amazon.COM for Aussies

Just a very quick update about the paperbacks that were, then weren’t, and now are still on Amazon [in case other Aussie authors are in the same boat].

Firstly, this post applies to Aussies who refused to give up their amazon.COM accounts – i.e. refused to move to amazon.com.au – AND use Ingram Spark instead of Amazon’s ‘Expanded Distribution’.

1. Don’t panic – your paperbacks are still available in overseas Amazon marketplaces – e.g. US, UK etc. It’s just that you may not be able to see them.
2. Double don’t panic – your paperbacks are also still available in Australia, but you have to search for them via amazon.com.AU. In other words, you have to go to the Australian Amazon website to see them.

As an Australian with an amazon.COM account, this is what I see when I search for my paperbacks on the US site:

But when I go to the amazon.com.AU website, the paperback is right there:

I’m sure there is some weird and wonderful reason for this mismatch, but at this point I’m just relieved that my paperbacks are still available in Australia and that there isn’t some horrible problem with IngramSpark. The thought of having to sort out that kind of mess makes me shudder.

So thank you to all my wonderful friends who checked their US and UK amazons. Your feedback eased my mind considerably. As people much younger than me would say…”You rock!”

A much relieved,
Meeks

Books on my mind

Not so long ago, I wrote a post about sleep, and the effect blue light from digital devices may have on it. To counteract that effect, I went back to reading print books at night. I’ve read eight books since then, all from my home ‘library’:

This is a photo of my actual lounge room. The only thing I’ve changed is the view from the window. Each shelf contains a double row of books, and there are two more shelves on the other side of the fireplace. There is also a long shelf that stretches across the top of each window. A lot of books. 🙂

I spent over an hour just looking through my books, searching for old favourites to re-read. Now they’re piled up on my bedside table. -rubs hands with glee-

This is Amazon’s picture of the first seven books I read:

They are part of the Death Gate Cycle written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. The first volume in the series – Dragon Wing – was published in 1990, and I would have read it soon after it was published.

The Death Gate Cycle is fantasy of a quality similar to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. I loved it when I first read it, and I loved it the second time around. If you love fantasy and haven’t read this series, what are you waiting for? lol

The eighth book takes me back to my sci-fi roots – Door into Summer, by Robert Heinlein:

The cover of my paperback is very different to the ones shown on Amazon, but that’s hardly surprising as it was printed in 1957! [No! I was just a toddler back then. I bought the paperback from a second hand book shop, sometime in the 70’s]

Unlike some of Heinlein’s later works, such as Stranger in a Strange Land [1961], The Door into Summer is a simple story about a man, his cat, time travel and a bit of revenge thrown in for good measure. What makes the book so memorable is that it’s almost prophetic when it comes to technology.

Heinlein was a trained engineer and, sometime before 1957 [when the book was published], he ‘invented’ driverless cars, Auto CAD, domestic robots far more sophisticated than the Roomba, synthetic bacon, and a heap of other ‘gadgets’ that left me speechless. The only thing he got wrong was the era. The story begins in 1970 and jumps forward 30 years to 2000. We’re only now starting to enjoy some of the gadgets he invented in the mid 1950’s.

Sadly, getting the timing right is something even the best science fiction writer can’t manage because inspired guesswork can only go so far. 1984 anyone? The future never turns out the way we think it will. Probably a good thing. 🙂

To keep track of all the print books I intend to re-read, I’ve created a new category for the blog. It’s simply called ‘Books’. Within Books there are two sub-categories:

• Golden Oldies
• Awesome Indies

I won’t review the Golden Oldies as they are famous already, but I will discuss what it is that I like about them, especially when it comes to the development of science fiction. I will review the Awesome Indie titles though. They are every bit as good as my beloved Golden Oldies. Indie books I’ve reviewed in the past will be moved to this new category as well.

So, do you ever take a walk through your reading history? Are there any books in there that have withstood the test of time? Care to share?

cheers

Meeks

 

 

Achievements, failures and RESOLUTIONS!

In a fond farewell to 2017 I thought I’d list my achievements:

I worked out how to use CreateSpace [after years of thinking it was too hard] and created print versions of 4/5 of my sci-fi novels, including all four covers for:

• Miira
• The Godsend
• Nabatea
• The Vintage Egg

I used the CreateSpace experience to write, produce the cover and print a non-fiction book called How to Print Your Novel with CreateSpace.

Then I got all ambitious and decided to do one for more complicated books. I am enormously proud to annouce that How to Print Non-Fiction with CreateSpace was uploaded to the CreateSpace website at 9:50pm December 31, 2017. Yep, I just scraped it in. The Non-Fiction book is not available yet as I want to road-test it a bit first, but at least it’s up there. 🙂

As for the failures, most were small – like trying to replace the bulb in my rangehood and failing miserably – and some were just plain enfuriating. I mean, I’m a grown woman, right? I eat well, stay fairly healthy, I even do a bit of physical exercise out in the garden…so why can’t I lose weight? I don’t want to lose a lot, just 5 or 6 kilos…grrrrr.

Anyway, let’s not talk about the past. 2017 is DONE. It is over, finished, consigned to the trash heap of history. 2018 is going to be a lot better and for me it’s already started…Ta Dah

You are looking at the ebook version of How To Print Your Novel with CreateSpace!

Remember that poll I ran a short while ago? The one where I asked you which screenshots were easier to see? Well the results were overwhelmingly in favour of the coloured screenshots, but that left me with a terrible problem as I knew the print version would be seriously expensive [around about $25 USD for the longer how-to].

And then I stumbled across a new-ish Kindle app called the Kindle Textbook Creator. Could this be the answer to my problems?

Before I continue I have to send Chris McMullin a huge thank you. Chris is a publishing guru who writes textbooks and wonderful, clear blog posts about all sorts of technical things. One of his posts became my ‘bible’ as I researched the Textbook Creator:

Optimizing Amazon’s Free Kindle Textbook Creator Publishing Tool

If any of you have thought about writing say, a cookbook, but were put off by the tech, I strongly recommend that you read Chris’ post and get to work.

Anyway, I took Chris’ advice, optimised a copy of How to Print Your Novel for the Kindle [Fire only] and went to work. I finished turning it into an e-textbook just about 2 hours ago and uploaded it straight to KDP. It was a breeze!

The Textbook Creator uses PDF files just like CreateSpace, and basically makes each PDF ‘page’ one page for the Kindle. But the thing that really makes it standout is the clean, efficient interface that makes everything intuitive and easy. Amazon definitely got it right with this one.

So there we go, two days into 2018 and I have an e-textbook to my name. 🙂

And finally to those resolutions. First up, I’m going to convert the How to Print Non-Fiction book into an e-textbook too. Then I’m going to take the Offspring’s advice and re-visit the cookbook I started a few years back. But mostly, I’m going to focus on the Vokhtah saga. Because I’m turning 65 in 10 days and I can feel my creative clock ticking. I’m a slow writer, and there are still a lot of stories I want to tell.

Oh…and that diet thing? I’m determined to win that battle too!

So, what about you? Do you make New Year’s resolutions? Do you manage to keep any of them? Should I just shut up now? -giggles-

Happy 2018 my friends,

Meeks