The Author's Desk

Perdition's Brink for Only $0.99 on Kindle!

2009-05-06T13:09:00.000-07:00

$0.99!! Offering my novel, Perdition’s Brink, on the Amazon Kindle for only $.099!

See the Kindle Store at http://www.amazon.com/Perditions-Brink/dp/B00200K0HQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1237825290&sr=1-1

POD Case Study: Perdition’s Brink, Part 2

2009-05-04T14:29:00.000-07:00

I’m R.A. Harrington, and I recently published my new novel, Perdition’s Brink, using a publish on demand (POD) methodology. I’d like to share my experiences with POD though a series of posts. In this post, Part 2, I’ll answer the question, “What do I think of CreateSpace?”

Bottom line up front: I give CreateSpace and A+ as the perfect POD implementation for my publishing strategy.

I initially had some concern about my choice of POD implementation through CreateSpace. Some bloggers have expressed difficulties such as formatting the book cover and the book insert. Fortunately, my experiences with CreateSpace have been extremely positive.
Setting up a CreateSpace account was easy. Starting a new book title was simple, although I would recommend you first build a spreadsheet with all the CreateSpace fields, complete the spreadsheet offline, review and spellcheck the text carefully, then cut and paste on-line. I found that being methodical and organized has directly reflected on the final quality. I will recommend you pay for the Pro plan; it doesn’t cost much, and it allows you to sell your book at a much lower price.

CreateSpace allows you to submit a custom cover in Adobe Acrobat or create your cover through a native on-line tool. Frankly, I liked their tool and was easily able to create an attractive cover. I did spend a little time creating the right pictures for the front and back using my mediocre digital camera and the Microsoft Paint editor. I contemplated other imaging strategies, but what I had around the house worked perfect in the end and met my strategy of lowest cost.
CreateSpace allows you to select several book sizes. I was a little concerned that the normally smaller novel sizes weren’t available. However, I picked 5.25" x 8", which turned out a great product in the end. I wrote my book in Microsoft Word, so I had to spend some time with the formatting to make sure all the margins, fonts, font sizes, headers, footers, chapter numbers, etc. to make things just perfect. The formatting took some research, namely blogs for lessons learned and standards such as CreateSpace written guidelines and the Chicago Manual of Style (I’ve never regretted buying this in hardcover). Really, the formatting is not as hard as some people fear, but it does take some work and attention to detail. Once I got the Microsoft Word file just right, I simply saved the file as Adobe Acrobat using the latest Word plug-in.

The CreateSpace process of submitting the book for proofing was much, much quicker than CreateSpace advertises—I was very, very happy with the service. I went through 5 proofs to get everything exactly the way I wanted in both the quality of my writing and the formatting of the book. I was able to turn a review, change update, repost for proof, and receive a new physical proof in about a week round (faster once I got to the latter books which required less review time). Once I was ready to publish, CreateSpace set up my on-line sales site on Amazon and on the CreateSpace native site. There’s much more to talk about marketing, but I’ll save that for later.

CreateSpace may not be the best implementation for everyone’s POD strategy, but it was A+ perfect for me, and I continue to be happy with the service they provide.
I’ll list some exact formatting guidelines for a successful Adobe Acrobat conversation for CreateSpace submission in my next post. Keep writing!

R.A. Harrington
Author, Perdition’s Brink
http://www.amazon.com/Perditions-Brink-R-Harrington/dp/1441421874/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236805893&sr=1-1

POD Case Study: Perdition’s Brink, Part 1

2009-04-29T13:31:00.000-07:00

I’m R.A. Harrington, and I recently published my new novel, Perdition’s Brink, using a publish on demand (POD) methodology. I’d like to share my experiences with POD though a series of posts. In this post, Part 1, I’ll answer the question, “Why did I choose POD?”

As I approached completion of Perdition’s Brink, I put a lot of reading, research, and thought into how I’d publish the novel. I did what any retired military guy would do: I crafted a strategy. My two major strategic parameters were business and personal. For business, I explored the financial aspects of publishing my novel: how much capital I planned to invest, my income goals, my reasonable income expectations over time, and the impact of my business on the rest of my household finances. For personal, I explored: my personal achievement goals, reasonable achievement expectations given the current industry, the time impact of marketing on my writing and other life duties, my commitment to my art, and the impact to my family life. I used some analysis techniques to explore the interrelation of these parameters to come up with my strategy.

The summary of my analysis convincement me I needed a low investment and low risk approach that focused on the personal achievement value of publishing my first novel as a foundation for building my craftsmanship, extending my body of works, and establishing myself in the writing community. I did some research and cost/benefit analysis to chose a POD implementation that best fit my strategy; CreateSpace became my company of choice.
I’ll give you my honest evaluation of CreateSpace as my POD distributor of choice in the next post. Keep writing!

R.A. Harrington
Author, Perdition’s Brink
http://www.amazon.com/Perditions-Brink-R-Harrington/dp/1441421874/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236805893&sr=1-1

R.A. Harrington Now on Twitter

2009-04-21T14:53:00.001-07:00

I've joined the Twitter community and will be posting regular updates on the status of my new vampire novel (due out in the Summer/Fall 2009); you can follow my progress at https://twitter.com/RAHarrington.

Spirituality and the Supernatural In Writing

2009-04-20T15:17:00.000-07:00

I find myself inexplicitly drawn to exploring spirituality and the supernatural in my writing. I suppose it’s quite natural for a human being to express puzzlement, inquisitiveness, and wonderment at those aspects of life that stretch our understanding. I’ve personally seen the fleeting glimpse of an angel and witnessed the resolution of events that can only be described as miraculous. I’ve stared into the darkness of night and felt something was lurking just beyond sight. Could the night shroud a lonely vampire? Many times, I’ve turned to my wife and answered a question she had thought but not annunciated. My wife and I have both seen and heard ghosts prowling our home, and I swear my neurotic Havana Brown, Nibs, plays with my deceased Russian Blue, Pushkn. Truly, spirituality and the supernatural offer poignant canvasses of imagination—glimpses of what might be just beyond the limits of our physical senses. This is but one of the springs from which I sip to project novels like Perdition’s Brink and my newest novel due out in the Summer 2009.

R.A. HarringtonAuthor, Perdition’s Brinkhttp://www.amazon.com/Perditions-Brink-R-Harrington/dp/1441421874/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236805893&sr=1-1

Free Podcasts for Perdition's Brink

2009-04-15T05:17:00.001-07:00

I've posted some free Podcasts for Perdition's Brink over on my PodBean site. Please enjoy the podcasts and give me feedback. If you like what you hear, please head on over to Amazon to buy your print or Kindle versions of the book. I'll post more podcasts in the future as I continue to write my next novel; look for my next novel in Summer/Fall 2009. RAH

http://raharrington.podbean.com/

Perdition's Brink Now Available!

2009-04-01T11:34:00.000-07:00

Purchase Perdition's Brink at Amazon.com

Print: http://www.amazon.com/Perditions-Brink-R-Harrington/dp/1441421874/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236805893&sr=1-1

Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Perditions-Brink-ebook/dp/B00200K0HQ/ref=ed_oe_k

Abomination! Caleb Baker is not alive. He’s been twisted, damned, and dumped near the remote desert town of Perdition. He struggles for answers to his new undead state while caught between evil agents who want to recruit him, a holy knighthood vowed to destroy those like him, and a town full of very odd residents who don’t trust anyone or anything strange. Despite the evil growing within him, Caleb soon finds himself in an unusual alliance with a beautiful knight and her priestly brother—a joint venture to discover the truth about strange happenings in and around Perdition. The three aren’t prepared for the depth of malevolence at the root of the truth—truth that brings grave danger to Caleb’s soul and the whole of humankind. Caleb stands on the brink of damnation and redemption, hopelessness and hope, and subjection and free will. Which way will he fall?