Author: Elizabeth Spann Craig

Elizabeth writes the Memphis Barbeque series (as Riley Adams) and the Southern Quilting mysteries for Penguin and writes the Myrtle Clover series for Midnight Ink and independently. She also has a blog, which was named by Writer’s Digest as one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers. There she posts on the writing craft, finding inspiration in everyday life, and fitting writing into a busy schedule.

Moving from CreateSpace to KDP Print

Business of Writing, Uncategorized

Large, warehouse style office with coworkers talking in the background.

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Always leery of more work, I’d put off moving my print books from CreateSpace to KDP Print.  With about 20 titles to transfer (the rest were trad-pubbed), I was concerned that it would be a long, problem-riddled process.

There were originally other concerns, too.  I was used to buying cheap author copies on CreateSpace and for a while, there was not an avenue to buy those copies on KDP Print.  That changed as of November 2017.

A full list of differences between CreateSpace and KDP Print can be found on Amazon here. 

But I changed my mind about not making the move when I received an email Tuesday from Amazon, stating:

In a few weeks, we’ll start automatically moving your CreateSpace books to KDP. Your books will remain available for sale throughout the move and you’ll continue to earn royalties. Once we begin this process you’ll be unable to edit existing titles or create new titles on CreateSpace.

If you have a release planned soon or you would like to start the move yourself, we are making updates that will allow you to move your entire catalog in just a few steps. During this transition, you can contact KDP customer support by email and access phone support in English.

I decided to stop putting it off and make the move myself.  If there were going to be issues, better to go on and address them now and before we all started having issues at once.  And I have a fair number of titles.

Here’s what I found: Continue reading

Writing While Uninspired

Motivation and the Writing Life

Lion yawning.

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

What is inspiration?  I don’t think ‘inspiration’ is synonymous with ‘ideas’.  I get ideas and don’t feel necessarily inspired.

To me, inspiration is more of that creative rush or creative energy and passion. It’s being in the zone and writing until your wrists and hands are numb or sore.  It’s trying to jot down a tsunami of ideas or even a whole plot before it disappears into the far reaches of your brain.

I rarely write while feeling inspired. When I write, I usually feel as though I’m working very hard at it. But the end result still works out…there’s still life in my words and in my characters. The dialogue can even still be funny (I write humorous mysteries), even if I’m not ‘feeling it.’

I think the whole concept of the muse does something of a disservice to writers. It may make writers feel as though they need to write when inspiration strikes instead of simply making time every day/week to make progress on their stories, regardless of how they’re feeling.Continue reading

Twitterific Writing Links

Writing Tips

Bluebird with beak open and 'Twitterific Writing Links' by ElizabethSCraig superimposed on the image

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 45,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Have you visited the WKB lately?  Check out the new redesign where you can browse by category, and sign up for free writing articles, on topics you choose, delivered to your email inbox!  Sign up for the Hiveword newsletter here.

Cleaning is Murder coverI had a book release last week.  :)  Cleaning is Murder launched Tuesday.

Continue reading

Editing Tool ProWritingAid

Tools for Writers, Uncategorized

Pens and a pair of scissors in a metal basket.

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

When the ProWritingAid team recently got in touch with me and offered me the chance to check out their editing tool, I was happy to take them up on it.  I have never used editing software and was curious to see how well it would work. (I’m not an affiliate, but I did get a free account to try out.)

After setting up my account I decided to upload a couple of documents.  The first I uploaded was the current WiP.  ProWritingAid indicated that the document might be too large for the tool to effectively handle.  I also uploaded a much shorter document, a condensed version of one of my mysteries that’s going to be translated into Spanish.

As the program predicted, it had some trouble with the big (about 50,000 word) file.  It still worked, but the response was slow.  The shorter document had no problems at all.  It might be best to portion out a completed or near-completed manuscript into smaller chunks to run through the software.Continue reading

Keeping Your Reviews After Rights Revert to You

Business of Writing

Coastal scene with white sand and blue water under white puffy clouds.

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’ve written on rights reversion a couple of times and each time I’ve received emails from traditionally published authors concerned about one aspect or another relating to the process.

The biggest concern appears to be keeping those hard-earned reviews after a rights reversion.

ISBNs do need to be changed in some circumstances, most notably when the content of the book is changed.  These changes are due to significant alteration of the book’s content, not fixing typos, etc.

But ISBNs do not need to be changed when changing a book’s cover, for example.  Or when changing publishers. With no change, those reviews are not in any danger.

This is fresh on my mind because I’ve just recently received the long-awaited ebook rights to the first Myrtle Clover book from Midnight Ink (as of July 1).

Here is US ISBN agency Bowker on changing ISBNs: Continue reading

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