Impossible Beyond This Point is Published!

Yes, they lived in this shack...

My hubby's book about his family's struggle and triumph creating a self-sufficient life in the wilderness is finally published! While I hope there are no errors remaining, I realized that I will probably always find something I'd like to change and decided to quit obsessing about it. So I hit the go button and now folks can actually buy it on CreateSpace and Amazon!

I'm a little disappointed that ordering it through the CreateSpace eStore is slightly cumbersome (you have to sign in) but I was pleased that the book was available there immediately. For anyone considering ordering through CreateSpace but curious about shipping costs before they sign in and all, the shipping for one book was $3.59 when I checked.


Now, for those who'd like a little preview, here's a peek at the beginning:

My hubby's dad: Virgil Horn 1924-1990

First few paragraphs of Impossible Beyond This Point

Impossible Beyond This Point will also be available on our websites and Amazon.com but that takes a few days. This is so exciting!

Impossible Beyond This Point Book Almost Done!

Joel Horn, Author

I've been working on editing and polishing Impossible Beyond This Point and it's nearly done! As I mentioned way back in April 2012 (where did the time go?), my sweetie is combining parts of his mom's book with his dad's unpublished manuscript and adding technical detail and his perspective to round out the remarkable story of how they moved to the wilderness back in the 1960s and created a self-sufficient life. My goal was to have proof copies by June and have it published in early fall but I'm a little behind. I'm hopeful it will be available in print and digitally by the end of this year, however. Wish me luck!

I have managed to get the start of a website, so that's pretty good, right? It's just got a little info on the authors and back-story at this point but will eventually include lots of pictures, some recipes and other info that doesn't make it into the book. So check out the Impossible Beyond This Point website and let me know what you think!

Yes, this really was their home when they first moved to the Flat.

CreateSpace Publishing Success!



Click on the book cover
to go to Amazon

Merriweather in Search of the Fairies is finally DONE!!! And the ebook version will be available free 9/28-30. So head on over to Amazon and check it out with the "Look Inside" feature. Not only will you get a peek at the story but you'll see a couple of the illustrations, as well.

For those who don't know, this cute story was written a couple of years ago by my MIL, Marcella Horn, and was only available as an ebook until last week. I've spent the past few months editing, arranging for the illustrations and learning a lot about self-publishing on CreateSpace. But the finished book is so worth it!


Getting this book into print has truly been a group effort and I'd like to give a little credit where credit is due. My longest-term friend hooked me up with a stellar illustrator, Chuck Bowman, who did a wonderful job bringing the characters to life. My SIL did the cover photos and layout. My BIL did the file conversions and a bunch of other computer-techie stuff I would have never figured out. And the list goes on...

The bottom line is, if you've ever wanted to publish a book, now is the time! Through CreateSpace, we got a quality book at a reasonable price. Also, they make the process easy. Oh - and did I mention publishing there is free? That's right - free. You can opt for expanded distribution, if you want, but that's only $25. So get to writing and get to publishing, ok?


 

Amazon CreateSpace is Unbelievably Fast!

We got our beautiful proof copies of Merriweather in Search of the Fairies today! I ordered them last Tuesday with the hope that we'd have them as a birthday surprise for this Thursday. Well, according to my PO guy, the package actually arrived on Saturday! So, here's the timeline:

Tuesday 8/28 7:49 AM - Email confirming proof copies order
Tuesday 8/28 7:15 PM - Email letting me know that the proof copies had shipped
Saturday 9/1 10:00 AM - Proof copies available for pick-up at PO

Ok - so that's less than 12 hours to print up and send out the two proof copies and less than four days to get them to me. WOW!!! Go Amazon and USPS!!!

Singing the Proofreading Blues

Well, I finally got Merriweather in Search of the Fairies (my MIL's fairy tale adventure for kids) uploaded to Amazon's CreateSpace. It's been a huge learning experience and I'm lucky to have a super-duper computer tech on hand who has tons of software program experience or I'm sure I'd have a different story to tell. All in all, it's been one thing after another. My biggest problem was getting the illustrations where I wanted them and finalizing the format so it all looks pretty AND THEN converting it to print-ready PDF format. Anyway, the ball is in Amazon's court, at least for now.

So...there I was figuring I should update the Kindle version of the book. Eventually, I hope to get it uploaded for Kindle with the illustrations but I think that's going to be a BIG job. Seems I remember something about zip files and who knows what all else - basically, it goes over my head. But I did make a few changes to the manuscript when preparing it for print and also caught some errors (like corn stock instead of stalk) so I wanted to update the Kindle file.

Word file comparison to the rescue!

Well...my computer software expert guy had told me that Word has a cool comparison feature so I thought I'd give it a try. And yes, it is VERY cool! I just clicked on 'Compare' and selected the files for the Kindle and hardcopy versions, chose for it to show me the changes in a new document, and hit the go button. All was going well. It was showing the differences beautifully and I was making changes to the original Kindle version. Then, all of a sudden, what did I find? Merriweather with just one 'r'! Are you kidding me? How did that slip through? And yes, it's in the hardcopy version that way, as well. That's right, the hardcopy version that has already been submitted to CreateSpace for review.

What to do?

Now I'm not sure what to do. Obviously this is NOT an error that will go to print. After the file is reviewed on Amazon's end, I then have to do a final proof on the book. What I'm not sure about is whether I can make this extremely minor change (we're talking about adding just one 'r' here) without going through the whole upload and file review process again. Hmm. Well, I guess I'll find out soon enough. The file review is supposed to take 24-48 hours so it could be done as early as tomorrow morning. I guess the good news is that even if I have to re-upload the file and wait for the review again, it only sets us back a day or two.

Free DIY Book Publishing on CreateSpace

We're about ready to publish our first hardcopy book through Amazon's CreateSpace and are working on getting the illustrations in place and finalizing the format. All I can say is WOW!!! Amazon really makes this easy - and it's FREE if you do it yourself.

The website tells you everything you need to know but you can also choose to pay for professional help, if you want. After working on the formatting, I can see that the cost may be totally worth it to some folks, especially those who only plan to publish one book. But we're planning to do this several more times so are dedicated to learning the ropes.

Do you have a book you'd like to publish? Well, now is the time! Publish your book with CreateSpace: get high royalties, low book prices, and expanded distribution. What are you waiting for?







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