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Moving from CreateSpace to KDP Print

August 31, 2018August 30, 2018Business of Writing, Uncategorized

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

Editing Tool ProWritingAid

August 24, 2018August 23, 2018Tools for Writers, Uncategorized

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

Goal-Setting With Prolifiko

August 17, 2018August 16, 2018Motivation and the Writing Life, Uncategorized

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Today I wanted to pass along a helpful goal-setting and tracking tool for writers.

I’ve gotten very into tracking lately. I especially like it when it’s easy to do (which is why I use the free app Daylio to track exercise, healthy eating, etc.) There’s something very satisfying in plugging in info and getting charts and data in return. Plus, I think it helps me to stay motivated.

That’s why I was happy to get early access to Prolifiko (now released to the public…I’m not affiliated with the product).

As they state on their website, Prolifiko helps you get writing in four ways:Continue reading

Twitterific Writing Links

August 12, 2018August 11, 2018Twitterific, Uncategorized

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.

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Creativity and Inspiration / First Novels

Getting Started With a Novel: 1 Writer’s Takeaways: @Writeitsideways

3 Hacks to Publish Your Book on a Shoestring Budget

August 3, 2018August 2, 2018Business of Writing, Uncategorized

by Emmanuel Nataf, @EmmanuelNataf

81% of Americans want to write a book in their lifetimes. However, a much smaller percentage actually goes on to publish a book. So what’s stopping them? You’ll hear that it usually comes down to two familiar resources:

Time
Cash

Time is the factor that everyone already talks about. But what about that second obstacle: money? The problem is that publishing a book can be expensive. Traditional publishers spend a ton of money to edit, design, market, and promote books. If you’re self-publishing, you’d need to take on those responsibilities yourself — which means that you’d need to take the cash straight out of your own pocket.

Luckily, there is a way to publish a book on a shoestring budget. Here are my three favorite tips for the self-publishers who want to get your book out there and save money at the same time.

Take advantage of book review blogs

When you see a book that’s got a summary that interests you, what do you do next?

Chances are, you’ll scroll down to read the reviews. Then you’ll decide to buy a book based on the number of four- and five-stars you see.

That’s why reviews are so important — and the good news is that you don’t necessarily need to pay for one these days because book review bloggers exist on the Internet.

Who exactly are they? It’s all in the name: they’re bloggers who read and review books — for fun! It’s a win-win for both parties: these bloggers get to read more books, while you get a free book review under your belt. You might need to spend some time researching the right book review blogs for you, but in general it’s a clear (and free) opportunity for you to gain the reviews that your book will badly need.Continue reading