Month: August 2012

Sindie Publishing Schedule

I need to update my Books page again.

After re-issuing the updated and revised HEAD OVER HEELS on Kindle, iTunes, Kobo, ARe and Smashwords (which will eventually distribute the book to Nook), I had intended to update and revise BORROWING ALEX for self-publishing. That’s still on the go, with a bit of a wait. I have two short stories in my five-part romantic comedy series, LOVE AND OTHER CALAMITIES, nearly ready to put up. The first story, Deceiving Derek (which was once available from an e-publisher who sold about 8 copies and didn’t pay me the royalties), is in the editing stage, while the second original story, Catching Claire, is in revisions. I’ve decided to publish them both before tackling the second edition of BORROWING ALEX. This way I’ll have three Sindie releases available for sale while I work on the BORROWING ALEX re-issue. One of my subsidiary rights publishers is waiting to look at Deceiving Derek and Catching Claire, so it makes sense to work on the shorts first. In the meantime, BORROWING ALEX remains for sale as an audiobook at AudioLark, Audible and iTunes. So it’s not completely out of the loop.

Today I’m working on revisions for Catching Claire. Working on this story reminds me of how much I love writing romantic comedy. It might not be the flavor of the month (or the year), but romcom and contemporary romance are what I love to write. I might include a mystery or bit of a suspense plot (like in the single title romantic comedy/mystery I’m currently marketing), but the heart of my books is in “straight” romance. By that, I don’t mean “not gay romance.” I mean you’re not likely to catch me writing dark paranormal suspense or a thriller, or, heaven forbid, a horror novel. My imagination wouldn’t survive the latter!

Contemporary has my heart.

What’s your favorite romance genre?

Head Over Heels at iTunes and ARe!

Yes, I will write another post very soon that is about something other than HEAD OVER HEELS. But while the book is popping up everywhere, isn’t it my duty to report it here? Just in case you want to buy it and have been waiting for the right format for your needs. I’m very accommodating that way.

If those needs are Nook, I’m sorry to report that Smashwords hasn’t yet distributed HEAD OVER HEELS to Nook or Sony. However, the book went live today on 32 iTunes iBookstores around the world. I worked with the wonderful Amy Atwell of Author E.M.S. to make the Apple Upload happen. You need a Mac to upload to Apple’s iBookstore, but after the uploading is done, as an Indie author I can manage everything from my Windows desktop. The Apple Upload process was one of the more complicated experiences I’ve had, even with Amy’s help, so I’m glad she knows what she’s doing and I would use her services again.

If you’re in the U.S., here’s a direct link to buying HEAD OVER HEELS from iTunes for reading on your iPhone or iPad.

If you’re in Canada, here’s the direct link to the book on the iTunes Canada store.

Other countries, just search my name – Cindy Procter-King spelled with an E – or search the book title, Head Over Heels, and when you see the list come up that includes the lovely Jill Shalvis (hey, my book had the title first!), just look across until you see my name and then click the blue link. That’ll take you to the book product page.

All About Romance ebooks, known as ARe, is another venue to which I can upload my Indie books without going through a distributor like Smashwords (Nook, are you listening?). The formats available on ARe for HEAD OVER HEELS include PDF, mobi and ePub (Nook readers, you can side-load the ePub if you can’t wait for the Nook version).

Other than waiting on Nook and Sony, CreateSpace sent me notification that the print copy is on its way for me to look at. Once the trade paperback is available for sale on Amazon and Canadian Amazon, I will send out a newsletter to those on my list. If you want to be on that list, either insert your information in the box to the upper right of this blog (the blog, not the post, if you’re reading it somewhere not on my website), or visit the Contact page on my website and follow the easy-peasy directions.

Now I must walk the dog and clean my desk. It looks like a recycling depot over there.

Head Over Heels Print Cover

This is kind of small for the purposes of the blog, but gives you an idea of the front AND back cover design of the upcoming new print edition of HEAD OVER HEELS. I’ve ordered a proofing sample of the book from CreateSpace but will likely not receive it until September. The print edition will release for sale from Amazon and CreateSpace once I’ve approved the proof sample copy.

I’m uploading a larger version of the full trade paperback cover to my Facebook page, so if you’re not a member, just pop over to Facebook, log in, visit my page and click Like.

Head Over Heels Live at Kobo!

HEAD OVER HEELS is now live at Kobo! The easiest way to find it is to click the link in this post (under Kobo), or, on the Kobo site, enter my name (and spell Procter with an E!). If you enter the title, well, it’s a popular title, so you’ll have to scan down the list until you find mine.

I’m currently working on the CreateSpace trade paperback edition and the Applie iBookstore edition.

Continue to visit the blog for updates.

Yoop! De! And a—

Whoop!

Clicking the link here under Cindy Procter-King will take you to my page at Kobo.

Updated HEAD OVER HEELS on Kindle and Smashwords!

The other day, I wrote such a lovely post about my excitement at HEAD OVER HEELS finally being available on Kindle and Smashwords. Even though I saved the draft multiple times, immediately upon hitting Publish to release it onto my blog, the post disappeared. All but the first few sentences. So here I am, trying to duplicate my enthusiasm. Here are the first two original paragraphs:

After several days of a steeeeeeeeeeep learning curve and many frustrating moments, I am absolutely thrilled to report that the Updated & Revised third edition of HEAD OVER HEELS, self-published under the imprint, Blue Orchard Books, is NOW AVAILABLE on Kindle and Smashwords!

Sorry for shouting, but when I began my self-publishing journey, I never imagined I would rewrite 80% of the sentences in my first published book. I thought I’d just upd—

That’s where the blog post disappeared.

So, here I try to continue:

Sorry for shouting, but when I began my self-publishing journey, I never imagined I would rewrite 80% of the sentences in my first published book. I thought I’d just update the technology (cell phones, Internet, etc.) and be done with it, but it turned out I couldn’t keep my sticky fingers off my computer keyboard. It just didn’t feel right updating the technology without also revising to reflect changes in my writing style over the years, changes in cultural references since the 1st and 2nd editions of the book, etc. The great news is that I’m more in love with the story and characters than ever. And I hope you will be, too.

I want to thank the talented Kim Killion of Hot Damn Designs for the wonderful cover and also her assistant, Jennifer L., for being so easy to work with. Michael Hale of Hale Author Services did the proofreading and formatting, and I really enjoyed working with him, too. I look forward to working with both of them again.

Now that I’ve conquered Kindle and Smashwords (which will distribute to Nook, Sony and other venues for me), it’s time to move on to Kobo and Apple. I’m also doing a new trade paperback edition via CreateSpace. Right now, the print cover design is underway.

A note to Nook users. Canadian Indie authors can not, at this time, upload directly to the Barnes & Noble self-publishing portal called PubIt. So a Nook edition won’t be available until the Smashwords distribution is accomplished. I have no idea how long that will take, but have no fear, I will announce the Nook release here. In the meantime, if you own a Nook and you absolutely can not wait to buy a copy from Barnes & Noble, the Nook ebook format, ePub, can be purchased from Smashwords. You just download the ePub format onto your hard drive after purchase and then transfer it to your Nook (a process called side-loading). Because I don’t own a Nook, I’m not exactly sure how to accomplish this, but a quick Google search should help you out.

Here’s the new cover and the updated back cover copy. Thanks for helping me celebrate! And if you’ve read the book before and would like to read it again, thanks to taking the middle man out of the publishing equation via KDP and Smashwords, the ebook is now more reasonably priced than ever before. At $2.99, it’s no more than buying a tall latte. Cheaper, in fact. So grab yourself a latte, grab your Kindle, and enjoy!

Magee Sinclair has had it up to her sassy short hairdo with the recent blunders pushing her family’s advertising agency to the brink. How can she accept the promotion her father plans when she keeps making costly mistakes? She needs to bring in more business however she can. So when new client Justin Kane asks her to role-play as his girlfriend for a weekend in exchange for a lucrative campaign, she jumps at the chance.

Justin’s goal to expand his chain of bike stores hinges on a distribution deal with a manufacturer. First, he needs to impress the man at a mountain resort while they bike trails with their significant others. But Justin’s girlfriend dumps him, forcing him to find a quick replacement. Magee—pretty, clever, and a skilled cyclist—is the perfect choice to masquerade as his “lover.”   Or so Justin thinks.

Because Magee is in major trouble. She knows no more about mountain biking than Justin does about demi-bras. Before long, an irate ex pops up, fake identities abound, and a whole lot of doors slam in the middle of the night. Yet, through the chaos, Magee and Justin discover what it really means to fall head over heels….

Eight Month Eye Report

I skipped out on my six-month follow-up report for the laser eye surgery I had last December. If you want to read the whine-fest for my recovery at the three-month point, click here.

The reason I didn’t post at the six-month point is because SNAFU and FUBAR were having their wicked way with me. Not only had my eyes not improved any at the six-month point, but my prescription had gotten a little worse. I’m only talking about the right eye, which was set for distance. My left eye, which was set for reading, is amazing. No problems at all.

So, at six months I learned that my vision was still on the down slide and that my astigmatism, which the surgery was supposed to address, had not gone away. My eye guy dutifully faxed his findings to the laser eye surgery clinic in another town, and I knew from talking to the clinic at the three-month point that I was to wait a few days, maybe a week if the surgeon was on holidays, to hear back.

So I waited. And I waited. And then I waited some more.

After three weeks, I thought surely he must have returned from holiday by now–that is, if he’d left in the first place. So I called. Nope, they hadn’t received a fax from my optometrist on June 16th. Phone call to Eye Guy. Yes, they’d sent it off and had the time stamp to prove it. Of course, it was close to the end of a work day.

Phone call back to the laser eye clinic. Oops. Guess they did send it to us. Wonder what happened to it? Can they please send it again?

I guess a mouse ate the faxed report. Whatever. On around July 7th it was sent again, and by the time I heard from the laser eye clinic that they wanted to see me do some scans, I was just about to leave for the RWA National Conference in Anaheim. So we scheduled my exam for August 15th, this week. Eight months practically exactly since I had the surgery.

The result? Good news! Well, the bad news first is that my eye is even worse than it was at six months. But the culprit isn’t just the distance. It’s my astigmatism. The distance and the astigmatism combined have been FUBARing all over the place. However, I don’t have severe dry eye. I just feel like I need drops all the time because my poor right eye is trying to focus on SOMETHING and is having a devil of a time.

The upshot of all this is that there IS, thank God, enough prescription, as they call it, that I qualify for an “enhancement.” Another word for this is a “touch-up.” WHEN to have the touch-up is the question. I don’t want to have the touch-up until we’re reasonably assured that my right eye vision is stable in its crapability. So I’m going back in six weeks, and we’ll see how crappy my vision is then.

In the meantime, I am “legal” for driving. But I only feel safe driving in bright sunlight. No twilight or night time or rainy driving for me. Snow would totally freak me out.

I will most likely, after the enhancement, still feel the need for driving glasses for certain situations (like long drives at night), but as long as I don’t feel the need for glasses every time I leave the house (or even watching TV lately), I’ll be happy. After all, life consists of more than staring at a computer screen, although both eyes can perform that feat remarkably well.

Cross your fingers that I get a green light in 6 weeks and that the resulting enhancement is a success. I’m not pleased to have to re-experience the recovery period but if I get a decent right eye out of the deal, I will be SUPER HAPPY. You can bet on it.