Kindle isn't ready yet.

[I. J. Parker]

Here is the link for the first book, DREAM OF A SPRING NIGHT: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/26081

The other two, UNSHEATHED SWORDS and DUST BEFORE THE WIND can be accessed from tht page.

Note the covers: I did them myself. :)

[Benjamin Sobieck]

You deserve credit for those covers, IJ. I really mean that. Most of the covers made by authors are worse than terrible. That looks like something I'd find on the shelf. Bravo.

I'll give them some play soon on The Chapter One Blog, if that's OK with you.

[I. J. Parker]

Oh, that's really nice, Benjamin. I worry a lot about those because I'm not professional. A lot of it is hit or miss, and I spend a lot of time doing things over. But I know Japanese art, and that it what I prefer for my covers. Few professional designers have that knowledge.

It's also good to know because I've just realized that I'll have to make new covers for the 4 books that are on Kindle USA. If they are going to overseas customers, we can't use the Penguin covers. Still, I sort of enjoy doing this.

[Stacy]

Beautiful covers, I.J.! They really draw the eye. Love the colors!

Benjamin, LOL! Shoot, I've seen some covers from publishers too that were butt ugly. What I can't stand is a book with a cover that looks worse than something I could make off my own computer, LOL!

Best Wishes!

http://www.stacy-deanne.net

[I. J. Parker]

Thanks, Stacy. Some of the credit goes to the artists. :) The second one with the bloodred sun is a painting I bought after deciding I liked it for a cover and worrying about copyright. It took more than the advances for two Akitada novels, but I'm still glad I went slightly crazy over the picture.

[Stacy]

By the way there used to be a blog that rated books with the worst covers. I'm not sure if it's still active but the blogger used to vote on the worst covers. LOL!

[Benjamin Sobieck]

Do you remember what it was called? That sounds like a fun site.

[Stacy]

Ben I have no idea, LOL! I think it could have been called The Ugly Cover blog. They used to make fun of all the bad covers and yes, most of them were self-published books. It might be defunct now though. I'm gonna see if I can do a search to see if I can find the link for it anywhere.

Best Wishes!

[Stacy]

Ben, here is one of them I used to visit. The blogger gives their take on all covers but is very honest and displays the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. LOL! It's entertaining.

http://judgeabook.blogspot.com/

I am gonna keep searching for the one I was really talking about that used to do only the ugly covers. Might not be around but I'm gonna look.

Best Wishes!