Just a little blurb on what is happening with my little book, "Lake of the Spirit Bear"...still in process being brought from the US and is supposed to be here this week! So much to do, but cannot do it until other things in place. Like putting the cart before the horse, I just have to be patient and take things one step at a time. Slowly but surely it will all get worked out.

There are still taxes to do, and edits to make to key words and so on with the info. on Ingram Sparks and the pre-release and so on. However it will get there in the end, no matter how long it takes.  That is where it is at. Nothing I can do but take one day at a time!  That is all any of us can do!

I have been promising a bit more info on using Ingram Sparks for book printing and distribution. I cannot give everything however I can show you what it looks like to have an account and what you can expect. The good news is, whatever you put in there when you upload your book for proofing, isn't written in stone and can be edited!

Oh yes, before I forget, a little hint about the little help icons in blue at each place you put in: I had a hard time figuring out how to get rid of these little icons which are there to help you. It may seem silly, but for me, sometimes it is little things like this that make my life harder! So, if you are like me, clicking everywhere trying to make the help section GO AWAY once I clicked on it...CLICK ON IT AGAIN! I know it may seem easy and logical, but it took me a minute to figure this out!
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​Opening page looks a lot like this depending on how many books of course you have there. Before I write any more I need to make a quick reminder about plagiarism. Sadly like the hackers and scam artists, malware and spyware, there are now people trolling around looking for books to copy! Plagiarism is a very SERIOUS offence even to this day however those doing the nasty things they are doing on line to make a buck do not care. So, make sure you have a STRONG password you do not use anywhere else and also be sure that you put water marks on your images and never share before printing more than 25% of your book as I stated before.

By law in Canada, once something goes into print, it is automatically your own intellectual property. however sadly, it doesn't take much, even copywrited for someone to change a few things and steal your work...and before that, you have to be sure they have stolen your work. Call it "collective consciousness" or whatever however more than one person can have pretty much the same idea once it is out there! So, you can get your work for a fee copywrited, however if a thief wants it bad enough, they will find a way! Just so you know.

Now back to Ingram Sparks. As you can see, it is very easily laid out and is very straight forward, be fore-warned again however the interface is older and IT WILL TIME OUT between beginning and end and leave you having to do it all again, so get something in there and carry on, as I stated, you can always come back!

in this screenshot, I put in the drop down menu in the upper right corner: this is where you will find all the things you need to fill in as shown here from paperwork onward. The nice thing about Ingram Sparks is unlike many other sites for Canadians, you get a monthly statement of sales, not simply when you reach a $100.00 limit!

So you can see, there is a long description, short description, Bisac codes (as talked about in other blogs), and price you want to pay and so on. You can control the publishing date also and make changes there as well as pre-publishing dates. It is all there and very straight forward however it is a process! You can always do a dry run with a make believe book to see how it works and all the things you need to fill in. Ingram Sparks has plenty of information to help you, and there is also plenty of other websites out there to give you more instructions which I will go over in a later blog in more detail for each area such as Key word searchers, writing your long and short description, and so on. All of these areas including metadata are important so I will do a blog of just some of the words I have been learning on this journey into the self publishing world.

I have decided to work on my second murder mystery before I put my first one out there. As my previous post suggests, I still have some paperwork I must tend to before putting my book out there and I have myself in a position to do nothing but write (oops, Brian just hee hawed, he knows we are almost up! I am late today, it is already almost light! Write and tend animals!)

So I think the first thing to decide is if you are someone who writes by the seat of their pants or if you are someone who writes with a plan. I am one who plans things out definitely. That is, for me, where the real work is, getting most of the connections and scenes and tension points and conflicts, etc figured out before I start. I do it visually with a mind mapping software called Scrapple I have on my Mac. I go so far as to get visuals of my characters and make a gallery with their names, relationships to each other, who is passive and who will be an active treat, etc.  Of course if you are doing a non fiction, it doesn't have to be this way and there are some great books out there now on how to write your life story!

Another great book that really helped get me started was The 12 Key Pillars of Novel Construction Workbook: Your Blueprint for Building a Solid Story Paperback by LC Lakin. She has been helping people with their writing of books for years and has chosen to write this in a very practical and visual way using construction as her way of explaining it all. It really helped me get my head wrapped around what I was doing, and the workbook was fine, In retrospect, I could have just bought the workbook, all the same information is in there. I will have a link below.

You know, when  you write, paint or do anything creative, there is a process you go through. Everyone does. I call it composting which I talk in more detail about in older posts as well as the creative process. Once I decide to write, I don't just jump in and spit out words, instead, I refresh myself on my ideas, do the questions in the workbook and get myself in the zone to write. Then that is what I am doing, writing. First however there is a period some may call procrastination, I don't! And I don't call it writer's block, instead, I consider it preparing the canvas. Getting it ready and putting out there all my tools. THEN one day, I will sit down and start, it will all be fresh in my mind, and I may not need to make any changes. With Scrapple, I can move things around on my plot plan and much like some people do the sticky notes they have on their wall!

And by planning, I don't mean I am slave to anything, some of the best changes can come when you least expect it!  My protagonist is older and forgetful, and while I am NOT her, I do have a few similarities, like if I am doing too much, I forget things. Sometimes during the course of the story, those things I forget can add a happy complication!

So, it you want to write, then write! Whether you map it all out like I do (so the book can be done in a month!) or you just write and edit and write and edit, it is all good. The most important part is: JUST DO IT!