Funky KDP Ebook Formatting

 Most new authors have no problem uploading their books to Amazon's KDP. But even with a basic book, some people may be a little confused at what to do. This is why when people hire me to format a book for KDP for them, I include free uploading support. I go through it with them while they are doing it. On occasion, I have even done the upload for them--but I require they change their password to a different one for me to use, so I do not have their normal password and warn them this is risky for them. I especially don't want them to think because they can trust me that they could trust anyone else. All your tax and bank information is in your Amazon account--so please do not share your password or account information, even a temporary one, with anyone even briefly. It's like letting your kids talk to strangers--most are probably fine but there is always that one bad guy who will run off with them. 

The best format for paperbacks and hardcovers are PDFs. I recommend using a 5.5" x 8.5" format if you plan to do both paperback and hardcover because it will save you time. You also need to make sure your fonts are embedded in the .pdf. Using the styles feature is not always necessary, but it saves time and a headache in some cases. 

However, when you start to get into books that use a lot of different formatting and that have graphics, you really need to follow the recommendations and upload a .pdf instead of a .doc or other form. This will ensure your images and formatting stay put during the conversion.

For an e-book, you need to use either an .epub file or a .zip file. In addition to getting rid of Vella, Amazon is also getting rid of the .mobi file format and will no longer be accepting those files. Kindle Comic Creator (my go-to for intensive image books) will no longer work. Now, you need to use Kindle Create. 

Someone posted a project on Guru for formatting her book for Amazon. In the post she stated she would edit it and add graphics afterword. This is impossible. I mean, a .pdf or .epub could be edited if you have access to those tools, but I am not sure if an edited version would upload correctly--especially if the edits are as extensive as adding graphics. Further, you would now have to edit two documents instead of one. Once you have a .zip file, again, editing becomes a risky process and requires skill. 

Chances are good, if the poster of this project needs help figuring out how to format their book, they won't have the technical know-how on how to edit it afterward--regardless of whether or not those edits could survive the upload process.

Formatting is always the last step before you publish your book. Proofreading is both the last stage of editing and should fix the formatting, but a proofreader will not necessarily give you back the proper file formats. 

When I upload my ebook, there is nothing more depressing than finding out there are editing errors I missed (especially since I foolishly do this after I have done my paperback--a leftover from the days when you had to do the paperback first to save time and effort). This means, I have to go fix the document, recreate the .zip and .pdf files, and then I have to reupload everything. If I have already uploaded the paperback once, I also will have to wait the 72 hours to fix it. 

A 5-Star Reader's Favorite Book Review: Flora Finds Fall by Colleen Driscoll

Colleen Driscoll’s Flora Finds Fall is a charming picture book. Flora wants to play. As she goes around talking to her animal friends, she discovers they are too busy to play with her since fall has come. Each animal gives a reason that it cannot play, disappointing Flora. Soon, she gets to the wise Mr. Owl, who helps teach her that fall is everything she is experiencing and so much more. Will Flora be able to find a way to play even in the fall?

Flora Finds Fall is a good way to teach kids about the fall season. Kindergarten and preschool teachers should make this book a classroom staple, and parents should add it to their collection. Not only does Colleen Driscoll use simple words for young children and short sentences, but also her pictures show the children about fall. The nature collages will also introduce children to a unique style of art, and they can easily be encouraged to make their own collages after reading this book. It is ideal for extended learning activities such as a fall nature walk—to see how many of the things in the book they can find in real life. This was extremely enjoyable for me to read as an adult, and I could read it over and over to my young children. The pacing is great, and it shows many items children will recognize like leaves, pinecones, sticks, and acorns while introducing them to new items like squash soup and ginger. I highly recommend this book!

 Reviewed by Jennifer Reinoehl for Readers' Favorite.

Magical Realism vs. Fantasy

 I recently came across a book claiming to be magical realism, but it was really fantasy. This led me to the Amazon list of top-selling magical realism books. As expected, most of them were fantasy books or something else. So what is magical realism?

Magical realism is a book that takes place in the real world with real events happening and then throws in miracles that also happen. The miracles, like the main character flying, or in Like Water for Chocolate, the sad main character baking sadness into her food, are usually associated with an emotion and on display for everyone to see. In The Place of the White Heron by Alejandro Morales, the main character walks into a fire and saves people without getting hurt herself because she feels compelled to do so--to stop suffering and pain around her. The miracles are, dare I say, plausible in light of what we know about miracles. Magical realism has a literary (i.e. scholarly/ artsy) quality to it that most readers will find difficult to read. 

The textbook example of what a magical realism book should be trying to replicate can be found in the Biblical Book of Daniel. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walk into a fiery furnace and are neither burned nor smell like smoke when they come out. Nebuchadnezzar isn't really amazed--he's like, come over here and tell me what happened; they didn't mumble some incantation to protect themselves; and the guards died from the flames because the miracle was only for the three guys. 

Fantasy on the other hand creates a different world. Witches, werewolves, vampires, etc. may be living in our world in the book (think Twilight), but it is really a fantasy world modeled after our world. Mythology also delves into the realm of fantasy. Vampires are not real, so they cannot be a part of magical realism. Witches (as in people who can cast magical spells) are not real and casting a spell that works is not real. Once you use a spell as the method of something in your book happening, you have stepped into the realm of fantasy. If your animals talk or narrate the story--you have delved into fantasy.

So let's look at Amazon's top best sellers in magical realism and what they really are (numbers are skipped when they are just the same book listed elsewhere in a different form:

(1) Some Other Time: A Novel  This is a sci-fi parallel universe book. A woman wakes up and discovers she has gone back in time and traveled down another path. No miracles--just something that absolutely could not happen in the real world.

(2) The Lost Apothecary: A Novel This is historical fiction mixed with modern day fiction. There is really nothing magical about killing someone with poison... Sadly, this author/publisher should know better, so I can only assume it was listed as magical realism because there are fewer books to compete with in that category. In other words, it is a lot easier to be a best seller in magical realism than in, say, fantasy, where you are competing against  a ton of other books. 

(3) The Measure: A Novel This should be fantasy. Everyone in the world wakes up with a box that contains a piece of string depicting how long they will live. This is not a miracle, but for fans of mythology it should sound familiar (think the three Fates). Nothing else miraculous or magical happens in the book.

(4) Before the Coffee Gets Cold: A Heartwarming Novel of Time Travel, Magical Realism and the Power of Healing  Good gravy! This one put "magical realism" and "time travel" in the same subtitle!! It is true that many magical realism books jump forward and backward time wise in telling the story--but that is NOT time travel and the characters are not actually travelling back in time!! That is not realism or a miracle. Time travel is a standard of science fiction and that is what this novel is. 

(5) The Lost Bookshop: The most charming and uplifting novel for 2024 and the perfect gift for book lovers! (These authors all get an "F" for in writing subtitles! Notably, this "subtitle" is nowhere on the book. )  Hmmm.. the bookshop is more like a haunted bookshop. Weird , unexplainable things happen, but they happen to random characters and they are not "miracles" in that they are observed by the entire populace. Once you have characters keeping the "magic" secret, you have stepped into the realm of fantasy. 

(6) Grim Beginnings: An Aisling Grimlock Mystery Books 1-3 Deals with a family of "Grim Reapers"--100% fantasy, but that is how it is listed, so I have no clue why it is on the magical realism list on Amazon?

(7) Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel The octopus tells part of the story--no realism there. Again, this book is not listed as magical realism, but is listed as "Arts and photography?" Maybe these authors first list it as one thing and then another, and Amazon can't keep up with its lists?

(8) Eva Luna: A Novel Listed as historical fiction

(9/10) The Bookstore Sisters/Wedding--Fantasy not magical realism. Again, this is not something miraculous happening in the real world. 

(11) The Conjurer's Wife: A Short Story  Fantasy (Contains secrets and magic)

(12) Better Luck Hex Time Fantasy/mystery

(15) The Seven Year Slip Sci fi-parallel universe

(17) One Hundred Years of Solitude Magical Realism

A 5-Star Reader's Favorite Book Review: American Tax Trivia: The Ultimate Quiz on U.S. Taxation by Mike Kowis

5-Stars

At first glance, American Tax Trivia: The Ultimate Quiz on U.S. Taxation by Mike Kowis may look like a book solely for tax junkies. However, this book was—dare I say—entertaining even for a person like me who uses tax software to do her taxes and has no interest in them beyond that once-a-year torture. This book will not help you score better on any exams you need to pursue becoming a CPA. There are plenty of cookie-cutter books out there for that. What this book will do is give you and your friends a nice study break while you work toward that goal. The trivia is neatly divided into topical chapters ranging from famous quotes about taxes to questions about the U.S. tax code. Answers to the trivia questions can be found at the end of each chapter and are written out in a user-friendly format.

I don’t recommend sitting down and planning to read American Tax Trivia cover to cover as I did. Instead, this book would be better used by teachers (of not only tax law but also of U.S. history, politics, government, etc.) to engage their students, by students interested in tax law, history, politics, government, etc. to round out their studies or provide much-needed breaks from them, and by people who plan trivia nights or by people like the author, who work in accounting or tax law areas and want to plan fun get-togethers outside of work. This book will also appeal to trivia lovers. Mike Kowis has mastered the format they appreciate.

Reviewed by Jennifer Reinoehl for Readers' Favorite. 

Why Did I Write a Historical Romance/Sci-fi Mashup?

 For those who don't know, I am writing serial novels here. I post a chapter each day until about half-way through the book. At that point, if a person wishes to keep reading s/he can purchase it on Amazon.

These are all mashups--I combine two diverse genres in each book. Either historical romance and sci-fi or historical mystery and sci-fi. I then, in traditional mashup tradition, take a historical book and re-write it as a science fiction taking place in the galaxy Upsilon Andromeda. 

There are usually two things people do not understand when reading the book. First, they wonder why I keep some of the historical language even though the book is set in the future. Primarily, this is because I like the movie Romeo + Juliet. In my opinion, there was nothing better than mashing Shakespearian language into a modern setting. However, there is also the truth that history repeats itself. 

One beta reader went so far as to say he did not believe that if we were advanced enough to travel to the stars we would still treat women as second-class subjects (which only the Xiepvuians do in my books), we would keep nobility conventions, and we would still be using such archaic methods as arranged marriages. I find this ironic since in thousands of years of recorded history we have always had these things, and we continue to have them today. I firmly believe one thousand years in the future we will continue to have them--especially if we are starting over on a new planet. Will there not already be a nobility in place when colonizers first set foot on it? You will have a leader and people in specific positions and people in general to populate the planet. 

The second question I get is that if I wanted to go with all these conventions, why make it a sci-fi? That is also simple. Here we have specific rules--in societies where arranged marriages exist we don't have women who are the head of militaries or the head of prosperous businesses. In Upsilon Andromedae, a woman (and man) may be subject to an arranged marriage, but that woman was probably trained to fight just as well as the man she is marrying if their position in society requires it. 

This is a new venture for me. I definitely have not perfected it, yet. However, I know it can work. After all, George Lucus did something similar in Star Wars--he had futuristic people fighting with swords. He added a magical, religious element to science fiction. There are actually many science fiction books and romance novels that operate off of old-traditions set in future worlds. Now, the mystery series is more like Nancy Drew meets Deep Space 9, and I don't think I have come across anything like that, yet. But someone has to be the first to experiment with it, right?

BYOBR: Buy Your Own Book Review

I foolishly posted a request for reviews of my book in one of my longtime Goodreads Review groups. Sadly, this group doesn't seem to have a moderator and has become a free-for-all. As far as I am concerned, in this particular group, if people are not reviewing or requesting reviews they should be kicked. One person, however, has posted an ad for casinos and it seems that most of those who had a legitimate interest have gone--except the plethora of hopeful authors seeking reviews.

This group was designed for people who like to review books (i.e. on their blog) and who may not have the funds to constantly purchase books for said review. Unfortunately, it has also been inundated with authors who want reviews and who frequently will ask you to swap for a review after seeing you post a book for one. Even though I specifically responded to one of these authors and said I was not interested in a review swap, another one posted and asked for the same thing. I don't ever recommend doing a review swap. I will post on this later. 

Since I did not realize it was no longer a useful, moderated group, the "foolish" was that I offered my email so that I could be contacted for a copy of the book if anyone was interested. Naturally, I was spammed by the members of this group who should have not been members. 

Some of these spammers actually insulted and threatened me--telling me if I didn't want to pay for a review I was not serious about my work. If anyone tells you this, they are full of bologna. Not paying reviewers is standard, but paying for a review to be posted on Amazon violates Amazon's terms of service. 

Now, if you want the New York Times to review your book, paying $20,000+ is standard. However, everyone should realize companies pay big bucks for those, and readers should take them with a grain of salt. There is also Kirkus, which is, I believe, $450. Paid reviews must, by Amazon's terms, be on the page and not part of the regular review section--and real paid reviewers adhere to this. 

The spam I got was all the same: Buy my review. Some people tried to hide it on websites that offered free reviews, but only guaranteed paid ones. This is similar to what Reader's Favorite does, except Reader's Favorite has been around a while, it actually does review books for free, it does not offer to post on Amazon (where paid reviews can get you and the reviewer banned), and it has a real annual competition that you may or may not win if you pay to enter it. Is is small scale? Yes. Is it real? Yes. Unlike hiring Joe Smooth to write a smashing book review for you and then leave the marketing all to you, Reader's Favorite will post the good reviews on their website and in their newsletter. Some reviewers also post to their blog and other places. I have decided to start posting my 5-star reviews here on Wednesdays.

Most of you who have been following me know that I review for them. But like all my work, I work for them because I believe in what they do. 

Low reviews are not posted--and some people might take issue with that. I do not because I am not forced to give a good review--whether the person paid or not. I also am okay with this because I never have to post any of my reviews anywhere. Why would I want to post a bad review to my blog? Do I really want to share with you what not to read--or an example of how not to write a book? I have plenty of freelancing stories that do that. :)

Reader's Favorite and the authors who want me to review their books market my reviews. Technically, even when I give a bad review, the author could take the positive things I say and post those without the negative to his/her Amazon page for the book. Reader's Favorite reviews are not in the actual "Review" section of Amazon, but posted on the page by the author instead--in compliance with Amazon's terms of service. 

Another reason I support Reader's Favorite is because a low review should be a learning opportunity for any author. However, with independent publishing posted low reviews can ruin the author permanently. Big traditional book companies who can not only send free books to the New York Times but also get the editors there to read them by paying for a review, or they may have a group of screened willing reviewers who react positively to anything. Therefore, big publishers can get not only bad books to make money but also help bad authors keep publishing their books. That's not fair in my opinion. So, Reader's Favorite offers indie authors a way to screen their own less than stellar books, to learn from mistakes, and to invest in promoting books that get higher reviews. 

Warning: Upwork

I have heard people on Upwork complain that Upwork is saturated. I have also heard that Upwork may refuse your profile if they believe they have too many freelancers offering the same thing.

I don't know of any other freelancing website that refuses your profile solely because they think their market is saturated in that skill set. The only reason Upwork would have for doing this is because they want their top earners to keep making them more money. They don't want to take a chance on new freelancers getting jobs for less money to build their profiles and potentially upsetting employers by turning out sub-par work.

However, at the same time, I am sure they have realized they need some new freelancers, so they carefully vet only those who ARE going to work around the clock to earn Upwork its money and only allow those in who have skills that won't displace the freelancers already maintaining their cashflow. This video seems to support that theory--Upwork gives freelancers more "leads" if they are submitting more proposals.

As you know if you have been following me a while, I work exclusively on Guru. I have been thinking about using Upwork simply because job postings are down, and I have been struggling to find steady work. However, since I have always wanted to do my own work instead of slaving for other people, I am not to upset about this. I understand the overall job market sucks right now, so that being reflected on Guru is not surprising. With AI being promoted as the next writing, editing, get-rich-quick-without-investing-a-time deity, it isn't surprising. Perhaps I will post a video on my YouTube about the inside story on these "get rich quick with AI" schemes.

That said, I was looking into expanding onto Upwork, but I have always known Upwork makes it more difficult for new freelancers. It used to be that the less you made on Upwork the bigger the percent they took out of your pay. Now, it seems they have a flat 10% fee for freelancers, but they also charge employers a percent fee as well. This could actually be a good thing since employers have to be serious if they are going to pay to hire someone. The down side is that employers can pay a higher fee to automatically screen out 99% of the freelancers on the website. That's right, the highest paying employers can choose to not see your proposal if you aren't in the top 1% (presumably income-wise). That filters business to top earners and "freelancing" businesses.

Considering all these changes, it seems to have become an exclusive country club instead of a realistic freelancing website. For that reason, I decided against trying to branch out onto that platform.

Closed Door vs. Open Door Sex Scenes

 I recently picked up a book that the author stated had "closed door" sex references. Imagine my surprise when I came across the first open door sex scene in it. 

Unlike "Sweet" romances, which have a variable definition, "closed door" and "open door" sex in novels is pretty well defined. Closed door means the couple goes into the house together or into the room together and the door closes. You see them the next day. Open door means you go in the room with them. 

In this particular book, you were more than in the bedroom with them. This is not an open door blog, so I won't be going into details, but I can give you an example of "closed door" with my Baroness of Surli serial novel. Note, this starts with both of them fully clothed inside an ultra-helio, a futuristic flying machine. He has carried her inside it after rescuing her from thugs, set her down, and then she kissed him. In other words, the kiss he comes out of at the beginning was the first sensual contact between them. 

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When she allowed him to come up for air [from the kiss], he stammered, “Juliabella, please, you are not yourself. You do not want this.” 

“You know my name, but you have not given me the pleasure of yours.”

“Actually, I did several months ago, it is Talrederick, but you knew me as—” Juliabella laid a finger across his lips, silencing him.

“You saved me Talrederick. You are my hero. I most certainly do want this.” With that, she leaned forward and planted slow kisses down his neck. As a moan escaped his lips once more, Talrederick felt his control slipping.

[That was the end of that chapter.]

Chapter 7

Talrederick lay on a mat outside the ultra-helio staring up at the stars. He had always bragged to his men about how strong he was, but tonight, he discovered he was horribly weak. Guilt riddled his soul. 

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As you can read, there is nothing described that goes beyond fully clothed kissing. She kisses only his neck and nothing lower that clothing covers. Then, the screen effectively goes black. When the reader returns to the scene, it is much later, the man is outside (she is inside the ultra-helio). He is upset about what happened between the two of them and blaming himself (as he should have in this case). Although anyone reading the book should know what happened, it would be possible to read just the above information and conclude that he was feeling guilty for kissing her. You will not find the word "sex" anywhere in the book. The reader never sees anyone take his/her clothing off or go beyond kissing--hands, faces, and this singular instance of a neck.  

"Closed door" and "off screen" mean the same things: The reader can conclude your characters had sex, or the reader might also conclude something else happened. One of my beta readers, who apparently wasn't used to reading "closed door" romances, was left confused as to what happened between the passage above. And that's how it should be. 

The problem is that when you are like the author I first referenced and you tell your audience your book only has "closed door" sex scenes, but that is not true, you are going to have someone pick up your book and get angry when s/he stumbles across your very open door sex scene. You have performed a bait and switch and that will cause readers to not only leave bad reviews but also stop reading any of  your books. There are audiences for everything--find yours and market to it by writing accurate descriptions and warnings. 

New Year's Goals

 This year, I want to read 125 books (not including ones I write). I also want to write 14 books. Don't get excited, most of these are going to be mashups for my new serial novel website. I plan to keep track of this on the Goodreads 2025 Reading Challenge page. You should also be able to see my tracker on this website for books read, and I will update this post on books written. Many of the books I will be reading this year will probably be my Reader's Favorite paid reviews so I won't be posting actual reviews of them on Goodreads, but I may post some here.

I have said this before, but all authors need to be readers. The only way you can write a book and not be a reader is if you hire a ghostwriter to help you who is an author and trust them almost entirely. 

Books written:

1. The Waylaid Prince

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14.

Is My Romance Novel "Clean?"

Originally, writing romance was much more clear. You had Christian or Inspirational Romance, which followed Christian Book Guidelines. Then there were the normal romances, and last there was erotica. 

Unfortunately, normal romance spanned everything from no onscreen sex to up to five detailed sex scenes. You have a population of people who are not Christian that do not appreciate sex scenes or swearing but who also do not want a Christian element in their romance novels. This led to the development of "Sweet" and "Clean" Romance novels. 

First, understand that "Inspirational" and "Christian" romances are synonymous. Christian books have Christian characters. These characters cannot lie without a really good reason, gamble, or drink. No character in the book should swear openly and Christian characters should not swear at all (i.e. you could say "Billy the Kid swore as he saw the sheriff approach" but not print actual swear words). There should be no graphic (i.e. detailed) or even glazed over sex scenes and violence should be minimally described without detail. Pre-marital sex should not happen--especially between Christian characters. In addition, since the characters are Christian, there may be instances of "preachiness." My Series of Inconvenience is an Inspirational/Christian romance series, like the Inconvenient Widow.

"Clean" is currently under attack as a naming system. This is because a lot of people are closed-minded and ignorant. They associate clean with getting in a bathtub. They think if some novels are "clean" than all other novels are "dirty"--purportedly because that is the opposite of "clean." They further argue that they do not read "dirty" novels just because they like sex scenes, since sex is not "dirty." Whether or not "dirty" is a bad word and should not be associated with books containing sex is a silly debate because "clean" also means "virtuous," "righteous," "chaste," and "moral." I am married with five kids. I don't see sex as "dirty," but "clean" is not just about sex. Clean books are just a small step above Christian books in that they have basically all the same rules, except there are no Christian characters, so everyone has to follow the rules of no drugs, on-screen sex, alcohol, etc. Violence should be minimally described. Swearing should be mild or non-existent. On example of my books that would be in this category is The Viscount of La Soutain.

Next, is the "sweet" romance. Here, nothing is detailed or on-screen. The focus is still on emotional attachment as opposed to physical attachment. Swear words are mild--no F-words but maybe a few cr--s. Alcohol might be involved. Pre-marital sex is okay, and they may imply characters have sex (married or not) off screen. The rules are a little more lax, which creates problems. Some sweet romances include descriptive sex scenes--and they shouldn't. This is especially true since we now have "flavors" of regular romance. The Baroness of Surli is an example of a "sweet" romance. 

Above these, you have the standard romance categories. I don't edit or write sex scenes, so I don't have examples for these:

As we move up the scale, we get to "Warm" romances. These have one described sex scene and nothing kinky. Attraction can be the main or only basis for the relationship. Swearing should be kept to a minimum with "light" swear words. Violence shouldn't be graphic. Everything else, drinking, gambling, etc. is fine.

"Steamy" romances are another rung up the ladder. These have 2-3 described sex scenes--but nothing kinky. Swearing can occur, but shouldn't fill the book. Like above: violence shouldn't be graphic but everything else goes.

"Spicy" romances are the highest level of regular romance novels. These also have only 3-5 sex scenes, and similar guidelines as those as the "steamy" level, but kinky sex (such as BDSM) is allowed. Almost anything goes. 

Above all the standard romance categories, is Erotica. Just like "art" vs. "pornography" is often defined by the value of the work, people try to argue their "erotica" should be classified instead as a "spicy" romance because they have written a story that goes along with it. I say that is a dumb measure that Supreme Court Justices used to justify allowing pornography into the mainstream. The true difference in my opinion (which some may argue is not really a difference) is whether the purpose of the work was to sexually arouse the reader (or in the case of pornography, the viewer) or whether it has some other purpose. Poorly written books with descriptive sex scenes are erotica by my standards (and technically the Supreme Court's since there is no literary value) even if they have some semblance of a plot. Erotica is not necessarily one sex scene after the other, but the whole purpose of the book is to get to the next sex scene. The easiest way to discover if you have written erotica is to remove every mention of sex, send it to a beta reader without letting him/her know the book originally contained them, and see if the beta reader likes the story. If it passes the beta reader test, then look at the sex scenes--how many are there? How detailed are they? If you have more than five sex scenes in your book or if those scenes are usually longer than five written pages, you have probably dabbled into erotica even though you have a plot.