Monday, May 30, 2016

Happy Memorial Day!

Wishing all veterans and active duty men and women, and their supportive families, a very Happy Memorial Day. 

Thank you for your service and sacrifices.

Warm regards,

Ronn

Monday, May 16, 2016

Indie publishing ain't for sleepyheads

I published my fifth Sgt. Dunn novel, Capture, last Monday to Kindle. I clicked the "Publish" button about 4:45 p.m. CDT. So what happens after that? Amazon states that the book will go live some time within 12 hours in the U.S., longer elsewhere.

Naturally, I clicked the refresh button about every half hour looking for "LIVE" until bed time, when I gave up and went to sleep. I woke up without the alarm at 5:00 a.m. Believe me, this is not my usual time! I grabbed my laptop and refreshed the page. Yay! It's LIVE. So I send out emails to my Advance Publication list (newsletter) by 5:20 a.m. 

Indie, or self, publishing is hard work. The author is responsible for everything from the editing to getting the cover designed, marketing, and all the other small details that publishing a book entails. If you don't do it, or have someone on your team who does it for you, it will not get done.

I worked on preparing the file for CreateSpace, which we use to publish the paperback. You upload the file and can build your front and back cover using their tool. After the automated system checks your book, you can use a digital proof tool to view your book. It's really nice and it looks like you are flipping paper pages as you go. Everything was looking good until I got to a point half way through. One sentence toward the bottom of the page looked weird. In the paperback I use the Justified setting for the nice straight edges on both sides of the text. Here's what the sentence looked like, including the one previous.

‘don’t we have any armor to take care of  them?’ 
” 
Note the double quote on the second line. I use the convention of adding a space between a single and double quote at the end of a sentence for reading clarity. It should have been like this:

‘don’t we have any armor to take care of them?’ ” 

However, the Justify setting couldn't make room for that other space and pushed the double quote down a line. To fix it, I added a space in front of "them." This forced "them?' " to the next line and all is good.

‘don’t we have any armor to take care of  
them?’ ” 

My point? I could have missed it, but didn't. So make sure you're really focused on what you're doing. No one else will find until a reader sees it. 

Many thanks to my readers for supporting and reading the Sgt. Dunn novels. I'm working on number 6 now.

Thanks for stopping by.

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Sgt. Dunn #6 work started

I published Sgt. Dunn # 5, Capture, yesterday, May 9th. 

Today, I'm starting on the plot for #6. I already know what Saunders' bunch will be doing, and have an idea for Dunn and his squad. Hope to start writing #6 in a few days.


Cover by David M. Jones and Nathalie Beloeil-Jones.

Sgt. Dunn novel #5, Capture, available on Amazon!


Good morning!

The Kindle version of Capture is now available on Amazon! It went live sometime in the middle of the night. Here's the link:



Monday, May 9, 2016

Sgt. Dunn novel #5, Capture published - available within 12 hours.

I just clicked the publish button on Kindle!

The fifth Sgt. Dunn novel, CaptureKindle version should be available within 12 hours of 4:45 CDT (5/9/16), so I hope to see it on Amazon sometime later today, 5/9/16, or tomorrow, 5/10/16. Amazon sites outside the U.S. could take 48 to 72 hours. Just picture me sitting on the Amazon page refreshing every five minutes and you'll understand what it's like on my side! No really . . .


While I don’t have the link to the new book yet, as soon as it hits the Amazon store, you’ll be able to find it on my Amazon Author’s Page. I'll post the link as soon as it's available.

Sgt. Dunn #5 Cover reveal

I'm pleased to reveal the cover to the newest Sgt. Dunn novel, Capture. I plan to release the book later today or tomorrow (5/10).