Authors Electric

I’m currently in the process of giving my books a facelift. I’m not reworking the actual contents (apart from clearing up a few minor typos and formatting problems), just trying to make them look more attractive and professional. The process so far has given me a thumping headache, and a renewed respect for publishers. Getting a book to look all lovely and slick – in both its print and eBook manifestations – is, let it be said, no easy matter. A thousand perils lie in wait for the unwary. This is sort of how I feel at the moment... © Phil Date / Dreamstime Stock Photos Still, I’m encouraged by the fact that achieving a nice professional look, though difficult, is eminently possible. Here I am, sitting at the kitchen table and thumping away at an ancient laptop that’s probably not even good for spare parts any more, but with attention to detail, hard work and a smidgeon of luck I might just be able to turn out books that are at least acceptable . Still, it’s tricky. The n...

My e-book still isn't published yet - with a deadline looming for a paper book, I just haven't had any time to spare for it. But with the paper book now finally finished, I can get back to it at last: I started by reading through the stories checking for typos (amazing how many sneak in) and doing a little gentle tweaking, and then took another look at the 'other stuff' such as the contents page, author info and copyright details. Before long I'd had to go and look at some other books: while I always read dedications (which fascinate me, especially when cryptic messages to the dedicatee are included) I usually skip straight past the rest, as I imagine most other people do. Looking at some e-books for further comparison, there seemed to be huge differences in what was included under the copyright info: some quite lengthy and others a single sentence. How much and what to include? Does it really matter? I scratched my head a bit more and trawled around the internet. I...