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The Joys of Being a B-Book Author

May28

120px-Rippl_Young_Girl_Dressed_in_YellowWhat is a B-Book Author? If you write e-Books, you know. It one of the two million e-Book authors that are stuck in the bottom tier, with more arriving daily. Make no mistake, there are many e-Books  deserving of the bottom tier; faulty grammar and syntax, scammers, and  pamphlets that  claim to be books but are not, but what about e-Books that are well written but cannot move because they are being crushed into oblivion? It’s a real dilemma, but such is life.

Of course, I and many others  would love to be in the A-Class, but I am not and probably never will be. But here’s the thing. I am retired, have three sources of income, and I live on the prairie where there is nowhere to go and nothing to do. It’s not like I have anything more pressing to do than write B-Books, so in a sense, I guess it’s a hobby.  Here’s the other thing. In the course of creating B-Books, I learned to write, really write. I use punctuation correctly, write with clear concise wording, and keep my paragraphs tight.

I guess, it’s all about perspective, and I would rather be a B-Book Author than never have written anything in my life.  It’s sort of like leaving footprints behind, and that’s not such a bad thing.

grid

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0185HGFR6

 

The Big eBook Cover Debate

May11

“If you don’t buy a  professional cover for your eBook, your book will never sell.”

gdansk-77573__180Authors of eBooks have bought into this belief, and as a result, a cottage industry has emerged; people creating eBook covers and selling them to eBook authors. Prices range from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars. This is not to say don’t buy professional covers if you want to, but here’s the thing; why would you want to?

A cover is just that, the front of a book, and if you cannot write in a cohesive fashion using proper grammar and syntax, does it really matter what’s on the front of that book?

The above picture comes from ‘Pixabay’, a collection of free pictures, and is a street in Poland. There is also  ‘Morgue File’ and ‘Wikimedia Commons’.  All three are free to use, and have pictures that adapt well  for eBook covers.

This is that very same picture after I cropped it to capture the portion I wanted, enhanced it a little, and sized it to eBooks standards, 1410 x 1900 pixels.  This is exactly the look I was after, and I didn’t pay hundreds for it.  With Adobe Photoshop Elements costing less than $100., it’s a fun thing to do, unless you are one of those authors who claim they write books using cell phones.

II

Destination Dead:    http://www.amazon.com/dp/B011X9J4YE

The above book is just a little novella, but it holds it own. It’s been in continuous publication for two years, which surprises me. Is it a best seller? Absolutely not, but it’s enduring. Many people have commented on the cover, and what is there to say except, “I made it myself, and you could do likewise.”