Tables & Text Boxes in eBooks

Tables and Text Boxes are apparently a huge no go area for eBooks.  This could cause considerable pain for for some authors, and I would hope their is a way around it.

Apparently tables and text boxes are to complicated so of course being me; set off on another journey of discovery and research to see what I could find to alter two text boxes and a table so they would would and the book be approved for online publication.

Where to go, how to look, someone must know something and google generally has the answer.  I typed in the search page "Why don't Tables and Text Boxes work in eBooks?"   Well it didn't answer the why, though it did show a way which may work.  One I had sort of used, though of course I had to be slightly more complicated.

Turn the table or text box into an image (jpeg)  Eureka I cry.  Well no actually I just thought, well typical, as I said I'd already done this sort of with the text boxes, though not brilliant I now know the correct way to do them.   "Take a Screen Shot."

Now for the next learning curve...How to take a screen shot, i've never been sucessful yet, though with my sheer determination I will this time.  No more problems for me, just make sure things that don't work in eBooks are images and ..........yay.

Last Question

I re-inserted an image that wouldn't open in e-book format (epub & mobi) Now it has disappeared altogether, guess I may have to re-draw the picture and then do a screen shot.   Grrrr.

Girlie and the War of the Wasps

Time to share again.

This is my latest work, a book for young readers or parents to read to their child.  It depends on the ages, though I have also aimed the story to be enjoyed by adults as well.  After all there is a child in all of us.

Girlie is a bright blue ladybug, not the usual red.  One thing I have discovered with this story is the many different colours of ladybugs, green, yellow, orange, blue, purple and even pink.  I wonder what they think when they meet up.

Anyway Girlie is a young blue ladybug who is walking through the village green with her family, since she loves to look at everything, Girlie gets left behind.  A sudden buzzing noise makes her hide, a scream and over her head flies a nasty wasp with her best friend in it's clutches.  Poor Grassi.

The adventure begins.  Will Girlie save the day and her friend, Who will she meet along the way, will they all be friendly or not.

I look forward with sharing more of this story with you.

Then Business Bloomed

Welcome to my blog.  I thought it was time I told you all about my latest venture which I have been building on over the last 10 weeks.

As you all know I love to write, hate to edit, love to format and publish.

During one of my sessions at the local writers group I got to introduce myself and tell them what I was doing, what I was writing.  It was very exciting for me to share my experiences with everyone, including handing out my writing business card.  It was great and I think I may start doing some talks with various groups at some stage.

One of the other participant later contacted me and asked if I would format their book for them.  Well why not I thought, I can do this.  From that moment on my business was born.  Not that I knew it then.

Welcome to Plaisted Publishing House Limited  :D

http://plaistedpublishing.wix.com/self-publish-service

The book was formatted, an article in the local paper.  Two weeks later I had my own article in the paper and I can honestly say I've not looked back only forward.  I have had around 12 contacts in the past 8 weeks.  I have 8 clients, several who are soon to be published at online book stores world wide.  Most are local to where I live in Rotorua, the other is in Gisborne.

The most frustrating thing so far though is the lack of cheap Print on Demand (POD) in New Zealand, it is slowly getting here though still extremely expensive.  At present I print overseas.

The best thing is helping others to achieve.  My daughter is doing a graphic design paper and my proofreader is part way through her training to.  It is all go.

My clients are delighted with the work so far and are getting excited about holding their own books.  My next learning curve is Marketing.   HELP

Until next time!

To Plot or not? When writing your novel.

The day is dull, though the excitement of writing grows steadily within me. What will happen next? Where will I go with all the twists and turns? Why don't I get lost and repeat myself.

Friends and acquaintances often ask me how I write my books and how I plot them out. To tell the truth I've never really plotted any of my books so far. I am a prolific writer who generally opens a word document and just writes. If I get stuck on a story I will go on to a different draft, which is probably why I have so many unfinished book drafts on my computer.

Maybe I'm lucky that the words just seem to be there. I do work with ideas, I always tend to know where the story is going and who it is about. I just never know how I'm going to get there until it happens.

My latest book is called "Mascosta's Dreamgirl." It is the fourth book in a series about Garrett Investigation Bureau. All I knew when I started writing, was it was going to be different from the other three books. Mascosta is an agent for G.I.B and his dream-girl is an assassin.

What are the advantages of Plotting. I know one is the character sheet to make sure your characters always have green eyes or blonde hair etc. Yes I have tried to learn to plot, even a good friend; who is also a writer couldn't understand how I worked, though he has certainly helped me with my development of my writing skills.

Do you plot your novels, if so how?

Steep Learning Curve - how not to do a Print book out of an E-Book

Well as the title says it is really difficult to turn one into the other if you are using a Style Guide for E-books. Talk about frustrating myself changing the documents.  Nothing would go right especially the Page Numbers, you know those ones which start about six pages into the actual book.

I have learnt how to style each part of my books as I write now.  Book Title, Author Name, Indent or no Indent for the body of the text as well as doing the same for centered and italics.  I have made a template for my e-books and I will be setting up one for my print books so that i can add page numbers without a problem. I have realised that I can put page numbers into a template though as yet I have not quite worked it out.  So my job for this week.

I have another print book to finish formatting and another to put on my e-book template.  After this My main aim is to finish "Ryan's Madam," "Mascosta's Dream Girl" and "Girlie and the War of the Wasps," which of course is a young childrens book. I am hoping this one may have a few pictures in it.

All but Zoe's Journey has been updated in print form now.  My e-books are on Smashwords and the Garrett Investigation Bureau Series are all on Createspace for print.  These books are available all over the world on the online stores.  I do hope to get them into actual books shops at some stage.

Places they are available from are:-

Mighty Ape, Ebay, Amazon, Createspace, Smashwords to name a few.

Style Writing

Style Writing seems to be an on going learning curve. One moment you think you have it and then you find there is something else which is needed. I will recommend anyone who is going to format an e-book to use the free e-book about Style Writing from Smashwords.  Once you get your head around it, it is really good.  Easy to navigate and use though you may need to forget some of the things you think you already know about Microsoft Word.

Yesterday I realised I could implement different styles of writing how I wanted them to look rather than what was already set up by Word. With this said I now have different styles for Book Titles, Author name, Chapters, Centered, Italics, Indents, No Indents etc. Each have their own specialties making my typing automatic when I click on that particular style.  It is brilliant.

Two things I learnt yesterday was how not to use Tabs and Page Breaks. This wonderful book even shows you how to get rid of Tabs without trawling through your document.

Today I will be re-learning how to do  Linked Contents Pages, for some strange reason I can't get my old ones to work properly and you really need to have linked chapters so your reader can read anywhere they please.

Don't forget most e-books don't have page numbers!!

Style writing has also taught me a few things about how to set up a book for printing, some of the styles you use are the same, the major difference is page numbers and generally no links though printed books will have websites where you can look for other reading material by the same author.

Good look and have fun :D

My printed books :)

Hey everyone I now have my books in print :)  I have received my copies today they look awesome and I hope when or if you buy that you enjoy the stories. Thank you everyone for your support over the last few months it is much appreciated.