Read any great Smashwords books lately? - Page 3

AnemicOak · 07-28-2010, 11:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by da_jane

I want to add my voice to the PB Ryan recommendations. They are excellent and I think the covers of the self pubbed books some of the best by far.

These sound right up my alley. They need a little formatting work (nothing big), but it sounds like it'll be worth it. I mean you can get the whole series for less than $20, pretty good bargain.

Patricia Ryan · 07-29-2010, 08:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by da_jane

I want to add my voice to the PB Ryan recommendations. They are excellent and I think the covers of the self pubbed books some of the best by far.

Thanks! I love hearing that, because I created those covers myself. I actually have an art degree, but nowadays the only thing I do with it is bookmarks and covers and the like.

Patricia Ryan · 07-29-2010, 08:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

These sound right up my alley. They need a little formatting work (nothing big), but it sounds like it'll be worth it. I mean you can get the whole series for less than $20, pretty good bargain.

Actually, until the end of July, you can get the whole series for $13.44, because they're on sale for 26% off. After that, it will be $17.94 for the set. Lots of people have been buying all 6 mysteries or all 6 of my medieval romances--which is awesome, because the point of pricing them so low was to introduce new readers to my work.

You mentioned the need for formatting work. As regards my books? If there's something I can be doing to improve the formatting, let me know!

Pat
patricia-ryan.com

AnemicOak · 07-29-2010, 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patricia Ryan

You mentioned the need for formatting work. As regards my books? If there's something I can be doing to improve the formatting, let me know!
patricia-ryan.com

Thanks for mentioning the sale, I'll go buy them all today.

RE Formatting; I prefer that my books have a table of contents, no spaces between paragraphs and chapter breaks. I'm sure what's up now is fine for most people and there is no need for you to change things. It'll only take me a few minutes to get them how I want them (based on looking at the sample) so it's no big deal.

EDIT: Just purchased them all, quite a bargain.

Patricia Ryan · 07-29-2010, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Thanks for mentioning the sale, I'll go buy them all today.

RE Formatting; I prefer that my books have a table of contents, no spaces between paragraphs and chapter breaks. I'm sure what's up now is fine for most people and there is no need for you to change things. It'll only take me a few minutes to get them how I want them (based on looking at the sample) so it's no big deal.

EDIT: Just purchased them all, quite a bargain.

Thanks so much for buying the books, Brian--and for the info re formatting. I went by the Smashwords Style Guide, which had beta instructions for creating a linked table of contents, but said a TOC wasn't necessary for fiction. Since I had 12 books to format--a very time-consuming undertaking--that was good enough for me to just eliminate the idea of TOC's. But now that you mention it, when I'm reading an ebook, I like having that TOC, too. So maybe, if I find myself with a chunk of time and nothing better to do (HAHAHAHAHA), I'll add them in.

I definitely didn't put spaces between paragraphs--hate that--but some e-formats add them, for some reason. I do have a couple of spaces between chapters, but not much. If spaces are getting added on top of that, it probably seems like more than it is. I should probably eliminate those spaces altogether in the future.

I hate not having absolute control over what my readers will see when they open up one of my books. (Control freak? Me?) But that just seems to be the nature of e-publishing right now.

Worldwalker · 07-29-2010, 10:21 PM

Just butting in on the formatting here: I like a blank space between paragraphs. Maybe it comes from reading too many technical books ... I dunno. I just prefer it that way.

FizzyWater · 07-30-2010, 02:16 AM

Formatting issue: I downloaded these as epub for my Sony and I also downloaded the RTFs to convert for my old eBookwise. When I opened one of the RTFs the font alternated between normal and all caps.

I ended up converting the epubs to IMPs, so no problem, but if for some reason I actually wanted to read the RTFs, that would get on my nerves after awhile.

roger the rabbit · 07-30-2010, 06:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

Just butting in on the formatting here: I like a blank space between paragraphs. Maybe it comes from reading too many technical books ... I dunno. I just prefer it that way.

Yes so do I, & personally prefer a new chapter to start on a fresh page - (my 2c)

Patricia Ryan · 07-30-2010, 07:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

Formatting issue: I downloaded these as epub for my Sony and I also downloaded the RTFs to convert for my old eBookwise. When I opened one of the RTFs the font alternated between normal and all caps.

I ended up converting the epubs to IMPs, so no problem, but if for some reason I actually wanted to read the RTFs, that would get on my nerves after awhile.

Wow, that's horrible! I wonder why that happens? Is there someone more technologically savvy than I who can explain it? If it's something I can correct with formatting, I'll reformat the books and republish them.

(Thanks for the info, FizzyWater.)

SteveK · 08-01-2010, 12:08 AM

Smashwords seems to have a problem with RTF. I had previously downloaded a book in RTF, and it had the same problem of paragraphs with all capital letters, etc. I then downloaded the EPUB, and fortunately it had no such problems.

Patricia - Today I purchased your historical mysteries (all six of them), and am looking forward to reading them. Thanks for making them available at such a great price!

By the way, the metadata on some of the books indicated the author was "P B Ryan" and others indicated "Patricia Ryan". I know you wrote all of them, and from your signature above it appears you prefer to use P B Ryan for your mysteries, so I changed the metadata accordingly after adding them to Calibre.

SteveK

Patricia Ryan · 08-03-2010, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveK

Smashwords seems to have a problem with RTF. I had previously downloaded a book in RTF, and it had the same problem of paragraphs with all capital letters, etc. I then downloaded the EPUB, and fortunately it had no such problems.

Patricia - Today I purchased your historical mysteries (all six of them), and am looking forward to reading them. Thanks for making them available at such a great price!

By the way, the metadata on some of the books indicated the author was "P B Ryan" and others indicated "Patricia Ryan". I know you wrote all of them, and from your signature above it appears you prefer to use P B Ryan for your mysteries, so I changed the metadata accordingly after adding them to Calibre.

SteveK

Steve, I'm glad the EPUB downloaded okay for you. The RTF problem is a mystery to me. Thanks so much for buying all 6 mysteries! I hope you enjoy them.

Yes, PB Ryan is the name I published the mysteries under, but I'm trying to get the word out that PB Ryan is actually Patricia Ryan. Hey, thanks for mentioning Calibre. I hadn't been aware of it before, but I just checked it out, and it looks like it might be just what the doctor ordered for me!

ficbot · 08-03-2010, 11:15 PM

So Patricia, now that the e-cat is out of the bag for you, will you be publishing any new books under the Smashwords system?

Patricia Ryan · 08-04-2010, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ficbot

So Patricia, now that the e-cat is out of the bag for you, will you be publishing any new books under the Smashwords system?

I've thought about it. So far, the backlist titles are doing really well, but time will tell whether those brisk sales continue. If they do, I'll be very tempted to self-publish an ebook edition of a novel I wrote ten years ago that never saw the light of print. It's contemporary women's fiction. My editor loved it and wanted to bring it out as a major release. Her boss wanted me to shorten it and dumb it down. I ended up walking away from the contract. So I've had this book I really love just sitting there gathering dust for a decade. Before I do anything with it, it needs a thorough re-read and edit, so when I get a little time (like after my daughter's wedding in September), that book will be next on the agenda. And as I say, if my backlist ebooks are still selling well, I might very well publish this book as a digital original. Otherwise I'll let my agent shop it around.

I've also thought about turning my many articles about fiction writing into a book. I may choose to e-publish that, as well.

Pat

jaxx6166 · 08-06-2010, 09:57 PM

Banjo and I were just discussing doing a similar thing on a blog-o-sphere to praise or slam SW books.

It's the community recommendations that really sell a nobody to me. Otherwise I never would have picked up Boomerang. You're welcome plumboz

Marioninyc · 08-07-2010, 01:55 PM

Some Smashword pix on my kindle:
Jo Ellis Spoilt
PD Allan Blood Moone
Lexi R(I can't spell it. Too lazy to link) Remix
Above All: Larry Harrison's Glimpses of a Floating World (This is GREAT book)

(I know it's not a self-plug thread, but mine's there free: The Death Trip and if of course if you lie it, there's my other one.)

07-30-2010, 02:16 AM	#37
FizzyWater You kids get off my lawn! Posts: 4,220 Karma: 73492664 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Columbus, Ohio Device: Oasis 2 and Libra H2O and half a dozen older models I can't let go of	Formatting issue: I downloaded these as epub for my Sony and I also downloaded the RTFs to convert for my old eBookwise. When I opened one of the RTFs the font alternated between normal and all caps. I ended up converting the epubs to IMPs, so no problem, but if for some reason I actually wanted to read the RTFs, that would get on my nerves after awhile. Attached Thumbnails

08-01-2010, 12:08 AM	#40
SteveK Addict Posts: 272 Karma: 1017902 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: Kindle PW, PW2, Kindle3, Kobo Glo, tablets, phone	Smashwords seems to have a problem with RTF. I had previously downloaded a book in RTF, and it had the same problem of paragraphs with all capital letters, etc. I then downloaded the EPUB, and fortunately it had no such problems. Patricia - Today I purchased your historical mysteries (all six of them), and am looking forward to reading them. Thanks for making them available at such a great price! By the way, the metadata on some of the books indicated the author was "P B Ryan" and others indicated "Patricia Ryan". I know you wrote all of them, and from your signature above it appears you prefer to use P B Ryan for your mysteries, so I changed the metadata accordingly after adding them to Calibre. SteveK Last edited by SteveK; 08-01-2010 at 12:43 AM.

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07-29-2010, 10:21 PM	#36
Worldwalker Curmudgeon Posts: 3,085 Karma: 722357 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: PRS-505	Just butting in on the formatting here: I like a blank space between paragraphs. Maybe it comes from reading too many technical books ... I dunno. I just prefer it that way.

08-03-2010, 11:15 PM	#42
ficbot Wizard Posts: 2,409 Karma: 4132096 Join Date: Sep 2008 Device: Kindle Paperwhite/iOS Kindle App	So Patricia, now that the e-cat is out of the bag for you, will you be publishing any new books under the Smashwords system?

08-06-2010, 09:57 PM	#44
jaxx6166 Wizard Posts: 1,222 Karma: 769316 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Eternal summer Device: 350, iPad, PW	Banjo and I were just discussing doing a similar thing on a blog-o-sphere to praise or slam SW books. It's the community recommendations that really sell a nobody to me. Otherwise I never would have picked up Boomerang. You're welcome plumboz

08-07-2010, 01:55 PM	#45
Marioninyc Marion Posts: 62 Karma: 70000 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: NY NY Device: KindleDX	Some Smashword pix on my kindle: Jo Ellis Spoilt PD Allan Blood Moone Lexi R(I can't spell it. Too lazy to link) Remix Above All: Larry Harrison's Glimpses of a Floating World (This is GREAT book) (I know it's not a self-plug thread, but mine's there free: The Death Trip and if of course if you lie it, there's my other one.)