Tag: indie publishing

Completion Energy

Well if you have followed me for any length of time, You know that I have been working on 2 poetry volumes. Thursday early morning I finished writing both. That means that I have to put them together and decide when to release them into the world. It also means it is time to pick the next title that I will work on.

I have multiple titles already prepared, cover and all. I love cover design so that ends up being the reason why I have multiple sitting. I chose one that I really like for the next title to work on. Here is the cover…

I feel like the cover is so fun that this one may write quickly. What do you think? Serena is still writing her poetry, and I am working on getting Madness and Truth ready for publishing. (My Partner is doing the edits now) It is releasing in June.

Thursday Tea Party

Hello Lovelies! Today I am drinking some lovely peach tea. What will you have?

There is a lot to announce!
First off, one of my art pieces that I submitted to Indie Blu(e)’s Through The Looking Glass: Reflecting on Madness and Chaos Within was accepted! I will try to keep you updated on that as I know more. I am so excited as their books are so pretty. I submitted to that and to But You Don’t Look Sick …I have not yet heard about But you don’t look sick. Again, updates as I have them. *Edit: I finished writing this and scheduled it. Then I went to check my email, only to find the acceptance letter in the email I will have 4 poems in that anthology.

Next, Serena finished writing Madness and Truth. It has been through the alpha readers and is handed off to the editor currently. The story is creepy and carries a good haunted feel to it. I expect that we will be publishing it some time in 2021.

I have finished writing Afraid of Shoe Mountain and am currently working on the illustrations. Though I love Shannon’s Illustrations, and will likely hold Dylan and the Hotel Zombie until she can do the art, I am not wanting to continue to wait with Afraid of Shoe Mountain. I am enjoying the illustration of this book. I have been uploading them to DeviantArt for those who are interested. (I only have 2 finished so far).

I am nearly done with the writing for Heart Drops, and Half-Mad Meanderings. Serena has been working hard on Death Becomes Her. Half-Mad Meanderings is only 5 poems away from done. Heart drops 2 art and 7 poems away. And Serena says she still needs 20 poems for Death Becomes Her. Likely all three will be released in 2021.

Circle City Publishing is nearly ready to release their An Absurd Apocalypse that will have Serena’s Flash story in it. I do not know how much longer that will be. I will let you know more as I do.

Fae Corps Inc is going to release Faery Playground with my art and a story from Serena in May. The tone of the submissions had the cover needing redone. They plan to reveal the cover on April First (No Joke!). It has been a fun anthology to edit if I am honest. I am looking personally for 2 ARC reviewers. (ARC reviewers are readers who, for an advanced copy post an honest review on Amazon or Goodreads. )

Well, I think I am finally done with the updates! whew! That was a lot!

Oh! and I am considering adding a store to my blog. I make jewelry and Resin pieces that I need to find a place to sell. I am going in April to the local flea market, but I like the online store idea better. My studio is very nearly set up. So the next focus is a storefront. Watch here for more information.

Whispers of the Future

The kid is asleep, So I thought I would take the time to do an update here. 2020, for all that it has sucked, has taught me a lot. I updated most of the covers on my poetry volumes this year, but I really have not looked at the interior of any of them since I published them…until recently.

Now don’t get me wrong…I did not publish anything badly, I just can clean it up and make it look a little nicer. So I have decided that is what 2021 will be. I have a full schedule with Fae Corps…We have multiple authors who have entrusted their books in our care. And there will be 3 anthologies for fae corps. I have one I am hoping to release (Wisdom: Grandmother’s Words). So instead of trying to release any new poetry volumes in 2021, I think that I am going to update and re-release my older volumes.

Changes in staff at Fae Corps is making this year coming exciting…and scary. Fae Corps is growing. We have up till now just had Cyndi and I doing whatever needed to be done. That left both of us stuck with marketing, something that neither of us are normally that good at. Now we have KT. Due to a difference in opinion we lost our consulting editor. We decided on official roles. Cyndi is our Developmental editor, I am the Copy editor. I do the Cover designs, KT does the marketing, and the scheduling. We also take projects for authors who do not choose to publish with us. Cyndi took an editing job that ended up choosing to publish with us after.

So with Fae Corps being so busy, I feel like I should plan my own writing projects to be lighter.. Not nonexistent, just lighter. Song of Shadow releases December 1st, 2020. I also am in the Coffee House Writer’s Anthology Volume 1 which is available for preorder. Serena is working hard to get stories ready for Fae Corps 2021 anthologies, and has one coming out in Circle City’s An Absurd Apocalypse. (It’s only a flash fiction, but I read it and it is cute and funny). 2020 was a busy year writing and publishing wise. I submitted to a project for Indie Blu(e) publishing which I hope to hear whether it is accepted after the first of the year. (Another small press with big talent that I want to support) So even though I am planning to do clean up on older volumes in the upcoming year…as you can see it will be a busy year.

Of Course I will still be working with Coffee House Writers, and I am still working on the two new volumes…I am just not rushing to put them out over the next year. Maybe I can do a re-release a month and see what else I can squeeze in from there.

Singing a Song of Shadow

This year has been an incredibly difficult one. I have been working on writing this volume for most of this year. I finally finished with the writing and I have limited time right now to get it presentable. I had hoped to do it in November. However so that I have time for to make it shine… I think that I am going to do a December first release. I am always working on the next volume… so I thought that I would reveal the cover of the next one.

Look Forward to links and Information on Song of Shadow, For that is upcoming.

Cal for Submissions – personal.

Ok. I am doing this as a personal project. I am putting together my grandmother’s stories and poetry my boyfriend’s grandmother wrote. But I want it to reflect the wisdom of all grandmothers. So here is my request.

Do you have a story that you remember your grandmother (abuela) telling? Or a bit of poetry they wrote that you would love to see in print? Try submitting it for this anthology. I am busier than I have any reason to expect – so I am setting the deadline for December first with a expected publishing date of the first of January.

I am also accepting art. I only ask that it is from your grandmothers. And that you are able to give consent for me to publish it.

To submit email the creation and a small introduction (preferred with a picture) of your grandma who created it. The address for this is authorpoetpatriciaharris@gmail.com

The above image will be the cover. I realize that this is gender biased. I feel like I have more from the amazing women who I am decended from than I do the men. And since I have been wanting to honor my maternal grandmother… This was born. Maybe I will someday do a call for grandfather lore… But first I need to do this.

Also… Notice that this is not a Fae Corps Inc project. There is a couple of reasons. One – this is a very personal project. I have been wanting to do it for a little while. Two – Fae Corps Inc has projects planned for the next two years. I will be posting the next call for submissions for them in November. The deadline for it will be after the first of the year. I want to release this with the new year.

oVERLOad In PrOGress

I normally juggle the balls in my life reasonably well. Author, blogger, editor, formatter, artist, friend, CHW poet, poet, game master, cover designer, mom, teacher, housewife, publisher….

These hats all are comfortable. I can deal with the multiple things happening at once. Not Today. this week has been one nightmare after another. Me making mistakes that I normally avoid.

Including missing posts on my blog. And then realizing that I am too stressed to know what to post all week. Fae corps has 4 volumes coming out at once(fae dreams, and 3 volumes of Nightmare Whispers) and one of the volumes is causing Technical difficulties.(Fae Dreams). Said difficulties are because I missed details, so I am being extra hard on myself. I am fighting those gremlins that come from it. However I am dropping balls because of it. I will try to get a couple of things back on track and figure out something to post. So please stay tuned…this may be an unusual week….but bear with me.

I may just post a couple of reviews to get me through the rest of the week….

Monday Money – pdf

Ok, last week I discussed desktop publishing programs – word processing types. I left the pdf programs for today. I have three different programs to suggest… And each has a different user feel.

We will start with the most basic. Adobe. I personally found that the editing ability for this program is lacking. It has a few free features, but with the pdf programs you really do get what you pay for. You used to buy it straight, but Adobe has taken most of their products to subscription. Right now there is 2 plans. ($15 and $13) both require a yearly commitment.

The next one served me well for many years. It is also one that I still use for details that are not supported anywhere else. The program is Nitro’s pdf productivity suite. It’s $159 for a single license. I honestly recommend this program, even if you do get one of the others.

And then the last one. This is my current program. Quoppa’s Pdf Studio is a solid editor. It has a solid ability to make sure your documents are just as you want them to be. Two tiers of possible cost. $89 or $129. The site lays out the features well.

Money Monday

So I was thinking about doing a discussion on Friday about the programs that I use/have found for making the files for publication. Then I realized that this was actually a better topic for a Monday Money post. The reason? Because the programs are an investment. A fairly costly one.

I will start with a free program. One that I highly recommend for anyone, author or reader alike. It is Calibre. It’s a ebook library manager for windows. It has a decent conversation ability and lets you edit epub files as well. That really makes it a very useful program.

My next suggestion is another free program, however it is only really good for the author who is looking at using KDP only. Kindle Create is wonderful if you have no interest in publishing anywhere other than Amazon. It has a previewer and is user friendly.

Another open source /free option, and one I am currently exploring, is Scribus. This is a complicated program with many options.

The last free option is libreoffice. It is a full featured office program that is free. I, personally, try to pay as little as possible for my tools and still try to retain quality. This is the best office program and it is free.

Ok. Here is where I start to talk about cost. Scrivener. It is not an easy program to use. There are a huge amount of tutorial videos on YouTube. It’s cost is $40, but there is often deals that can cut the cost in half. It is a one time cost vs subscription pricing. This program saves files in epub or any other format you want.

Now, this one is a program I found when I was looking for scrivener’s link. Iiving writer seems to be similar to scrivener. It’s pricing is a subscription service. It’s $96 a year or $9 a month.

This post has already gotten bigger than I expected. Next week I think that I will cover 3 pdf programs. That way I have a topic and this post can be ended.

Echoes into the void

Ever feel like you are doing the same thing on repeat…ad nauseum? Well that’s what formatting of books often feels like. When I first started wanting to do desktop publishing, the pdf was the file of choice… It was supposed to be “print perfect ” as it allowed your to see how your file would be when it printed.

Well now it is one of multiple file types you need to know how to handle. And then there is the files that change after you convert it to be what you need.

Each site for publishing requires a different format. Kdp(Amazon) requires docx. Draft2digital for the ebook (if you don’t want them to change details) needs epub. And the print book version for them needs pdf.

So on days like today when the responsibility of publishing is too much… Those are the days when I step back. I breathe. Tomorrow is soon enough for all of that. I think that tommorow I will talk about the computer programs that I have found to be most useful in making the formats needed for publishing.

Thursday Recovery Party

Hello my lovely readers. I don’t know if you missed me yesterday… I was terribly ill. My daughter had it (a stomach bug)… And apparently decided to share. So I spent yesterday in illness. Today I am doing much better, though I am still being careful with food.

This week has been a slow one for news. The preorder for Through The Sunshine and Poetic Reminders are still going. Fae Corps still has 2 anthologies that they are taking submissions for.

Now… Here’s something that I rarely do. I have many writers as friends on Facebook. I don’t promote Facebook off of there much… It just feels pushy most of the time. However… This is a story worth sharing. This is part of why I have gone almost completely to draft2digital. I only use my kdp account for when Amazon gets too picky and refuses something that I know should be publishable.

Hopefully this finds you all well. Tell me what is new in your world?