Ray Sullivan SciFi Zone: February 2012

Wednesday 29 February 2012

Project: Evil - Bidders' Conference part 2

Project: Evil Chapter Nine - The Bidders’ Conference part 2

None of this made any sense to Daw.

‘Then why bother to turn up? Wouldn’t an empty seat with their name on make the opposition more concerned?’

‘Ah, but they wouldn’t know if the opposition turned up or not if they did that.’

‘So we’re in for an afternoon of silence?’ asked Daw, shaking his head. Brian smiled.

‘Only if they all know what they’re doing and don’t think they’re unbeatable. The two occasions you get questions are where the bidders don’t understand the protocol and think the Q and A session is for asking questions and getting answers – it’s usually because it’s their first time out, bless them,’ said Brian, getting into his stride. ‘Then there’s the guys who think they have the inside track, they usually ask if it will embarrass us if they offer something faster, bigger, better endowed than the specification for less than the budget, as if we give a shit about the budget when we’re aiming at ruling the planet,’ he said.

‘Does that work?’ asked Daw, impressed. He was Head of HR, so he gravitated to smart-arses naturally.

‘Never, but it breaks the silence,’ answered Brian, standing as the crowd settled before introducing himself and the team, then launching into the promotional video, showing O’Feld Industries approach to environmental protection and sustainability. He dimmed the lights as the first recorded explosions rocked the room and popped the earplugs in before the film showed a whole species being needlessly destroyed in a land clearance exercise. After the film finished he raised the lights and started the conference.

‘You’ve all read the tender specification and you will see that we’re really focussed on world domination, so are there any questions?’ asked Brian.

A hand shot up, followed by a dishevelled man standing.

‘Name and company?’ asked Brian.

‘Bill Watkins, NoDangerStyle UK,’ replied the bespectacled man with an awry tie and shirt tails hanging out. Brian felt confusion well up in him: these jokers had fitted his double glazing two months earlier and he hadn’t finished arguing with them yet.

‘Exactly what part of the tender document are you responding to?’ he asked. Bill blinked as he absorbed the question.

‘What tender document?’ he asked. Brian held up his copy.

‘This one,’ he said, pointing at the cover. Bill squinted to look at the document from his position on the front row before turning to pick a copy up off the chair behind him. He flicked through the lengthy document briefly before dropping it back on his seat, where it was picked up by Bill’s assistant.

‘Never seen it before, looks like a lot of words to me,’ he answered. Before Brian could ask for Bill to be removed and shot, Bill continued, ‘But we know you’re building something big, with a mission control. We want to bid for the double glazing,’ he said, beaming. ‘We won’t be beaten, you know.

‘You might be,’ muttered Daw, scribbling some notes on his pad. Brian decided to deflect the irritating man before having him summarily executed.

‘The building is to be located in the South Seas; it will hardly need double glazing. It probably doesn’t need any glass at all,’ he said, ready to move onto the next pointless question. Bill didn’t sit down, even when the two henchmen approached and stood either side of him, waiting for Daw to nod.

‘But it’ll need empty frames, and we can supply them. We’ll do a Buy One Get One Free, BOGOF!’ he said.

Daw muttered ‘Exactly what I was thinking.’

Brian shook his head and started to scan the room when he noticed that Bill’s assistant had pushed the tender document up to Bill and was pointing out some items on the first page. Then it occurred to him that the information about the conference was only in the tender document, and Bill had clearly never seen it before.

‘Mr Watkins, if you’ve never seen the tender document, how did you know the conference was here today?’ he asked. Bill pulled out a sheet of paper from his inside pocket.

‘One of our fitters overheard someone discussing it a couple of months ago, when they were fitting double glazing to his flat,’ he said. Brian decided not to pursue the discussion any further; he remembered that phone call, to a mate. Daw looked up from his scribbling.

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The characters, companies and places referred to in Project: Evil are fictitious and any resemblance to people, companies, businesses or places is entirely coincidental

If you've enjoyed this chapter of Project: Evil then check out the blog every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday as the story unfolds and, if you haven't done so already, why not follow the blog.

If you know someone who has a warped sense of humour please pass them the link to my blog so that they can enjoy 'Project: Evil'.

I can be followed on Twitter too - @RayASullivan

To find out more about my ancestors visit my sister’s website http://sullivanfamilyhistory.angelfire.com/

Visit my books on Amazon (for Kindle owners) and Smashwords (for access to all other formats and access to Apple iBooks, Barnes and Noble, Sony, WH Smith, Kobo and many other good ebookstores.

For quick access to the various Kindle, Kobo, WH Smith and Smashword links please use the table below to view my books

To View My books In....

Monday 27 February 2012

Editing Digital Life Form

It only took a couple of days to plough through Digital Life Form in print form – being on holiday helped, but actually enjoying the story was a boon too. I admit to being biased; I write the kind of stories I like to read and I’ve a very soft spot for this particular one anyway.

First, the good news – the paperback proof sent by Createspace held up well. The only criticism I would level is that the front cover has got a permanent curve outwards but the rest has stayed as good as new.

The review of the book pulled up twenty-five points I wanted to address, although when I revisited them later I disagreed with my earlier evaluation on three. Probably next time I go through I’ll think that some of these should be edited after all, but my gut instinct is that if it teeters like this on the review, it’s really probable that it isn’t a big deal.

The main issue was that in a small number of sentences the speech apostrophes were missing, misplaced or surplus to requirements. I’ve been through the electronic version of this book several times, once on my Kindle after publication, and I missed these. I’m fairly confident that I’ve trapped them all now.

The other issue was around the use or not of a capitalised word after a question mark in speech. For example, Microsoft Word really likes this:

‘Is that a question?’ He asked. However I prefer ‘Is that a question?’ he asked.

I expect that Microsoft has engaged a top flight English language specialist or two in advising on how it flags grammar issues, so I would expect that the former is technically correct. I also expect that most readers don’t give a hoot on either approach, but would really appreciate a consistent style being applied if they care about anything. I’ve gone with my preference throughout.

And there was one typo I discovered (‘of’ instead of ‘on’).

All in all I don’t think there was a single error that I spotted that would have left the reader wondering what was being said, by who, or why. But some of them would have been a distraction and that is a real issue – when we read fiction we like to immerse ourselves to the degree that we’re not aware of reading, but are just living a life inside a story – throw in a typo or a jarring piece of prose and we’re back outside staring at the page or eReader screen, critically aware that we’re reading a book.

So the editing was worthwhile and the changes will be uploaded to the Amazon and Smashwords sites as well. In fact I’m sold on the benefits of having my books printed by Createspace as a proof before uploading as eBooks – clearly reviewing on screen traps a lot of issues but you can’t beat reading your book in print to trap the little blighters.

Digital Life Form is being re-uploaded to Createspace with edits in place, page numbers and header applied. Hopefully, by the end of my holiday in the Lake District it will be available to be bought through Amazon.com. It's being pitched at $8.00 plus postage in the US; I'll be making copies available for UK readers once I know the exact author price - if it's the same as the proof copy price then I'm expecting to be able to sell them at £5.00 a copy plus postage, complete with a dedication and autograph if desired at no extra cost.

Like I said at the top of the blog - I'm biased about this book, but trust me, it's a really good yarn and there's a lot of humour embedded in the middle of a race for life. For the new traditionalists, it remains available as an eBook through the usual channels.

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I can be followed on Twitter too - @RayASullivan

To find out more about my ancestors visit my sister’s website http://sullivanfamilyhistory.angelfire.com/

Visit my books on Amazon (for Kindle owners) and Smashwords (for access to all other formats and access to Apple iBooks, Barnes and Noble, Sony, WH Smith, Kobo and many other good ebookstores.

For quick access to the various Kindle, Kobo, WH Smith and Smashword links please use the table below to view my book

To View My books In....

Sunday 26 February 2012

Project: Evil - Bidders' Conference part 1

Project: Evil Chapter Nine - The Bidders' Conference part 1

Brian looked around the conference room. The Bidders' Conference was the cornerstone of any major project and this was where the brave decisions were going to be made by potential bidders for the various infrastructure, major engineering and catering contracts for the project. If any ate the buffet they wouldn’t be tendering, it was that simple. Daw sidled up alongside Brian.

‘Have any lied on the pre-bid questionnaire?’ he asked.

‘They all have,’ answered Brian, ‘and as far as I can tell they’re all wholly inappropriate for the bids.’

‘Excellent, O’Feld will be pleased, said Daw, sitting. ‘How does this work, anyway?’ Brian sat next to Daw at the front, facing the sales teams assembling in the hall, each team eyeing up the potential opposition suspiciously.

‘Well, I run through the Corporate video to introduce us, then recap the tender document they’ve all had access to,’ said Brian, ticking the stages off on his fingers.

‘Did we send that to them?’ he asked, concerned.

‘Of course not. We let a rumour circulate, then they stole it from our Basildon offices.’

‘The Finance Division? Did they get any sensitive material?’

‘Na, after the Finance Director’s wife washed away our accounting system the Finance Director put extra security in place. Not only does he carry the master copy of the accounts in his trousers, a security copy is sewn into his underpants. Neither was in the office when they were burgled.’ Daw heaved a sigh of relief; the Executive bonus projection was on that scrap of paper. It had taken him nearly three weeks to gain access to write it on when the Financial Director wasn’t looking.

‘So, is that it?’ asked Daw, looking at the tender document, all four hundred and three pages thick. Page one stated the specification for the rocket system – big, powerful and capable of deploying antimatter weapons. A method of heating the antimatter would be good, super heating it would be super, and would therefore score higher. A launch pad, mission control, pointless monorail system and crocodile enclosure were added in tiny print at the bottom of the page in an ink that looked suspiciously like crayon. Page two through to page four hundred and two stated the catering requirements. The last page was a misprint; the menu from the local kebab house had ended up in there instead of the specification for a warning system capable of alerting O’Feld’s men to a variety of unlikely life threatening situations. Brian took the tender document out of Daw’s hands and flicked through it. He was particularly proud of it. He returned his concentration to Daw’s question.

‘No, there’s the silence after that,’ he said.

‘Silence?’ asked Daw. ‘We have people who can make them talk, if that’s what you need,’ he suggested. Brian laughed.

‘Not this lot, these aren’t human, they’re salesmen. They only come to the Bidder’s Conference to suss out the opposition. Speaking is considered a weakness, it gives away some of your game plan, shows the other teams what you’re thinking of pitching.’

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The characters, companies and places referred to in Project: Evil are fictitious and any resemblance to people, companies, businesses or places is entirely coincidental

If you've enjoyed this chapter of Project: Evil then check out the blog every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday as the story unfolds and, if you haven't done so already, why not follow the blog.

If you know someone who has a warped sense of humour please pass them the link to my blog so that they can enjoy 'Project: Evil'.

I can be followed on Twitter too - @RayASullivan

To find out more about my ancestors visit my sister’s website http://sullivanfamilyhistory.angelfire.com/

Visit my books on Amazon (for Kindle owners) and Smashwords (for access to all other formats and access to Apple iBooks, Barnes and Noble, Sony, WH Smith, Kobo and many other good ebookstores.

For quick access to the various Kindle, Kobo, WH Smith and Smashword links please use the table below to view my books

To View My books In....

Saturday 25 February 2012

Digital Life Form (DLF) Has Arrived in Print - updated x 2

Update - See 8 March update below regarding delivery times.
Update - See 12 March update below regarding watch out points
I've got to hand it to Createspace, they're as good as their word. I reported in the last few blogs on my journey to test the Print On Demand (POD) process that they turned around my print orders in a matter of hours from receipt of the order to dispatch, both for the initial order of five proof copies of Digital Life Form and the subsequent order of one copy apiece for Parallel Lives, the Journeymen, Skin and The Last Simple.

The two biggest hurdles we in the UK have to overcome with this POD system are the postage costs and the delivery times, neither of which are within Createspace's control. The price of the books as a unit seems reasonable - sure I would expect that a mainstream book print run of hundreds, if not thousands, of copies would push the unit costs down significantly but thanks to the tendency of the industry to milk every penny of profit out of each book, often to compensate for the books they print that they have misjudged the demand for, they leave the POD books priced competitively.

Now I discovered quite quickly that the postage costs become better the more books you order, so that when you divide the amount of postage across all the books the amount it adds becomes less onerous. Couple that with a decent author discount it means that although it wouldn't be cost effective for UK readers to purchase my books from Amazon.com (unless they were already buying a reasonable number of other books at the same time, thereby getting the postage per book down), I can import at the author rate in relatively small batches (limiting my financial exposure) and sell them direct with a small profit included.

So how about the second hurdle? Well, the five copies of Digital Life Form, ordered, printed and dispatched on February 14th arrived on the 22nd. As I was out I only had a card from the Post Office advising me I had to wait until the following day to pick my parcel up, but that's not really relevant. I think eight days from ordering to arriving at your door in the UK from their South Carolina printing facility is pretty good. Hopefully the four individual proofs I ordered the other day will arrive in the same timeframe so I can confirm the timescales - I'll let you know.

Update 8 March. I ordered the four proofs on the 22nd February and by the 28th February had managed to find their way to a DHL sorting facility in Germany. And that's where they have stayed. I contacted DHL three days ago to ask about an ETA for the parcel but got no reply, so after 48 hours I contacted Createspace, who were swift to reply. Yes, they could see that the parcel had made it to Germany by the 28th February but pointed out that they were still within their target date of 5 April - yes, you read that correctly - and suggested that if I hadn't received the package by the 7th April then I should get back in touch!

You'll be pleased to know that Createspace didn't hang around taking the payment for this delivery from my credit card, though. Just a cautionary piece of advice for anyone in the UK (or anywhere not the US in fact) planning on trying Createspace - unless you're prepared to hold stock, you may find yourself dissapointing customers.

I guess the $64,000 question has to be - what are they like? Well, first impressions are pretty good. The cover is robust, well printed and appears to be well bound. The pages inside the book seem to be of a good quality and the printing is clear. All in all, it looks and feels like a commercial book, which is what we want.

There are some issues, but so far they are limited to me and my upload, not Createspace. If you've been following my journey so far you may have guessed that I realised I'd made some schoolboy errors in my upload - if I didn't spell them out then I think I may have intimated them. That was part of the motivation for writing the hints and tips blog for self publishing on Createspace the other day - I'm sure I'm not the only person who will forget to add page numbers and the book title on each page, so by flagging it up I may save someone else making the same mistake and save them a little time.

My task now is to go through the book with a fine tooth comb - I have a dedicated pad to my side and a wad of coloured sticky tabs to place on the pages so I can identify each and every error, typo, formatting problem I discover - hopefully not too many as I've been through this book on a number of occasions, however you can't beat editing on paper for spotting glitches. As it happens I'm departing off to the Lake District on holiday at the weekend and will be ensconced in Cumbrian pubs sitting beside a roaring fire most nights with a pint of Cumbrian ale and my printed copy of Digital Life Form beside me. It may mean that the blogs will slow down for a week (the Project: Evil stuff is uploaded and ready to post from my smart phone, so they will happen as normal), but it will mean I can get this book edited to within an inch of its digital life.

I'll let you know how the process goes when its complete. it'll also be a good shake down for the book material as well, so I should be able to gauge how robust the product is fairly quickly. The next Createspace report should update on the proof review and first impressions of the other four books.

Update 2 - 12 March. Still waiting for the books to arrive - according to DHL they were processed at Koln on 28 February but I'm unclear if that means they are still there or stuck in the UK system.

However in the interim I've been reading up on the various boards and would like to pass on some disparate wisdom from other Createspace authors. First, there's some debate about the ISBN numbers. Amazon will issue you one free of charge or can sell you one for $10. There's two issues associated with this according to some. First, if you choose the free ISBN it means the book is nominated as published by Createspace, which sends a big warning signal to mainstream booksellers. The alternative, where you pay $10, means you create your own 'company name' which will fool them all apparently. I'm not too convinced a made up name that they hadn't come across before would necessarily convince, but I guess the point is that Createspace is synonymous with vanity publishing. For my part I'm unconcerned - I've been upfront; I don't expect to sell many books through this medium, and I've certainly resisted paying $25 a title for access to a broader set of sales channels.

The other issue with the ISBNs, of any flavour as far as I can tell, is that they are inextricably welded to the book page size. Now the issue here is that if you choose the wrong page size and try to change it, you can't, apparently. I don't know if this is true and if it is, if it relates to proof copies and published copies or just the published versions. I do know I'm in a good position to test the theory if and when my books arrive. Having lived with the proof of Digital Life Form for a couple of weeks I realise that the default 9 x 6 size is probably not ideal for a fiction paperback. It's more suitable for an academic book via the Open University (I have a bookcase of maths books from my degree studies at that size). Once I've edited one of the proofs and made the necessary edits (if required) then I'll reformat the book in a different size and try to upload it. If that works I'll see if I can do the same trick with Digital Life Form - from what I've read, I would need a different ISBN to achieve that but so far it's unproven.

Ultimately it does appear that having separate ISBNs for the same book can be a little distracting but not forbidden. I may only attempt it as an academic exercise but not follow through with the change, but whatever I do, I'll update on this space in due course.

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I can be followed on Twitter too - @RayASullivan

To find out more about my ancestors visit my sister’s website http://sullivanfamilyhistory.angelfire.com/

Visit my books on Amazon (for Kindle owners) and Smashwords (for access to all other formats and access to Apple iBooks, Barnes and Noble, Sony, WH Smith, Kobo and many other good ebookstores.

For quick access to the various Kindle, Kobo, WH Smith and Smashword links please use the table below to view my book

To View My books In....

Friday 24 February 2012

Project: Evil - The Trade Convention part 4

‘Ladies and gentlemen; thugs and thieves, please put your hands together as I introduce the head of anti-Megalomaniac research at MI6, the effeminately named Kew’ As the room erupted into applause Kew staggered onto stage with a Zimmer frame for support. He took over the microphone from the Minister.

‘Good afternoon and thank you for inviting me. Just for the record, my names Ronald Blenheim-Fortesque, but everybody calls me Kew. We don’t usually meet up, and when you do it’s generally in my lab when I’m testing something like this,’ he said, waving an arm over the frame. ‘As you can see it’s a Zimmer frame, standard NHS issue, as used by my favourite customer, James Bund,’ he said. Pointing to a protruding button on the side of one of the legs, he continued.

‘As James is starting to feel the ravages of time he can easily use one of these as realistic camouflage when trying to infiltrate your organisations, without you knowing that it contains a number of weapons. I’ve modelled it on the one my wife uses now, and in fact you may have seen her using hers as she was browsing the Women’s Institute Poisoned Cake stalls earlier today as she is one of their judges. Anyway, the button on this side, as with the opposite side button, is used to raise or lower the frame – users need to do that periodically for comfort. However, on this model, I’ve made a few adjustments.’ He raised the Zimmer frame up, pointing at the crowd who, to a person, drew a gun and pointed it at Kew.

‘Whoa! Steady. I’m not going to use this, it’s the only one in existence and James may need it any day, mightn’t he Scaramouch?’ he said, staring at the evil megalomaniac stood near the back. Brian turned and swore that Scaramouch blushed as he rubbed his nippleless torso.

‘Anyway, if you see James pushing this button and the legs are pointing at you, then you’d better be ready to duck as it fires point four-four magnum rounds. The other one,’ he said, putting the Zimmer frame down, ‘sets off a delayed explosion, giving everyone in the vicinity a maximum of three seconds to get clear,’ he added as he pointed to the button, then stumbled forward.

‘Oops,’ he said, as he grabbed the frame for stability, standing gawkishly as the crowd dived behind the seats for cover, chanting ‘One and two and ...’ After a few seconds, when nothing had happened they all stood again to see Kew holding the frame upside down, one leg clearly shorter than the other, looking confused.

‘Must be a fault in the design,’ he said, apologetically, putting the frame back down. ‘Anyway, we have lots of other devious devices to delect you with should you take your plans too far, so hope to see you all some time soon,’ he said, to a ripple of polite applause.

Daw grabbed Brian’s arm.

‘Time we were moving, otherwise all the coaches will be hi-jacked,’ he said, noting Brian’s look. ‘Convention tradition. If we’re early enough, I might hi-jack a couple myself,’ he added. As they passed the general stall area there was an explosion, pushing them both to the ground.

‘Are you OK?’ asked Brian, seeing masses of red ooze over Daw’s face. Daw reached up and dragged a finger through it.

‘Raspberry jam, mixed with clotted cream,’ he said, scraping some gateaux off his suit. ‘Of course I’m not OK, my cholesterol is already way too high,’ he answered, dragging Brian out of the convention.

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The characters, companies and places referred to in Project: Evil are fictitious and any resemblance to people, companies, businesses or places is entirely coincidental

If you've enjoyed this chapter of Project: Evil then check out the blog every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday as the story unfolds and, if you haven't done so already, why not follow the blog.

If you know someone who has a warped sense of humour please pass them the link to my blog so that they can enjoy 'Project: Evil'.

I can be followed on Twitter too - @RayASullivan

To find out more about my ancestors visit my sister’s website http://sullivanfamilyhistory.angelfire.com/

Visit my books on Amazon (for Kindle owners) and Smashwords (for access to all other formats and access to Apple iBooks, Barnes and Noble, Sony, WH Smith, Kobo and many other good ebookstores.

For quick access to the various Kindle, Kobo, WH Smith and Smashword links please use the table below to view my books

To View My books In....

Thursday 23 February 2012

Formatting for Createspace

If you've been following my ramblings over the last week regarding my exploration of self publishing my books as print books using Createspace and you have one or more books already published as eBooks, then you may have felt the urge to give it a go as well.

Below is some guidance on some of the formatting issues you may come across and help on how to overcome them. I've based all my advice on Microsoft Word 2007 - if you are using an alternative Word Processor then you will need to find out how that product achieves the same results.

I'm still at the start of this journey - for example I haven't received any proof copies from the US yet - so this list may grow as I learn more. I'll update this page whenever I discover a new tweek and will post a link on Twitter.

If you have any advice to share on this page, please drop me a line on the email address alongside or post a comment.

Task	Notes
Set the page size	Createspace will print your book in a number of sizes but has a preference for 9” x 6”. Before you submit your copy, set the page size to this. In the UK, on my version of Word, 9” x 6” isn’t a standard size so go to Page Layout tab>Size>More Paper Sizes>Custom. If you want 9” x 6” then choose it – for those of us in the EU that means using Centimetres (22.86 x 15.24).
Page Numbering of the book	Easy to forget if you’re used to formatting for eBooks. You’ll almost certainly have a preamble, title page, dedication etc before your story starts – just remember that the page numbering doesn’t start until the story does! Before you set the numbering, use Section Break (Page Layout Tab>Breaks>Section Breaks>Next Page) to separate the preamble from the story. This will help you number correctly. Next, create the footer (Insert Tab>Footer>Edit Footer>Page Number>Bottom of Page>choose preference) Move to Section 2 (the one with your story in) and double click on the footer. You’ll open a Design Tab which has a ‘Link to Previous’ button – unselect this option. This will start both Section 1 & Section 2 off at page 1. Don't worry about section 1 being numbered at this point - we'll address that in the next section below.
Page numbering (or not) of the preamble	Grab a handful of paperbacks off your bookshelf and you’ll find the preamble has one of two formats, in the main. It will either have no numbering until the story starts or it will be numbered in Roman Numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, etc). To set either, navigate to the footer in Section 1, double click on it and either delete the footer (Section 2 footer shouldn’t be affected) to achieve no numbering or select the Roman Numeral option from the Footer menu. Of course you may prefer to number your pages (but probably not your preamble) at the top of the page - if so, look at the next section and apply it to page numbering as well.
Header	Another thing we tend not to have in our eBooks, but quite normal in print books, is the book title on every page at the top. Set as a header, centre align it and don’t forget to take it out of Section 1 as we don't normally have the title as a header until the book itself starts.
Pagination	While you’ve got those paperbacks out, take a look at where the first page starts – that’s correct, on the right hand side. To ensure that your book starts that way, ensure that you have the correct number of preamble pages in place to make it happen. The first page of your preamble will be the reverse of the book cover, so the second page of the preamble will be on the right hand side. So the odd numbered pages in your book should be, oddly enough, even numbered pages as far as Word is concerned!
Chapter Beginnings	One great aspect of eBooks is that we can be as generous as we like with our chapters, font sizes, line spacing etc. The reality of print media is that the more we spread our book out, the more pages we use, which increases the unit costs of each book. That may not be an issue if you've a publishing contract and a big publishing house bank-rolling your book, but if you are - why are you reading this blog? For the rest of us, cost is important, almost as important as the story itself. Keeping the production costs down either makes the book more affordable for your readers, or gives you a greater margin of profit for each book sold (after all, you set the price once Createspace have set the minimum). Reducing the font and line spacing may save you a few pages, but if you have a lot of chapters and a very long book then starting each chapter on a fresh page could cost you a lot of extra pages. I trimmed 60 pages out of Skin by starting each chapter immediately after the preceding chapter end. Once I see the proof I'll know if cramming the text onto every page was worth the $2 a book I reckon I saved.

Check back on this blog entry if and when you start to prepare your manuscript for uploading to Createspace, for reference and to check for updates.

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I can be followed on Twitter too - @RayASullivan

To find out more about my ancestors visit my sister’s website http://sullivanfamilyhistory.angelfire.com/

Visit my books on Amazon (for Kindle owners) and Smashwords (for access to all other formats and access to Apple iBooks, Barnes and Noble, Sony, WH Smith, Kobo and many other good ebookstores.

For quick access to the various Kindle, Kobo, WH Smith and Smashword links please use the table below to view my book

To View My books In....