Diary of a Kindle Self Publisher
When I received a Kindle for my birthday I vowed not to download hundreds of free books by dead authors; we have a house full of those already. Instead I enjoy reading about living writers on the internet; buying books I wouldn’t have thought of trying. How addictive it is; the excitement of pressing ‘purchase’ on the computer screen and watching the book title magically appear on my Kindle in seconds.
Some novels and story anthologies I have really enjoyed, others bring a laugh; the story set a thousand years ago in which one of the characters says too much information, the book which hasn’t quite come through the self-publishing process, whose first page reads Copyright2015A.N. Nymouswith grateful thanks to my wonderful wifeChapter OneIt was a dark and stormy night…
Best of all, Kindle is the insomniac’s friend, at the bedside or under the pillow, no need to turn the light on. If you do drop back to sleep it saves your place and switches itself off.
Publishing your own book on Amazon Kindle is not as instant as buying one. After downloading the author can read it on the computer screen as it will appear on all the different e-book readers. If there are any mistakes to correct then the writer must return to the original document. No problem, because you may download again and again… when you are sure the book is ready, then press publish!
When proof reading the ‘perfect’ downloaded version I am always amazed how commas disappear, speech marks drop off the end of sentences and there and their have swapped themselves round during the night. A traditional proof reader would spot mistakes, but they could not make changes to phrases, improvements to wording as the author can.
We owe it to ourselves and our readers to make sure our book is as perfect as possible, and perfect is impossible I’m sure. With the variety of e-readers available the author has no idea whether his novel will be read minutely on a phone by someone strap hanging on the tube train on the way to work, or in giant letters on an iPad by someone with bad eyesight, all mistakes glaringly obvious!
By Janet Gogerty
I have been writing compulsively for eight years; my shortest story is six words exactly and my longest 235,000 words approximately. My short stories have appeared on line, on paper and in audio. I have published four novels and two anthologies of short stories on Amazon Kindle. You can read about them and link in to Amazon at my website www.ccsidewriter.co.uk
Bookshop Bistro 