Eye of the Wizard, a fantasy adventure

[LCF]

I just downloaded an epub from smashwords - formatting is not great. In the first 1/2 chapter there were 4 "?" instead of " x", x is any case. Example:

...name?am Thistle the Fourth?ut everyone...

I suppose it won't get better/worse. It's kind of interesting to guess the words

The book itself looks really promising

[DArenson]

Originally Posted by LCF

I just downloaded an epub from smashwords - formatting is not great. In the first 1/2 chapter there were 4 "?" instead of " x", x is any case. Example:



I suppose it won't get better/worse. It's kind of interesting to guess the words

The book itself looks really promising

Hi LCF,

Smashwords uses an infamous converter (called the Meatgrinder) to create its ePubs. It sometimes causes problems. When the book becomes available on Barnes and Noble, I hope it looks better there.

What's your email address? I'll send you a proper ePub (which didn't go through Smashword's converter), and my three other books for free. You can PM me. Sorry about that!

Daniel

[LCF]

Thank you Daniel, I answered your PM.

A bit offtopic: I am wondering, if you feed the meatgrinder some .rtf or .epub disguised as .doc how that will come out...

[DArenson]

Originally Posted by LCF

Thank you Daniel, I answered your PM.

A bit offtopic: I am wondering, if you feed the meatgrinder some .rtf or .epub disguised as .doc how that will come out...

Thanks, LCF! The new books are on the way.

When formatting ebooks, I generally work with clean, simple HTML I create in text editors. Nothing but the most basic HTML tags. I can then convert my HTML into PRC (for Kindles) or ePub (for Nooks). The problem with Smashwords it that it accepts only DOC files. On the surface, you can make DOCs look very nice, but behind the scenes, there are layers and layers of styles and messy code. Hence, you can see unpredictable results when it converts -- which unfortunately happened in this case. Specifically, the m-dashes broke in Eye of the Wizard. I cannot fully blame Smashwords of course; I definitely should have tested their generated ePub more carefully and caught these problems.

Recently, I've begun uploading my ePubs directly to Nook, avoiding Smashwords as a distributer. And I've always uploaded directly to Amazon Kindle.

Thanks for letting me know, and I hope you enjoy the new book!

[LCF]

The book is perfect!

Have you tried uploading on lulu.com? I'm not sure how the platform works regarding royalties and such, but you can definitely upload an.epub direct.

[DArenson]

Originally Posted by LCF

The book is perfect!

Have you tried uploading on lulu.com? I'm not sure how the platform works regarding royalties and such, but you can definitely upload an.epub direct.

Thanks! I hope you enjoy it. I also fixed the Smashwords version for future readers.

No, I don't use Lulu. I mainly use Smashwords as a distributer -- they will send their ebooks to stores such as B&N, Kindle, iBookstore, etc. However, I now upload my novels directly to Kindle and B&N, and bypass Smashwords for those places.

[DArenson]

Hey everyone,

If you're a Nook reader, and wanted to read Eye of the Wizard, it's now available at B&N.

Here's the link.

I hope you enjoy the book!

Daniel

[DArenson]

Eye of the Wizard now has four Amazon reviews!

If you're looking for a light, quick fantasy read for the weekend, I hope you'll try Eye of the Wizard.

[DArenson]

Author Sean Sweeney (Model Agent) gave Eye of the Wizard five stars on GoodReads. He wrote:

"Daniel Arenson has another gem here. Take a set of three siblings -- two knights and a warlock -- a summoned demon (who has barely gotten out of Pampers, even though she's 207 1/2), and a gorgeous spiderling... and you have Eye of the Wizard. Arenson is a master of description, especially in the fantasy genre. He draws readers in from the words Chapter One and doesn't let you go until The End."

[DArenson]

New review for Eye of the Wizard on Amazon. Here's a quote:

"This writer knows how make you care about characters and he knows how to keep a story moving forward. I'm going to read all his books."

You can read the full review here.

[DArenson]

New five star review for Eye of the Wizard on Syria Says.

Here's a quote: "Oh my god! I loved these guys! Each one is a great stand alone character – but putting them together is just brilliant! ... Daniel's style is fun and very easy to read - I read this all in one sitting. (So, I guess I can thank him for the eye twitches later…?) I loved his take on the fantasy genre. Grobblers, Spiderlings and an evil vulture named Vanderbeak. It doesn’t get more imaginative than that."

Thanks, Syria!

[DArenson]

New review for Eye of the Wizard on Amazon. Natasha writes:

"I love reading Arenson because his writing is efficient, fast paced, and quirky. This author is a smooth one, and even masters the tone of a scene with an artistry that is just damned impressive."

Read the full review on Amazon.

[rdjack21]

Just finished Eye of the Wizard and loved it! Just what I needed at the time a good light read after coming off some heavy stuff. I liked it so much I went and grabbed Firefly Island and Blood of Requiem and I'm thinking of getting the other two as well

If nothing else you just grabbed another fan with this book.

[DArenson]

Originally Posted by rdjack21

Just finished Eye of the Wizard and loved it! Just what I needed at the time a good light read after coming off some heavy stuff. I liked it so much I went and grabbed Firefly Island and Blood of Requiem and I'm thinking of getting the other two as well

If nothing else you just grabbed another fan with this book.

Thanks, rd! That's a very nice compliment.

Did you have a favourite character?

[rdjack21]

Originally Posted by DArenson

Thanks, rd! That's a very nice compliment.

Did you have a favourite character?

You know I had to think about that because they all had things I liked about them. But the one character that really pulled the others together was Romy I mean she was the one that came up with the whole bullies concept and I just can't get Pnoodle soup out of my head That one really had me laughing.