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Yippee!

22/2/2012

I just can't begin to tell you how happy I am today. I uploaded the mobi file to Amazon last night with everything crossed. I woke at 5am, anxious and unable to sleep. I turned the computer on. The Amazon site said it was still in the process of publishing the e-book. I did a bit of nail biting (filthy habit I know!). Then about an hour ago, after checking for about the dozenth time - there it was - Niedermayer & Hart, and with my name on the cover. I downloaded a copy to check it on my Kindle previewer and all the versions looked fine. So now I feel confident to tell you it's ready.

Actually, I'm glad you're not here to witness this, because I just howled like a wolf. Crikey, if I feel like this about a virtual copy I think I may spontaneously combust with over-excitement on 3 April when the printed version becomes available.

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People are Nice

19/2/2012

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We hear so much about all the bad things that happen on the internet. There's no denying it, some unsavoury and all too often very nasty stuff certainly does go on there. However, I'm writing this post in praise of the nice things that can befall you on the web too. A week or so ago, in a state of high anxiety after several weeks of formatting and e-formatting N & H into a variety of different versions, things weren't going too well and I felt about ready to tear my remaining hair out by its roots and use it as kindling to set fire to my hard earned manuscript. Believe me e-formatting is not for kids, and definitely not the straightforward task I'd imagined - i.e. just copy and paste, convert to HTML, et voila! How very wrong I was!

I'd written the book using Microsoft Word on three different computers, each of which had left their own residual formatting traces. I'd also committed the cardinal crime of using the Tab button 4,231 times ( e-books have a fit of the vapours when they see a Tab and it sends their formatting all over the place). My book was going to look like total gibberish on an e-reader! However, once I'd calmed down a bit and taken the time to search the internet for some answers to my questions - I found help was at hand, in fact many hands, all there just waiting to assist me.

I discovered many kind souls had actually taken the time and trouble to share their own hard earned experience, sparing the rest of us the hours of learning angst they had undoubtedly suffered. We live in cynical times and I can hear my head asking, 'What's their angle? Self-promotion? Do they expect me to buy their book?' But there is no angle - not really. We all know there's crap around the roses, and that it's wise to be careful where you tread, but people are basically okay. That's what I choose to believe anyway. However, having said this, please don't go all-out-hippie on me (no offence to peace and love, man) and drop the anti-virus subscription.

Here are a few sites I found particularly helpful with regards to e -formatting:

The Smashwords Style Guide by Mark Coker. This is a free e-book which can be downloaded from Smashwords

Kindle Direct Publishing Forum (search on Google). You have to join up but if you already have an Amazon ID and password you're halfway there. In the forum you'll discover plenty of help and advice on just about every topic imaginable and members of the forum are eager to help. If you ask a question the response is knowledgeable and fast, least that was my experience. I found this particular article very helpful indeed - How to Transform a Word File To A Kindle Ready Mobi Book - author jtbigtoad (thinks: maybe not real name?).

Another excellent resource is Guido Henkel's free guide to e formatting

Good luck.

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Great Coffee Made Easy

5/2/2012

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I'll take the one on the left

I’ve always tended to go for things I like in a big way. I suppose this could be a good and a bad thing. I expect it’s a necessary quality if you want to write a novel and what’s more get better at doing so. I’ve not to date found any alternative (and believe me I’ve tried) for the hard work it takes to get better at something. I heard someone say something on the radio a while ago about it requiring somewhere in the region of ten thousand hours to approach a level of competency in a chosen field. I think I can agree with that. I bet Leonardo did his ten-thousand. He may have had a bit of a head-start on the rest of us what with being a genius and all, but the muscles in the hand and arm don’t perform exactly how you want them to just because you happen to be a genius – they have to be trained and conditioned through a lot of practice.

Anyway, I digress; this post is supposed to be about great coffee. I love the stuff. I don’t drink too much of it though (see opening sentence about going for things in a big way!). Many years ago I developed a very unsettling twitch under my left eye. I thought I must be stressed-out almost to breaking point, until I paused to consider whether the fifteen cups of strong coffee I tended to drink each day might have something to do with aforementioned twitch.

Life lesson: ten-thousand hours of coffee drinking won’t increase your ability to enjoy the stuff or in any way improve your skill at drinking it. In fact, pursue the ten-thousand hours rule here and you may end up in a strait-jacket, or worse still, find yourself in a straight hexagonal box!

Sometimes, not too often, something comes your way in life and it’s magic first time. The IT guy who told me about his affection for coffee and first mentioned the Aeropress, struck me as someone who (though probably not ten-thousand) had very likely chalked up a lot of hours in his quest for the perfect cup. It was nearly my son’s birthday and being a fellow coffee aficionado I bought him one and then invited myself round to his flat for a taster. Never a bad idea, I’ve learned, to try untested things (preferably non-lethal) out on your children! The result was that I went home and ordered one for myself as well as a milk frother for my wife, who prefers a latte to the straight Americano I go for.

Result: smiley wifey and smiley me, in coffee heaven at an incredibly affordable price! As another fan puts it on their packaging, “… it produces a better espresso shot than many home machines that cost twenty or thirty times as much.”

I should point out that I am not in the employ of Aerobie, the people who make the Aeropress. I just believe credit should be given where credit is due.

Genius!

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Yippee!

People are Nice

Great Coffee Made Easy

M J Johnson

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