‘Cache’ finally goes live as an e-book

The reason I’ve been so silent lately is a nose-to-the-grindstone devotion to preparing my mystery novels for e-book publication—and getting them published in Amazon.com’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook formats.

The $2.99 Kindle version of Cache of Corpses went online last night, and the Nook edition (same price) went live today.

It took a while to get ’er done. Self-publishing old printed books as e-books is not rocket science but requires time-consuming attention to detail.

An unedited electronic manuscript for Cache—the one submitted to Forge Books away back in 2006—existed, but the hardcover publisher's edits had to be applied to it, a few mistakes rectified, and the end result carefully proofread.

Fortunately a couple of loyal readers volunteered to proofread the cleaned-up e-version, and they found quite a few typos as well as a couple of infelicities the publisher's copy editors missed. To protect their privacy I will not name these volunteers, but hey, I’m grateful. You know who you are.

Because Forge did not give me the rights to the jacket art when it returned author's rights to me, I had to come up with a new cover—and my friend Tina Davidson, a gifted artist, was an immense help here.

The next step was to convert the e-manuscript from Microsoft Word to Kindle and Nook formats. First I saved the manuscript (with maps) as a HTML file, then ran that file through a keen (and free!) program called Calibre, which quickly coughed out pristine versions in Kindle’s .mobi format and Nook’s ePub format.

Publishing the result (and the cover) on Kindle Direct Publishing and Barnes & Noble’s PubIt! wasn't difficult, but I wish I’d gone through all the steps (except for actual publication) for practice before actually posting the book. That would have saved a lot of backing and filling, looking up bank routing numbers and old review quotes to post on the book's web pages. I also had to redo the cover—both Amazon and Barnes & Noble want rather large versions for their web store pages, though the original was fine for the actual e-books.

The most difficult decision was whether to apply Digital Rights Management encryption to the book to prevent freebie hounds from pirating it. After talking with a few other mystery writers, I decided against DRM. In their experience, applying DRM irritates readers who might want to share good reads with a few friends. Only pathological tightwads, they said, would avoid paying the $2.99 pittance. If they’re wrong I can always go back and check the DRM box.

Now the hard part begins: getting the word out that the book’s available. Social media will help, but it’s going to require a lot of electronic shoe leather to reach mystery fans.

And, oh yes, there's Season’s Revenge and A Venture into Murder to get online. Very soon now.

N723PH

Bell 407 N723PH landing at Ontonagon, Michigan, Sept. 2, 2011

You know all those sentimental stories about octogenarian former B-17 crewmen once again riding, with mighty lumps in their throats, aboard a preserved Flying Fortress, the bomber in which they survived enemy fire over Europe during World War II?

Something a little like that happened to me this afternoon when a Bell 407 medevac helicopter visited Ontonagon, Michigan, for a little show-and-tell at the town's annual Labor Day festival. N723PH is the very same aircraft that almost exactly two years ago, on August 23, 2009, ferried me from Ontonagon Hospital to Aspirus Hospital in Wausau, Wisconsin. I had just had a heart attack and two days later would undergo a triple bypass.

Not that I wanted to ride in her again. Once was enough. But it was nice, very nice, to say hello again to a machine in which I had survived a memorable—to say the least—morning of my life. Lump in the throat? Sure.

My "battle station" in the helicopter.

Tweaking

Here's the A Venture into Murder e-book cover art again, adjusted according to the suggestions from commentators yesterday.

I'm thinking maybe the skull-and-pickaxes could be even smaller than they are now, but maybe we're getting close to the final version.

Possibly the background color could be different, maybe a pale green? Or would the red title clash with that?

Another Venture into cover art

The above is a preliminary cover for the forthcoming e-book version of my second Steve Martinez novel, A Venture into Murder (2005). What say, people? (I'm thinking the space above the title and below "A Steve Martinez Mystery" ought to be equalized.)

The novel concerns murders past and present involving an old copper mine in Upper Michigan. The title font, Pickax, is a free one, and the illustration elements are in the public domain.

Tina Davidson helped me learn how to move stuff around in Photoshop Elements to produce this hopeful work of art.

I think we've got 'er now

The original cover idea for my mystery novel Cache of Corpses simplified, with a snippet of topo map suggesting the location of a body inserted into the window of the enlarged GPS receiver. I think this'll work for the e-book version. Thanks to all for your suggestions.

Yesterday I finished applying all the hardcover publisher's edits to the electronic manuscript of Cache and have started sending it out to volunteer proofreaders. (If you volunteered but haven't been contacted, that's because I don't have your e-mail address; please send that to me.)

New 'Cache of Corpses' cover

Applying the hardcover publisher's edits to the original manuscript of my mystery novel Cache of Corpses so that I can re-publish it as an e-book is a time-consuming process, but I'm nearly two-thirds done with the job. Meanwhile, my chum Tina Davidson has designed a preliminary "cover" for the project, and here it is.

What do you think? Any areas for improvement you can see? Please let me know. Now that I am on my own as an e-book publisher I'll be relying on volunteer editorial opinions.

Off the top of my head I think the illustration of the GPS receiver is a little crowded up under that of the the .357 Combat Magnum (you'll recall that's the retro sidearm Sheriff Steve Martinez prefers to more modern automatic pistols), but it'll be a simple task to move that a few hairs to the right, perhaps centering it over the byline.

I rather like the bullet-holed, gore-spattered font used for the book title. It's called "Parents Suck," and it's a free font from Fontspace.com.

What say? Leave a comment below, please.

E-books are on the way

Get ready for some Henry Kisor e-books.

This week the original publisher of the first three Steve Martinez mysteries reverted all rights to me, clearing the way to convert the whodunits into e-books to be published as Kindle, Nook and iBook versions.

The books all exist on disk, but it'll take time to add the publisher's edits to the electronic manuscripts and then repeatedly proofread the results (volunteers wanted!) before preparing the files for final e-book form. I'll also have to come up with new jacket designs for each volume.

Look for the first in the Porcupine County series, Season's Revenge, to appear this fall, with A Venture into Murder and Cache of Corpses following close aboard.

Meanwhile, Hang Fire, the fourth in the series, is still being considered by a tree-book publisher.