Guest Author: David Coles

Creating an eBook: How To Kindle Yourself


The following means of creating an eBook is offered by David Coles, one half of the David Coles and Jack Everett partnership and author of several novels including : Jihad-Britain, the Last Free Men, Merlin’s Kin, Last Mission, The Abbot & the Acolyte, Venturer, Faces of Immortality and To Rule the Universe. Their latest book The Tourist is due out in August, 2011 and is a thriller involving an American Special Forces soldier on a killing spree in England.


It’s easy to create an eBook: type your manuscript in a word processor and save it as a Word .doc file, then upload it to the CreateSpace website where it will be converted to Kindle format.

Of course, your Kindle eBook will be in plain vanilla format. At this time of writing, much of your style and formatting will be ignored, chapter headings may not be emboldened or centered, italics or bold text may remain plain and so on. In short, you lose control of the formatting. These details can best be satisfied by converting the text to a HTML file. Warning - not by saving it as HTML straight from the word processor! That way lies madness and a file big enough to fall into and drown!


No, there’s an easier way where you control exactly what you need. It’s not difficult, you can do it within the word processor and save it as a Text file and then merely change the .txt extension code to .html and that’s it. We have a free document describing how to do it in detail, it’s available as a Word .doc file or as an Adobe .pdf file; you can choose which and download from the home page at www.DavidBColes.co.uk .


This is not a cut and dried issue though. The technical aspects and possibilities for eBooks are changing weekly. The Amazon/Create Space converter available at the Kindle upload page appears to be getting smarter and there is talk behind the scenes of the Amazon Kindle reader being upgraded to display .ePub format books.

The situation is a little like the early days of compact disc recordings when there were several competing formats; ePub books seem to be gaining in popularity, the format is used by Barnes & Noble, Apple and the Sony reader to name only three while Kindle is Amazon only. Unlike the Kindle format though, where the author/producer can centralize chapter headings and separators and force a new page start at chapter headings and so on, the common ePub formats do not provide for this. This is disappointing because use this sort of design element makes a rather satisfying product; however, as mentioned, the situation is evolving.

The freeware Calibre eBook management system will produce ePub format files using many other file formats as input. The simple HTML file described at the beginning can also be used as input to the Calibre software and can produce a highly compliant ePub eBook file which passes stringent verification tests - check out the suggestions for both ePub and Kindle files at the DavidBColes homepage.




Useful internet resources…


Amazon/Create Space: http://forums.kindledirectpublishing.com/kdpforums/index.jspa
… select “Bookshelf” to go to the upload section to try it out
Calibre eBook System: http://calibre-ebook.com/download
ePub verification Test : http://threepress.org/document/epub-validate
Free ‘how-to’ doc      : www.DavidBColes.co.uk

Book Review: Lakebridge Spring by Natasha Troop

Title: Lakebridge Spring

Author: Natasha Troop

Paperback: 260 pages

Publisher: CreateSpace (April 25, 2011)

Ratings:

★ ★ 

My thoughts:

This review is not for the entire book as I have only read the first 50+ pages. I tried reading this many times, and I really could not get into the story. 

The introduction was way too long for me, like a never ending one. The book has a lot of long narrative paragraphs (like 1-2 pages long) with very little dialogue, thus making the story hard to follow. It would have been better if there were more character dialogues instead of just narrating the whole story for the readers.


The book didn't work for me. Please note that what bothers me might not bother other readers at all. Here are some positive reviews for this book. Read here.

About the book:

Vermont, picturesque and lovely, attracts visitors from across the country in search for the perfect picture, the perfect fall foliage or perhaps a taste of maple syrup. Stansbury is best known for the odd covered bridge that spans Stansbury Lake and goes nowhere, connecting no roads and serving no known purpose. The locals call it the Lakebridge. Very few know of its mysterious origins and fewer care to know more.

Those visiting the town perhaps take a few snapshots and leave, their curiosity quelled by an uneasy feeling that they shouldn’t think on it anymore. The tourists will eventually leave Stansbury, but its residents strangely linger, seemingly held captive by a force they barely recognize. They also do not think about the town’s mysterious artifact much except in passing, all but Gil, his father, Ben, and a few others. They know of the bridge’s dark history and understand that it is responsible for every horror that ever befell the people of Stansbury: the people who fear the bridge but will not speak of it.

The bridge makes people do things – bad things – so that it can continue to love and care for them all. Some have tried to destroy the bridge, but as long as the bridge is fed with the lives of the innocents of Stansbury it will go on – loving the people of Stansbury.

Lakebridge: Spring is the first of a four book cycle revolving around Stansbury and the Lakebridge.- Goodreads

About the author:

Natasha grew up in Southern California and received her Bachelor’s degree from UCLA in Comparative Literature. She also holds a Masters’ Degrees in both Secondary Education and Creative Writing. Natasha currently lives in the Phoenix area with her spouse, son, daughter and menagerie of pets, including one very overprotective collie dog. Aside from writing and teaching high school students to love theatre, she is a attempting to become a professional baker. - Goodreads

Note: 
I received a review copy of this book free from the author, Natasha Troop. The review posted above is based on my personal thoughts while reading the book.

Best Books Blog Award

I recently received this award from Deidra, an author, illustrator and a blogger 

from A Story Bookworld.

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Thanks Deidra for visiting my blog and for this wonderful award! 

You definitely made my day!