writing – Page 80 – Jean's Writing

How to Wow Readers with Your Book Cover

Published on June 4, 2015June 3, 2015 by Jean M. Cogdell4 Comments

This is so on point after yesterday’s post.

Doesn’t matter how good the story if no one notices the book sitting on the shelf.

Publishing is complicated so whenever I discover interesting tips and tricks I want to pass them on to my readers.

Designing a Book Cover That Tells by Christopher Lentz posted at Writers in the Storm explains the importance of book design plus gives a couple of design hacks.

Read his great post and find out what the number 6 has to do with your cover.

Want to know how to design in MS Word? Click and read Joanna Penn’s post-How To Make Your Own Free Book Cover In MS Word

Do not Disturb! Creative Genius at Work

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Navigating Kindle Direct Publishing

Published on June 3, 2015June 3, 2015 by Jean M. Cogdell1 Comment

Find out how to publish your book on Kindle Direct.

This is must have info for anyone interested in publishing a book on Kindle Direct Publishing. A big thanks goes out to Chris the Story Reading Ape’s Blog for sharing a post written by Lisa Morrow on her official site. I’m sure y’all will be as thrilled as I was to read her tips.

Anyone else out there have tips to make the process easier please let us know!

I love comments, tell me what’s happening with you and if you’re not already, please follow me @jeancogdell on Twitter or jean.cogdell on Facebook!

Lisa Morrow Official Author Page

Learning to use Kindle Direct Publishing to publish my novel To Kill a Wizard wasn’t nearly as hard as learning to properly format my book for Kindle readers. Both, however, had their challenges, which I’ll share here, as well as, some tips on how I formatted my novel.

Things I learned:

First, I uploaded my book and made sure there were no basic issues.
After that, I looked at how my book actually appeared on my Kindle Previewer. I found I needed to adjust my spacing, indents, and font size, depending on what I thought looked best.
- In “page setup,” I changed the page size to be six-by-nine.
- Then, I had to select a “custom margin” based on the size of my book. I believe I went with the “top,” “bottom,” and “outside” being .5, the “inside” being 0, and the “gutter” being .75.
- I selected “mirror margins” and applied…

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Better Living Through Chemistry

Published on June 3, 2015June 2, 2015 by Jean M. Cogdell5 Comments

The clock mocks me. Twelve, midnight. A soft sigh escapes as I scoot deeper beneath the covers. Just once, please let me sleep. The silent pray slips through my exhausted mind.

Water drips from the kitchen sink, a neighbor’s dog barks, and I twist amid the sheets like a swimmer tangled in seaweed. There’s a red 2 on the face of the clock. If I squint, it looks like a twisted smirk.

I give up, and reach for the night stand. The tiny white pill is bitter, but the water cool. I close my eyes and shut out the neon numbers.

Today’s Writing Prompt for Bite Size Fiction is brought to you by –

Julia’s Place 100 Word Challenge For Grownups – #154

…please let me sleep…

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How to Write Yummy Scenes

Published on June 2, 2015June 1, 2015 by Jean M. Cogdell2 Comments

I don’t like change.

Gonna be up front about this, I don’t like change and I like things simple and familiar.

Yep, I’m a creature of habit.

Take the grocery store. Why do they have to rearrange the aisles every six months? Just about the time I’ve got shopping down to a science, and can race through the aisles like an Indy 500 driver, the manager decides to move around every damn thing. Why? For the love of God, why?

And adding insult to injury, the store puts in new displays that now makes finding my favorite brand of coffee a new version of finding Waldo. Seamless rows blending Starbucks, Folgers and various boxes in a rainbow of colors that even my reading glasses can’t decipher.

A great article by Michelle Russell over at Write to Done got me to thinking.

If I want readers to come back for more, maybe my writing should be like a box of chocolates, delicious, delectable, yummy and easy to get to.

chocolate baby

Maybe they don’t want scenes that are complicated or hard to follow, that cause them to sit back and scratch their head in confusion.

Just maybe, like me, they prefer reading scenes that are addictive, pleasant, compelling, enjoyable and easy to read.

I don’t know about you but I’m gonna try to write more lip smacking good scenes for my reader to enjoy.

What do you think?

Head over to Write to Done and let me know what you think about Ms. Russell’s article, because… you know I love comments, and if you’re not already, please follow me @jeancogdell on Twitter or jean.cogdell on Facebook!