So far Echo has only existed virtually. On Amazon and on my laptop and on some of your Kindles / iPads /iPhones. The other day i decided it would be really nice to actually have a copy. A real copy. A real book. (Would that make me a real author?)
I love books. Kindles are great - half of my luggage for the last holiday was books - but there's just something about an actual book.
I looked at a couple of sites and they looked a bit complex. eventually i picked Feedaread.com, although that was a bit complicated and i had to have several goes before they'd approve what i uploaded. I'm still a bit concerned that the formating template didn't work out properly and the first letters of every right hand page will be too far down the crack to read. It'll be a bit like trying to play some of the music that somebody in the band has photocopied badly and missed off the key and time signatures and the first note.
Anyway, i've sent for a discounted author's copy. It's still relatively expensive compared to the price that ASDA sell older Lee Child and Andy MacNab paperbacks for but who cares. It'll be mine! The advantage of print on demand is that, if the formatting isn't right, i can upload a new version and there's only one copy that is wrong. I knew somebody who wrote a novel and had a couple of hundred copies printed. At the top of almost every page there was the title of the book - The White Sleeve. Apart from page 1, which had, in the header, The White Sleve
So, in a few days i should have my hands on my own book. It's very exciting. Although not exactly career changing, being a writer continues to be very rewarding, even after the writing is finished.
Totally agree!! I love the
ReplyDeleteTech and convenience of kindle,, but feeling of flipping a page, or the scent of the hallowed pages just can't be mimicked by ebooks. Also my favourite piece of furniture in my house is my bookshelf! With its neatly arranged anarchy of paperback and hard copy, the art on the covers. It's also the first thing people notice when entering my home, so yes I think we will always be drawn to the paper copy. Will this be something your aoliming to sell as well? If so I will definitely buy one!! The other thing I dislike about ebooks is that I don't have it there on display,
if the test copy goes OK then yes, i can change the settings to make in available to the world as POD. Watch this space. The downside is i'll have no excuse now so i'll have to tell my Dad i've written a book. He's the only person in the world that doesn't know. He lives in a town that's stuck in a time warp and it's still 1964 and still thinks that colour telly is the bees knees
ReplyDeleteThere's a novel there
Yes, i know they didn't have colour telly in 1964. Or, at least, we didn't get it till the early 70s