An Open Book

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

I am so excited that I have reached this level of production with the book. Tomorrow…

Monday… September 29, 2008

You can get The Mark of a Druid, serialized podcast of the novel. Where you ask? It is going live on http://www.podiobooks.com/title/mark-of-the-druid Please notice this page is not live until the day of release. Sign up for an account there is no cost involved. At that time you will be able to add My book to your subscriber’s list or any of the others. It is free! And you can snag the promo here! http://www.rhondacarpenter.com/?page_id=95 post it to your website send it to your email, chat buddies, put it up on your myspace, facebook and talk about it on twitter and please tell a friend! And let me know if you have a podcast you would like me to promo in reciprocation.

All of the episodes that are available on podiobooks.com and soon Itunes and other places are available one week before at www.themarkofadruid.com under the podcast section where you can listen to them on the site with no download or download them.

Sunday is upload day as well as Blog night. So keep up with what is going on and get your weekly fix of The Mark of a Druid.

So Why Free?

This is completely a personal decision. I know that in my home my husband is more the listener and I am the hold the book in my hands gal, although, I do listen too. As a new author people don’t know about me and this is one of many ways I am getting my name and the story out there. As I move forward with the publication process for the print books I am confident that the free release of the podcast version will build some chatter and help with letting those know that the book is about to be out there in print. The pod casting has been totally fun and educational and I can’t imagine release any book with out using this kind of medium. Like any author, I want people to read or listen and cash dollars while important and graciously accepted for all the long hours of work I simply want to write and be read. So there you have it: 1. It is a marketing tool and 2. It is fun! 3. It has worked for the big boys.

Speaking of Marketing the book and fun! We will be announcing a contest as soon as we have a release date for the print version is given to me so stay tuned for that and the new website for the book going live around the same time there will be so many things to talk about as that gets closer.

Talking about the print versions and E-book versions… This week the cover proofs came in. At the end of the process, I will give a review of the iuniverse’s way of doing business and how my experience went with this self publishing company. All of you authors out there will want to read that when it comes out it promises to be very eye opening and will help you in making the decision as to what company to go with. I am also hoping I can talk Arlene Radasky into reviewing her company as she has made the first steps toward publishing The Fox. Congrats Arlene! The way it is looking it may be about the same time frame. That should perk your ears as she just started. Hmmmm.

The cover proof sheet was retuned to my PSA today and when he arrives tomorrow I should get confirmation that it is received. So another deadline beat by days and the next step after the answering of a couple of questions will be print set up and author proof after that, it is 1 ½ to 2 weeks for the interior and exterior changes to be done and 14 business days to do the print set up with the printers. Ahhhh! Then I will be getting a release date for Barnes and Noble and Amazon and it will be available on Iuniverse first. I am so excited!

This week is about podcasting. Out there tell everyone that the book is available. Market, Market Market. Edit Episode 12 which is almost done and start on Episode 13 which is recorded but not edited. And write the press releases. Scary!
 

Also this week the book was promoted on J.D. Sawyers Antithesis and Edward G. Tabolt’s New Word Order as well as Emriane Rich’s Horror Addicts. Thank you all for adding my promo. You’re the best! See these authors works in the hot promo section of this site. Very cool stuff.

Keep Writing! I Know I Will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

This week I received the Iuniverse book block. If you have ever been involved in the process of publishing a book then you know that it is all about editing. The book block which is a layout formatted 6×9 PDF of what the book will look like came in on Monday late afternoon. Then it was time for me to get on the stick again. They give authors a 14 day (not business day) window to make any changes to the text, layout and formatting of the book.

By this time in the process you have read, re-read and edited your manuscript several times. And the mind simply doesn’t see that is on the page. I am pleased to say that the podcast recording of the book really helped me find those tiny little things that would jump off the page for a reader. The process of recording and editing the audio allowed me to find 24 errors which over all is not bad considering the print version of the book is over 360 pages.

Here are a couple of things that I found interesting about this process as I went through the book block as it is called. First as an Iuniverse author you must meet certain formatting requirements. All of which the MS met in the beginning of the submission process. But when I got the book block back I was not just looking for my errors, missing punctuation or spelling/text changes and the like, but I had to check what the formatter’s did as well. I was surprised at some of the things that I found that were in the submission I made but not in the book block. Like chapter headings and POV switches that I set with ****. In the process of formatting the book. Two of the chapters were not headed out. This was a touch frustrating for me. And gave me serious doubts as to what else may have changed that I was not catching. I mean seriously if you have a book with 47 chapters would you not make sure you had 47 chapter headings??? Guess not. Then it appear as if there were two people working on the layout as the **** kept switching with no rhyme or reason from one Glyph to another. Neither of which I liked or were related to the premises of the book.

So I spent all week, every spare second going over the book block against my hard copy word by word, line by line. I complete today 8 days ahead of the deadline and I think we will have a really clean book in print. YES!

What is next on the schedule for the print book. I was informed today that I will have cover draft for proof in the next couple of days. That means two layouts one for the hardcover and one for the paperback. This will be my last chance to make any changes to the cover art/text and while this is happening the book block should be being corrected by the Iuniverse formatting staff. Their requirement is up to 2 weeks for this to happen. There are 58 changes to the text and formatting that need to happen I can’t imagine it taking two weeks but I am not their only author. LOL.

Then it goes to the printer for set up at that time they require 14 business days for set up and I will be holding the book in my hand in not long after for the final approval. Then it is available shortly after in the Iuniverse bookstores and a few weeks after that on Barns and Noble, Amazon and other booksellers through the web. How exciting is that?

In that mean time if you have been checking back with the new book site for the book www.themarkofadruid.com then you have seen that you can get a sneak preview of audio version now! That is right the first 5 episodes are live and you can hear them by running your mouse over the right side of the page and under the category pages you can select podcast link and selecting the episode you would like to listen to. The formal release of the audio book is Drum roll please…

Monday… September 29, 2008

Where you ask? http://www.podiobooks.com/title/mark-of-the-druid Please notice this page is not live until the day of release. Sing up for an account there is no cost involved. At that time you will be able to add this book to your subscriber’s list. It is free! And you can snag the Promo Here  post it to your website, your myspace, your facebook, your twitter and tell all your friends and even tell your frienemies! Send it to your email and chat buddies.

Last week I told you about the new website. It is still being constructed so check back often we are working on it daily. At this point stay away from the top of the page categories they are funky and I have not figured out how to change them yet and has little time to work on the site this week because of the book block.

Look for the coming blog this week as well: Why free!

We are playing with the idea of having a contest that is centered around the hidden aspects in the cover art. Yes that is right it is not what it seems at first glance. I will be making announcements in the next few weeks about what the prizes and contest rules are.

Keep Writing! I Know I Will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

We have a release date for the audio book!

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

I received the quality control approval for the serialized pod cast this week and we have a date! I can hardly type I am so excited. Drum roll, please…

Monday… September 29, 2008

Where you ask? Well, here is how it works for me. We will be going live on http://www.podiobooks.com/title/mark-of-the-druid

Please notice this page is not live until the day of release. Sing up for an account there is no cost involved. At that time you will be able to add this book to your subscriber’s list. It is free! (yes, yes, I know what you’re thinking. We will talk about that in a another post.) And you can snag the promo here!  post it to your website, send it to your email and chat buddies, oh and please, tell a friend!

I am also at present building www.themarkofadruid.com It is an thrilling time. And by thrilling I mean you just don’t know, when a novice at building sites, if you are going to do it right or if it will work 100% of the time until you work out the bugs—so to speak. Prime example, and totally, not my fault—I might add, both my author sight, got insight? blog and the new site went down early this week and I had to completely rebuild, so you will notice a new look.

Sigh, it was a lot of work and is not complete yet. So bear with, stop back often and know the goal is to get the audio version of the book up live on the new book site one week before they go live on podiobooks.com. Starting the week after the initial release. But if you sneak in and nab as I am working on it then you may be able to get a preview on the podcast page of themarkofadruid.com site. We are working on a stie player now. No promises.

You will get the first 5 episodes on the first day and then one per week until the book is done. Don’t ask how many episodes because I really don’t know today. It looks like there will be around 30.

This is also the week I am supposed to hear form Iuniverse with the Book block for the print version. Nope still don’t have a date on release yet…

Look for the coming blog about why free!

Keep Writing! I Know I Will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter