Janet Gogerty's Blog: Sandscript - Posts Tagged "kindle"
Sandscript
Kindle – The Honeymoon Period
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 goodreads and elsewhere on the internet; downloading samples, 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
‘ Copyright2014A.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.
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 goodreads and elsewhere on the internet; downloading samples, 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
‘ Copyright2014A.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.
Sandscript
Diary of a KSP - Kindle Self Publisher.
My latest novel is floating in the ether, like all Kindle books you might say, but my book is in Kindle Limbo, still in draft.
After downloading, the author can read it on the computer screen as it will appear on any e-book reader. 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!
I am proof reading for the fourth time, still 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 readers to make the manuscript as perfect as possible and perfect is impossible I'm sure. With the variety of e-readers the author has no idea whether his novel will be read minutely on a phone or in giant letters on an Ipad by someone with bad eyesight - all mistakes glaringly obvious!
My latest novel is floating in the ether, like all Kindle books you might say, but my book is in Kindle Limbo, still in draft.
After downloading, the author can read it on the computer screen as it will appear on any e-book reader. 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!
I am proof reading for the fourth time, still 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 readers to make the manuscript as perfect as possible and perfect is impossible I'm sure. With the variety of e-readers the author has no idea whether his novel will be read minutely on a phone or in giant letters on an Ipad by someone with bad eyesight - all mistakes glaringly obvious!
Sandscript on Sentences
What is the hardest sentence to write? The last sentence of a novel, especially if it is the last sentence of a trilogy.
The end of the year seemed like a good time to finish my latest novel and the last few weeks have been full of surprises for me and my characters.
Sixty chapters and 189,000 words, all printed out on paper, that is how I like to edit. As a Kindle reader myself I am coming more and more to think that shorter chapters are best in e-book format. With a paper book you can flick through to see if it's worth starting another chapter before you go to sleep, get off the bus or finish your lunch break. On your Kindle a chapter that ends with a cliff hanger or a question makes a good point to switch off and look forward to switching on.
The three books cover just over three years, three Christmases are celebrated, three very different characters narrate.
I have written the last sentence, but may change it or remove it. I don't have to decide for sure until it's time to press the 'Publish' button on Amazon KSP.
Look out for previews of 'Lives of Anna Alsop', the final novel in the Brief Encounters Trilogy' in future blogs and follow progress at my Facebook Author Page and see a preview of the cover.
https://www.facebook.com/Beachwriter?...
The end of the year seemed like a good time to finish my latest novel and the last few weeks have been full of surprises for me and my characters.
Sixty chapters and 189,000 words, all printed out on paper, that is how I like to edit. As a Kindle reader myself I am coming more and more to think that shorter chapters are best in e-book format. With a paper book you can flick through to see if it's worth starting another chapter before you go to sleep, get off the bus or finish your lunch break. On your Kindle a chapter that ends with a cliff hanger or a question makes a good point to switch off and look forward to switching on.
The three books cover just over three years, three Christmases are celebrated, three very different characters narrate.
I have written the last sentence, but may change it or remove it. I don't have to decide for sure until it's time to press the 'Publish' button on Amazon KSP.
Look out for previews of 'Lives of Anna Alsop', the final novel in the Brief Encounters Trilogy' in future blogs and follow progress at my Facebook Author Page and see a preview of the cover.
https://www.facebook.com/Beachwriter?...
Sandscript at Present
There’s no time like the present, especially for authors. How long does the present last; a year, a week, a day, a second? Some novelists write in the present tense and this can work very well, but readers know the events have already happened.
My novel ‘Brief Encounters of the Third Kind' was set in the present; that was where I intended it to remain. I did not want to name a year; the characters lived in London and the 2005 bombings were still quite recent when I started writing, I did not want their story overshadowed by such a major event.
But first novels, especially long ones, take a while to write, be read by others and edited, the present was fast becoming the past. World events were turning out differently from what most of us could ever have imagined and technology was racing ahead. My characters had mobile phones, they took pictures with their phones, they Skyped and went on Facebook, a few of them had SatNav. But they did not have smart phones, tablets, I-pads Kindles etc. and the last thing I wanted them to be able to do was Google their location or look up information on the internet with their smart phone.
The novel became a trilogy. ‘Three Ages of Man’ begins before the first novel and runs parallel, ‘Lives of Anna Alsop’, published this week, opens the evening after the close of the first novel. The Brief Encounters Trilogy is set in the early years of the Twenty First Century and covers a period of nearly four years, that is all you need to know. But if you would like to know more about the three novels you can read about them here on Goodreads, or visit my website www.ccsidewriter.co.uk
My novel ‘Brief Encounters of the Third Kind' was set in the present; that was where I intended it to remain. I did not want to name a year; the characters lived in London and the 2005 bombings were still quite recent when I started writing, I did not want their story overshadowed by such a major event.
But first novels, especially long ones, take a while to write, be read by others and edited, the present was fast becoming the past. World events were turning out differently from what most of us could ever have imagined and technology was racing ahead. My characters had mobile phones, they took pictures with their phones, they Skyped and went on Facebook, a few of them had SatNav. But they did not have smart phones, tablets, I-pads Kindles etc. and the last thing I wanted them to be able to do was Google their location or look up information on the internet with their smart phone.
The novel became a trilogy. ‘Three Ages of Man’ begins before the first novel and runs parallel, ‘Lives of Anna Alsop’, published this week, opens the evening after the close of the first novel. The Brief Encounters Trilogy is set in the early years of the Twenty First Century and covers a period of nearly four years, that is all you need to know. But if you would like to know more about the three novels you can read about them here on Goodreads, or visit my website www.ccsidewriter.co.uk
Sandscript
I like to write first drafts with pen and paper; at home, in busy cafes, in the garden, at our beach hut... even sitting in a sea front car park waiting for the rain to stop I get my note book out. We
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