So I talked myself into finishing up the last edits and have launched into the exciting (and new to me) world of ebook formatting. I read a post this week recommending that writers start publishing first with Smashwords. (I can’t find the link again or I’d link to it.) I was skeptical at the time, but now that I’ve dived in I understand a bit better why the writer suggested this. Smashwords, while exacting in the details, is actually a pretty simple system once you work through it. I’ve certainly learned a lot about MS Word and how to define styles, more than I ever knew and I’ve used Word for years. In fact I’m still using Office 2000, a version I got for free back when I was writing for tech magazines. (Yes, I once wrote 4000 words\u00e2\u20ac\u201dfor pay\u00e2\u20ac\u201don how to use cut-and-paste in Excel. Really.)<\/p>\n
The good news is that my beloved Scrivener<\/a> exports extremely clean RTF files. I opened the story in Word, turned on the “show hidden formatting” feature as recommended in the Smashwords guide<\/a>, and there was nothing mangled or extra at all. An hour spent revising my paragraph and heading styles, and I have a very clean and, if I say so myself, very good-looking short story. <\/p>\n Next up, though, is the need to write an author bio. It’s only a few short sentences but I have to admit I started having trouble breathing at the thought. And I turned so cold that I had to put on a sweater. My husband worried about me a little bit, but it passed. I’m afraid I’ll never be a marketing genius. So I set that aside for my subconscious to work on. I’m going back to finish the cover which is giving me some trouble with artifacts when I export to JPG format. Right now that sounds soothingly simple to work on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"