YOU Can Help Fund Kristy's Quilt

I ran across a neat opportunity that I had to share. If you're looking for a heartwarming quilt-related gift for a child or grandchild, look no further! Brandy Lynn Maslowski, the host of CanadianQuilt Talk, is making a move to get her children’s picture book, Kristy’s Quilt, published and in the hands and hearts of quilters and children everywhere.  

Kristy's Quilt, perfect for ages 2-92, is a heartwarming quilt adventure based on a true story about 10-year-old Kristy, a spunky little quilter who blossoms at the In Stitches Quilting Retreat.

You can help fund Kristy's Quilt through the Kristy’s Quilt Kickstarter campaign, which runs February 14 through March 14, 2014. And just what is Kickstarter? Well, it's a site that allows supporters of the project (like you) to fund the book in exchange for early bird copies and other fantastic rewards. Basically, if you back the project for $20 or more you’ll be one of the first people on earth to get a copy of the book in your hands this spring. You can choose any level of funding from $5 and up for all kinds of great rewards including bookmarks, softcover or hardcover copies, a doll quilt made by Brandy herself, and more. And most importantly, once the book is in your hands, you’ll be able to share your love of quilting with a child.

So why don't you join me in helping fund Kristy's Quilt? Simply visit KRISTY’S QUILT PROJECT. I know I'm looking forward to my early bird copy! And thanks for sharing the heritage of quilting with a child. Also, you can connect with Brandy Lynn at www.BrandyLynnDesigns.com. 

Book Sales Happy Dance!

Last Thursday night at about 8 o'clock, the UPS truck rolled up in front of our cottage in town and finally delivered our 50-book order of Impossible Beyond This Point! We were anxiously awaiting his arrival - in fact I had been checking and rechecking the tracking info online. Now that it's actually published, we wanted copies for family and friends, and a few to leave on consignment at the local book store. The books should have arrived days before but an addressing issue (PO box vs street address) caused a 6-day delay and nearly got the whole order returned to the sender!

On Friday morning, we dropped six off at Tammie's Books and she called Saturday morning to ask for six more. She hadn't sold all the original six yet but wanted to make sure she didn't run out beings there was quite a bit of interest just in the first day. And she gave Joel the best compliment ever when we dropped off the Saturday batch - she said she'd read a couple of chapters and could feel how "real" the story is. That's exactly what he was going for so it was gratifying to hear that he'd hit the mark.

We also dropped a copy off Friday with one of the reporters at the Trinity Journal and she may just write a review. How cool would that be? And we left one at the Jake Jackson Museum for possible placement in the gift shop. So that's what's going on locally.

And online? They're selling slowly but steadily there, as well. Amazon has cut the price several times, up to 22% off at one point. Right now I think Impossible Beyond This Point is listed for $12.70, which is 15% off the $14.99 list price. I don't know how Amazon decides what to discount and by how much but if folks can get the book for less than full price, I'm good with that!

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!

Publishing Delay but Never Fear - Impossible Beyond This Point is Almost Here!

Getting Impossible Beyond This Point into finished book form has been a labor of love and a mega-challenge. While I optimistically projected (and repeatedly insisted - so much for positive thinking!) that it would be published in "late" 2013, I must now admit to myself and the world that it will not actually be done until some time in January 2014. But here's a peek at the cover. What do you think?

So...what happened?

Well, we had a few struggles selecting, scanning and formatting the 100 photos, which added weeks to the process. Then after all that seemed resolved, I found a few minor issues with the final proof and just can't let it go into print until it's as perfect as possible. In addition, the cover in real life is a little darker than it appears here, so we've got to adjust the color and contrast and whatever else needs adjusting. Of course, the proof came during the holidays when the key players in this project are running all around enjoying Christmas with family and taking some much earned time away from work. Anyway, while I'm disappointed that it isn't finished yet, we're all back on the job and it will be done SOON - yippee!

Grammarly Pro Review

Grammarly offered a free 48-hour Grammarly Pro sneak peek that just happened to coincide with the completion of my edits on Impossible Beyond This Point. I've come to realize over the years that it's impossible to catch every error, especially when you've read the same text over and over and over...so I was pleased to have the opportunity to check my work and test-drive Grammarly.

Before I get into specifics of my brief experience using Grammarly, I'd like to comment on the pricing structure. It's set up as a membership with a monthly cost (currently) of $29.95, but if you pay quarterly or annually, you get a price break. Submissions are limited to "300 documents or 150,000 words in any 30-day period, or 100 documents or 50,000 words in any 24-hour period." While this may be generous enough for most folks, my document was nearly 150,000 words spread over nearly 40 chapters, which may explain why I had some of the problems with slowness, hanging up, etc.

Theoretically, I should have been able to check my entire document during the 48-hour trial but Grammerly online bogged down. What I don't know is whether the 24-hour period is really 24 consecutive hours that start when you first access the service, or if it's by the day (midnight to midnight). You can also download a plug-in for Word to use without page/word limitations, which I didn't plan to do just for a trial but...

After realizing I was probably very close to (or maybe over?) the limit, I hit the cute little button that said I could download it to my computer. After that was done, I was able to check the rest of my document but still had to break it into smaller chunks. But that's ok - that's what chapters are for, right?

Is Grammerly Easy to Use?

Grammerly is easy to use. Online, you just paste in or upload your text and then wait a few minutes for the results. You can go through the suggestions right then (I recommend this) and/or download a report. The report is very detailed but much harder to read than when online. Don't get me wrong - the report is valuable, but it's not fun like the online results.

If you download Grammarly as a add-on to your Word program, it functions similar to the online version but is not organized by category of error so you have to go through them in order, just as they appear in the text. I got spoiled with the categorization online and really didn't like not having that feature. Oh well.

Does Grammarly Work?

Grammarly did catch quite a few things that I may or may not have seen during the final hard-copy proofing phase. Thanks to Grammarly, I will have way fewer corrections to make when I get the proof copies. Yay! In Impossible Beyond This Point, I'm not too concerned with run-on sentences and don't want to overpopulate the text with commas. I know - to be correct, you need a lot of commas. But I made a stylistic decision to go with the 'less is more' philosophy. Much of the book is dialogue and natural conversation doesn't include a lot of commas. Breathing, yes - commas, no. Additionally, I know you're supposed to have a comma after and or but or so or whatever you have separating your independent clauses. But here's the thing...

Although the sentence may have two parts that can stand alone (i.e. independent), if the second stand-alone sentence wouldn't exist (i.e. in real life, whatever it is wouldn't have happened) without the first, I'd rather tie them closely together instead of set them apart. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm wrong from a technical standpoint. But from a creative-writing/reader-friendly standpoint, I left them out. We'll see how I feel when I get the proof copy - I reserve the right to change my mind.

My Verdict on Grammarly

While Grammarly did a great job on some things and I'm really pleased with the actual errors it caught, it also flagged a ton of non-errors. For instance, it doesn't seem to understand dialogue and suggests commas in the oddest places. It also repeatedly made odd suggestions, such as:

• drivingly for driving
• ably for able
• developed for followed
• power for right
• everything for things
• carry for take
• many for much or several
• evening for afternoon and night for evening
• must for needed

I also think I must have hit the wrong language choice when I started out because I had UK English spellings popping up, but I couldn't find anywhere to change the language preference so just ignored them.

I much preferred the online version to the Word add-on version because it was considerably less cumbersome. That being said, I did encounter problems online, which include:

• Froze up and wouldn't let me navigate at all or forced me to navigate through sections I didn't want to check.
• Stopped working repeatedly and may or may not fix on refresh.
• Cumbersome to use with my browsers, but this is probably one my end (I had to have it open in both Internet Explorer and Firefox to fully use the features).

 So...would I use Grammarly again? YES! Am I going to rush out to subscribe? No. I wouldn't use it enough to warrant an ongoing subscription, but I do plan to buy myself a month's worth the next time I have a manuscript ready to publish. I'm certain it well worth the monthly subscription fee to catch those remaining elusive errors before a book goes to print.

Thanks for the sneak peek, Grammarly!!!

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.

First Memorial Quilt Pattern Published!

First memorial quilt pattern from
CustomMemorialQuilts.com

Well, I'm excited - after several days of fine-tuning, my first memorial quilt pattern is ready to publish! How cool is that? It's been a long time coming, that's for sure. But thanks to technological advances and the evolution of the Internet, my dream is finally a reality.

A little backstory...

During 6+ years of creating custom memorial quilts from clothing, I've also given guidance to others whenever asked. I have a wealth of experience and am happy to share.

Several years ago, I even submitted a book proposal to one of the quilt/craft specific publishers based on creating keepsakes from clothing. It was turned down, however, due to the very reason it was written. Apparently, a book that encourages people NOT to buy fabric isn't very appealing from a marketing standpoint.

So I decided to self-publish but the time wasn't right. Figuring out the marketing and distribution were the major obstacles but all that has changed!

Now, self-publishing is easy!

I have several publishing goals for 2013 and it's so nice to have already accomplished one! For now, my patterns will be available on Craftsy. And when I get a full book written, I will gleefully publish it through CreateSpace.

Pattern specifics

The Loving Arms Wrap Quilt requires basic sewing skills and just 10 shirts for the quilt top. Then you need backing, batting and binding to finish your quilt.

While the cover quilts are each 56x70 inches, I've also included cutting adjustments to make both a larger and a smaller size. In addition to the detailed instructions, the 15-page pattern also includes extra tips and notes, color examples, and a to-scale quilt layout grid.

If you or someone you know would like to create a memorial quilt, please send them my way. Just go to the pattern page on Craftsy or check out my Custom Memorial Quilts website for info and ideas.

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?







(FYI - links are affiliate.)

Self-Publishing for Kindle on Amazon

I just got done publishing for Kindle on Amazon! Granted, it wasn't my own book. No, I actually just republished the edited version of MERRIWEATHER IN SEARCH OF THE FAIRIES, a cute story my MIL wrote for kids. It's been available digitally online for over a year but we just recently discovered that somehow the currently uploaded version had NOT been edited. And in fact, now that I'm a pro at all this (yeah, right!), I suspect that the uploaded file may have even inadvertently been changed for the worse prior to publishing.

So how could that happen? How could a digital file get changed without anyone noticing? Well, I'm not 100% sure but I have some ideas. Now that I'm a professional proofreader and have been using the Track Changes feature in Word, I've made some interesting and potentially horrifying discoveries. Let's suffice to say that it seems to glitch up sometimes (software glitches up? really?) and I believe may possibly even make unintended changes.

Also, now that I've experienced the full editing process from both the proofreader and client sides, I can say with absolute certainty that it is almost impossible NOT to make mistakes when choosing to accept or reject changes. The two options are one on top of the other and it is so easy to click on the one you DON'T want. But enough of all that...

How to Self-Publish Your Book for Kindle

Amazon has made publishing EASY! To publish for Kindle, all you have to do is sign up for an account at Kindle Direct Publishing. If you already have an Amazon account, you can sign in with it. Then you just enter all the required information and upload your cover image and properly formatted HTML file.

Oops! Say what? Properly formatted HTML file? Uh-oh.

Not to worry! I just did it and so can you. If you have Word 2010, I can vouch that it's super-easy to convert your document to HTML format. If you have an earlier version of Word, supposedly it's still easy but I don't know that personally. And if you don't have Word? Well, I seem to recall a recommendation to use OpenOffice but don't quote me on that.

Anyway, everything you need to know to publish successfully for Kindle is available on the site. And if you want the info in Kindle format, you can download Building Your Book for Kindle free. I have Kindle for PC on my computer so I just had the directions open right there through the whole process.

A word of caution: Pay special attention to the formatting requirements. I've read a lot of Kindle books lately and now I know why some are so well laid out and easy to navigate and others are...well...not. It is imperative that you format exactly as instructed and then convert to the right type of HTML. But like I said, if I can do it, so can you!

MORNING-AFTER UPDATE: While the new version of the republished book was live by the next morning, the Look Inside feature still showed the old unedited version. Apparently, changes to the description and preview on Amazon’s site take additional time. Keeping my fingers crossed...

Affordable Self-Publishing Through CreateSpace

From my author buddy, Deanna, I just found out about what may be the coolest thing Amazon has done yet! Well, maybe not quite as cool as free Kindles apps for your computer, phone, etc. coupled with all the free ebooks available every day, but still very cool.

So what cool thing am I talking about? CreateSpace, Amazon's print publishing solution for all us aspiring DIY authors. Through CreateSpace, you can  have your book available in print easily and, are you ready for this? AFFORDABLY! That's right - it's finally affordable to self-publish.

So how affordable is it? Well, how about FREE if you do all your own formatting, etc. Does that sound good to you? As near as I can tell, there are no required upfront costs (unless you opt for expanded distribution). And the royalties you earn from each sale (after a reasonable fixed charge per book) range from 40%-80%, depending on distribution channel. Wow! Have things ever changed!

If you're not fully appreciating the coolness of this, let me give you a real-life example for comparison. While I don't have the hard numbers at my fingertips, my MIL self-published We Walk the Tall Grass back in 1999. I don't remember her exact upfront costs but I think it was around $200. The book currently retails for $25.95, which is WAY too much for a 200 page paperback. And she only gets royalties after three sales per quarter and then it's a pittance (I'm talking around $6 total).

Through CreateSpace, the same size book could retail for under $9 and still generate royalties for her on every single sale, regardless of distribution channel. And if she opted not to have expanded distribution, she could price the book at $6 and still make money on every copy sold.

But there are a couple more reasons I am so jazzed about CreateSpace. Firstly, my hubby is currently combining his mom's story about their adventures moving here to the wilderness with an unpublished manuscript written by his dad. We've been researching publishing options and it looks like CreateSpace is it! Secondly, I've got a few book ideas myself - quilt related, of course - and I could publish a full color, 8.5x11.5, 50-page book that retails for less than $10.

So, are you seeing the coolness of all this now?



PLEASE NOTE: That image of We Walked the Tall Grass is an Amazon affiliate link. If you're just dying to find out all about how these remarkable folks made a life in the wilderness with three small boys and almost no money, go ahead and get the book. But if you can wait, the book my hubby's working on expands the story and will cost considerably less than $25.95. Also, I just signed up as a affiliate for CreateSpace so those two links are affiliate, too.