If you want to do something, my philosophy is just do it! I am over fifty...heading for sixty and I can tell you, I am getting there, however it isn't going easily! That is the downside.

Those younger don't realize that this generation we belong to has watched the changes that have happened in technology so fast and we have had to keep up! We were NOT born into the world of computers or cell-phones! Hell, some of us weren't even born in the time of TV so what comes so naturally to them, we have to work and work and work at even if we are intelligent and have adapted to the new ways of the world.

I for one, am cutting myself some slack if I make a mistake now and then or I am thick and don't understand the business of ISBNs or linking things or HTML or word-press!

To be a good writer, which is what is really important, you need to have something to draw on as many good writers will tell you. I know I for one, have that full to brimming cup of experience that can over flow some times it is so full.

The Technology may be slow in coming however don't give up! I'm not. I got my first three books out there. They are not perfect, however, all things considered, they could be a hell of a lot worse.

We older generations know what grammar is. We know what punctuation is. We may not be able to read a text from our grandchildren or children because we don't live on our phones and know the latest abbreviations, however we can still understand enough and we can still make a complete sentence! Some of us can even still spell (I not being one of them sadly! Been spoiled by spell-check!).

Now we may have to watch a You Tube video more than once to get it, but we do get it eventually! We still make the changes and learn the things we need to learn and we still get there. It may not be as fast, but in the end, we have lived long enough to know the plodders get there eventually and by doing so, last longer because what we know, sticks and becomes the new normal.

I now have to go figure out more things however we learn from our mistakes, so you can be sure, we are going to keep right on learning if we don't give up! I am not giving up and neither should you!!!

Compared to Ingram Sparks, KDP is a walk in the park!

I found this site so easy to use and straight forward. I still had the dreaded empty box for upload date if you want to do a pre-launch however all in all it is a really easy site.

I have also been doing some reading and they are always doing things up and adding more which is nice like the author page you can link (sadly only on .com but hopefully this will change!

I can also link this website however I haven't gotten that far yet. Time! Oh to have more time!!!

Anyhow, all things considered, it was quite painless even though I did find the whole bleed thing when you upload your won PDF a bit confusing. I can't see why adding the .125 and .250 really makes that much difference in the pre-launch viewer however it could have been because I was trying a hard cover in the Beta stage. I know in the inside content in the viewer, the other bleed marks were missing however as I said, it is Beta and so all the bugs are not worked out!

I have also decided to steer clear of the low content books everyone is talking about for a passive income. I am going by what I enjoy and what my short comings are and redundancy is just not my thing! I would rather write and illustrate original content and not the whole dealing with bar codes and so on but that is another blog!

I have one book out, and I screwed up the bar code on the other so dear knows how that will go to be fixed. As soon as I put that book in for review, I emailed and told them the bar code doesn't match what is inside the book because I accidentally put in the wrong one...they replied it would be rejected and send back...so much for their review team, it was uploaded! Sigh!

So, besides my screw up and then their lack of noticing, all in all it was a good process. I am sure the next ones will get easier too. So much to remember including: If you have your own bar code or ISBN REMEMBER TO CHECK THAT LITTLE BOX or you will end up with two. I did on my proof but oh well! Now you know.

It has taken me a long time and a good many screw ups to make it to this point however my book is finally out there the way I want it!

I hope you don't give up and yours goes up there too!

I don't know about you, however after the nightmare of all the things I have endured with Ingram Sparks, I am so pleased that KDP is so clean and straightforward and seems to be pretty much glitch free!

Of course, the beta version of the hardcover upload is still glitchy such as the launch previewer is incomplete but that is no big deal! I am sure they will figure it out.

I am also pleased that from articles I have been reading, they are always trying to improve and add more features such as the author page connection and soon, I shall even be able to link to this blog and website. Just need the time more than anything!  Everything takes time to learn so be easy on yourself. Cannot do it all in a day!

I have been looking as some Youtubers and I must say, some are really on the ball and devoted. This I do appreciate! I love the fact there are folks out there so willing to share! I know they have content and make money off hits on their sites and commercial content embedded but still, it is refreshing to see so much positive support for poor struggling Indie authors like us!

All in all KDP so far has proven to be far more on the ball and working properly. I expect things will come up, such as using the Canadian spelling for words like Colour and how they may or may not be recognized by their search engines in .com or the fact you can only attach the author page with .com and so on however I hope in time, they will add this feature for their very close neighbour! I am not going to write US style simply because I have been trained as a TESOL teacher and it is a habit too hard to break and I don't want to be wishy washy! In UK and Australia, CAD English is more accepted. So I will keep an eye on this.

I will also let you know how it works on KDP with support and so on. I made the mistake of uploading a book and putting the wrong ISBN on the blank online form and it doesn't match the barcode. I wrote immediately and told them to cancel the posting and why. I asked them to either fix it or just reject it. Me bad! I was tired. This is what happens when you are tired! Read the wrong line on my ISBNs when picking it out to copy!  Life goes on, not the end of the world but does hold me up. Would have taken 72 hours anyhow.

Working and doing this is not easy and we can discuss the pros and cons of this in another blog. For now, I am content to do what I can, when I can, since that is just where my life is at. Things change all the times and I am sure this will also.

So keep on slugging away with the Indie Publishing. Why not? What else would you be doing? lol!

      I have been on this journey to self publishing for some time now. I have learned so much however I am reminded of some of my fundamental understandings of how to deal with painting which I think do apply here.
        For instance, when you paint, you need to be aware when it is time to walk away. It could be said that graphic design and creating covers and content isn't like that since there are no freehand strokes of a brush or smudging or smearing when you are setting up the margins of a book.
        I think however for my own sanity, I need to take a broader approach and get a grasp of what it is that is involved in this learning process. What is important, and what is secondary since I think, if I don't, I could feel like I am slugging through water up to my knees!
         So, when you paint, you learn what  your tools will do. This includes what brushes, paints and canvas do and what putting these tools together will produce. You learn the rules and then learn to break them. This is when you start to find your own style. It is the life-force of the artist!
         I mentioned to my son recently about doing book covers, that I can understand why they have accepted certain standards of what a book "should" look like because the way that is considered most professional, actually is the least amount of work! I mentioned this to my son, and his response was,"mom, since when has that ever stopped you?".  Point taken! lol!
        I do understand now, as I do more and more of these covers that I don't want to make great works of art. I just want to make creative, beautiful and simple covers. That's it.
       At the same time however, as I learn about the English language and the different types of grammar, I simply want to scream! There is no rhyme or reason as to why a rule is broken, it just is!
        So what is important and what can I let go of sometimes? That is the question I ask myself as I do each project.
       Well, one thing I am notorious for is my spelling and the fact that getting it right, can be a challenge. I did a promo ad and spelled "porm" instead of "promo". Now some could say I did that to get folks attention (sure!) however the truth is, there is so much, it can be downright over whelming!
         Indeed, is over whelming one word or two or hyphenated?...and yes, this is a terrible sentence!
        And I can tell you from experience, (don't start sentence with and, it is a joiner!), that there are so many grammar checkers out there THAT ARE NOT FOOL PROOF! And I do mean FOOL! Every time I use these checks something is always overlooked!!!
         I have decided to not sweat the small stuff. Mistakes are going to be made and somethings are going to work and some things aren't. I think I have to remind myself first and foremost I am now making my main priority to be a writer so that is where I cannot allow slip-ups and mistakes. Even though I know these blogs are not perfect and my books are not perfect no matter how many proofs I get, (which hopefully won't be put out for distribution without my knowing!), I am going to make that my main priority.
       At the same time, I need to remind myself that when I first started painting, my paintings matched my level of experience and expertise with the tools and mediums I was using. So, why do I think my books are all going to start out perfect? How can they?
        I give myself credit though, because I AM learning, and so are you. That is what is the most important thing on this journey, I feel, to remember. Awkward sentence that could use work but what the hell! lol!
         As an Indie publisher we are creating the content, we are formatting everything, we are being an illustrator, writer, graphic artist, marketer and so on. We have to be our own proof reader also in many cases because as I said, these programs such as Grammarly do not really work as good as they say they do and I for one, don't believe all that they claim. I have seen some HUGE mistakes!!!!
        When it is all said and done, I think all Indie publishers should give themselves a pat on the back! We are taking back the written word and not leaving it at the mercy of other people. Over and over I have heard horror stories where authors have been conned out of money for their work by greedy publishers. Indeed now, the online scams are endless and you cannot trust much of anyone.
         At least we are doing our best to share our ideas and experiences and expertise with others and we are doing it in the way that feels most empowered to us. We may have the odd typo here and there and maybe the graphics isn't the same as some big publishing house, but you know what?
         I for one and doing this because I love to do it. I don't know if my work will be well received, I can't work with that intent. I work because I feel this is a path I can sink my teeth into and even if I feel over-whelmed sometimes and I misspell a work because it is hyphenated in CAD English and US English, I don't care! I am doing my best, and that is all any of us can do.
     

      So you have heard you can create a passive income with low content books. Well, like everything it is all about timing, and I believe, what Oprah talks about: striving for excellence.
       From the research I have been doing, there are hundreds of thousands of books out there now in the form of every type of journal known to man. It is so bad, when I type in the actual title of my journal, it doesn't even show. Of course, this could change however to do so, you will have to do some work such as make sure you have good key words, something that actually looks decent and is easy to read, get reviews (and I don't mean from just your friends, they check you social media to be sure your not doing that only), and a few other things. It is intense and from what I can see, challenging. I also learned that most social media such as Facebook, is expensive and really doesn't do much good.
    I do the books because I want them for myself and cannot find them such as my INDIE LOGBOOK. I wanted a book where I can keep all the info on each book I make where will not just be journals. I have about 5 books on the go right now for children... and adults and the end game for me is to know how to properly set up and sell my murder mysteries. I am still working and simply don't have time to pursue this as whole-heartedly as I need to.(I will show inside lay-out on "low content" page.)
      And that is the bottom-line I have found on all of this; if you expect to pop a few books on and have a huge income coming in, especially if you are not paying attention to categories and keywords as well as doing work that is credible (and by that I mean not plagiarizing other folks logos and work such as making Captain America colouring books!), then it is never going to happen.
      I for one, don't expect to make money off of my low content journals. I am doing them because I want them! lol! If someone else can find them and want them, then great, if not, oh well!
       I do want the children's books I am doing and colouring art instruction books to have a fair shake. For this to happen, I have to do the work. I still need to find the sites that will review the books and so on. I am always playing with keywords and making sure the content is as close to error free as possible. I got my colouring book for the first time the other day, and I was surprised...I was impressed! I am not usually anything but self-critical however when I held that thing and started looking through it, I was able to see it for the first time physically, and damn, it is good if I don't say so myself!!!!
       I am still going to figure out if getting a couple of my books as author's copies is worth it or just have it run live and buy it since prime shipping doesn't seem to cover author's copies but it does if I buy them online regularly. See? Things to consider cost wise! There is always so much to consider.
        I also had my colouring picked up by another seller affiliated with Amazon....a storefront. The price I had was $8.00. The price they had was $36.00! I asked them to change it which they politely did and my friend says it is good because they will also get more PR but the way the wording is with the info on it. I don't know if the percentage I get of the sale is based on the price I post it at, or the price they post it at. Still have to look closely at that! I know that it may seem good that they are taking my book on to sell, however they wouldn't be doing so if they didn't get anything out of it! I do these books this way and not through a regular publisher so I have control, so I am not sure I am comfortable with this sort of thing. I have yet to make up my mind. One thing I am clear on, I am either going to have to open a new account at Ingram Sparks for my murder mysteries or find another way to get them out there...it will not be via Amazon.
       So, as I said, if you plan on just uploading a bunch of books and hope for the best, well do yourself a favour and think again. Those days are done. The market is saturated. If you have something special and good, don't sweat it as long as you have the time to do the research and take your time to do everything properly. I have watched a good many really helpful and I think, reasonable You tube videos out there. Some folks really do know what they are talking about, while others, I think, just get a kick out of being online. You will have to decide this for yourself.
       As for making journals for yourself. There is Lulu and Blurb as well as Ingram Sparks besides Amazon, (not mentioning a few others), Here is what I have found based on what I do...which is use Affinity Publisher and Affinity Photo to produce most to the content and formatting for my books.
       Blurb has a reputation for being the best quality paper and colour, etc. and I believe it. I have tried my children's book with them. A few things you need to know though:
Pros and Cons:

• Best Print quality going! Very good!
• Distribution includes Ingram Sparks and others (but percentage is quite high that they take.)
• They have no easy preview launcher.
• No fee to upload.
• The size of a PDF if you are using your own software has to be only a certain number of MBs and can be a pain to make the correct size...usually the free software for making the PDF smaller is just above the size it has to be for it to be accepted by them so often it is frustrating because the size of your content is just a little too big to work either way.
• I have had a bugger of a time with the number of pages it has to be divided by. What I mean by this is that with Blurb, the page count has to be divided by 4 however if it is a larger page count, it is six! It seems no matter what I did, they were always trying to tack blank pages on which of course, I have to include in their print cost. It was almost a joke at one point! Do it and make it the correct size, nope doesn't divide by 4. Make it the size and then nope, it doesn't divide by six! Let me tell you, it was a royal pain!!!!
• Blurb does great photo books and also you can get hard covers which isn't available everywhere.

      Ingram Sparks of course has a reputation for being difficult to set up. I had been with them from almost the start when they had their original website and what you went through to get set up! Then they changed their site to be more user friendly but I don't feel they have yet gotten the bugs all out. It is a challenging site at the best of times and they have very poor support. You cannot call anyone, you have to email and then get a notice saying they will pass it on and get back to you. It goes on and on. I had a book in draft form, I didn't even have the info filled in yet and they published the book! It was terrible. I know money was coming and going but I never even knew it was uploaded and out there! Add to this, it was of course MY NAME that it was all messed up under.
Pros:

• Best distribution available. They are not just a printer, but also a world wide distributor. When you go with them, you do not have to put your books anywhere else to get them out there. There is a distribution fee, as there is with the others, however comparatively, it isn't bad.
• For regular books without colour content, their printing is good.
• They offer the best available sizes for hardcover, with or dust jacket.
• They SEEM to be honest in their dealings with you concerning money once you figure out what they want which they don't make easy for you to find out.

Cons:

• There is an upload fee although they do give pro discounts or waiver promo codes from time to time.
• YOU WON'T FIND IT WRITTEN ANYWHERE, BUT YOU HAVE TO USE A CHECKING AND NOT SAVINGS ACCOUNT if you want to see any money from them.
• Canadian citizens are supposed to have a GST number which is a pain!!! (however it never stopped them from uploading my draft!!!)
• The Taxes info is insane you have to fill out!
• I know the price reduction for bookstores is sketchy and I would be very surprised if the store itself gets to see much of that deduction that is expected...in other words, there is a whole lot of hidden cream being skimmed but that can now be said for all of them...when compared to having it published by a publisher, I don't think you really get that much more of the royalties any longer. They are trying every which way to make a profit from it...much more than ever before. Indie publishing has caught on, and these places are looking for more and more ways to cash in on. Like I said, it is all about timing. Those who did this even five years ago, really were in the best time frame out there for being an Indie publisher especially for low content books.
• I would have had my children's books out there years ago however THE PAPER QUALITY EVEN WHEN IT IS WITH THEIR BEST COLOUR IS TERRIBLE! I had two drafts done of my children's book, and one was so bad the colour ink literally wrinkled the paper; it was so thin, it was nothing short of newsprint! The second time, I increased to the top of what they had and it was still not something I found even close to acceptable. This was a few years ago however I won't waste my time now with colour with them! Just isn't worth it. I will use Blurb and the Ingram Sparks distributor before I would use Ingram Sparks itself.

      LuLu has very high prices and not the greatest ways to upload if you have your own programs to make your books however for those who just want books for themselves or family and friends, it is fine. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother. Not a great site to make a profit on for many reasons I don't want to get into here.
      Amazon has it strong and weak points. I think for ebooks and things you don't care if they go into bookstores or anywhere else, they are great.
Pros:

• It is easy to upload to Amazon.
• No fee to upload or edit and re-upload
• it has a previewer
• they are starting to get into hardcover books
• Customer support is very good but don't rely on them for your pre-launch check to catch things because I know for a fact they don't! I have a book on their now that has an ISBN on the cover that doesn't match the website one.
• Read wording when you are doing things carefully. Fine print reading is important.

Cons:

• Hardcovers do take much longer to get and are expensive.
• you won't get distribution in stores
• If you go with Kindle Direct, you are with them and only them.
• It may be that the print is not much, but they take other fees also because if you look carefully at the royalty you get from your book, it is much less than the print cost alone deducted. It is not so easy to see this.
• It has to be over 100.00 before you will get a check for sales from Amazon.com since they want a US bank account (and not one that accepts US currency). There are ways to work around this and I am looking into it.

Be Aware:
     In Canada, to sell a book that does not contain at least 60 percent written content, it is to be sold with a bar code and not an ISBN. The ISBN is free however PHYSICAL COPIES of your book is to be sent to their National Library Archive in good faith. A bar code can be up to $60.00 or as a package for a little less.
     For this reason, using the codes provided by the place you are using to print and distribute your book can be worth your while. On Amazon for instance, my journals are with them, and I use their code provided. THIS MEANS HOWEVER IT CAN NOT BE USED WITH THIS CODE ANYWHERE ELSE. You still own your rights, but it limits the place it can be distributed under that code. For this reason, my high content books have an ISBN while the lower ones do not. I only intend to make journals through Amazon and use their code provided.
     There are many other ways to get your books out there and other companies that specialize for instance, in photo-books, however, these are the ones I have looked into so far.
    In conclusion Ingram Sparks is still the best for murder mysteries and other books that are popular categories such as Romance and so on. You can get your book into more places and yes, they do distribute on Amazon.
     For low content journals, Amazon is still the best as far as I can see because there is no upload fee, and it is easy to do.
Book Baby is expensive but works. LuLu takes a lot in fees for much of what it does but it is fine for those who want a few books only.
    Blurb is getting there. Hopefully they will get a launch preview that is easy to use and can deal with this whole multiples of 4 or 6 and sizes for their PDFs. Not one I would ever use for low content books.  It costs more to use the Ingram Sparks distribution platform however the print quality is much better so the books is worth a few pennies more.
NOTE: If you are doing a literary work of art, then you are better off going through a regular publisher with a platform or a company that will help you out if you have the money. You still need real reviews in their field of serious writing.
     If you are like me, and can do many things such as illustration and writing and so on, then being an Indie publisher of books is great especially if you love to do it as I do.
     If you are a determined soul who is good with computers and can find locations for low content content that can help you crank out the journals, etc, then perhaps it is a good way to go as a hobby that may turn out worth your while if again, it is something you want to do really badly and have the time.
    If, on the other hand, you are a dream who procrastinates and THINKS about doing something but hardly ever gets around to it, or expects to get rich quick without putting things in place and plodding along learning from your mistakes (which there are many to make!), then forget it. There are other ways to make money online, and low content books, now, is not for you. As I said, even 5 years ago things were different.
    Whatever you decide, good luck!

is bad because it became a thing where every weight lifter out there had the answer to that middle age bulge! lol!

Now folks want to sell videos. Before it was on plateforms like Udemy which has been around for a while, however even the free plateforms are not so free now.

I just want to create books. I don't want to hear any more blah, blah, blah, than I have to! I have worked very hard to learn the ins and outs of every plateform I use to print my books and I get bitten in the backside anyhow. Sometimes I think you just have to do it and figure things out as you go.

It isn't going to stop the idiotic set ups out there that basically are traps. It isn't going to change the fact your going to make mistakes and put your trust in the wrong places. And it isn't going to change the fact you may be the one out of ten folks who ends up kicking themselves because of some glitch that the other 10 thousand people had no issue with! It is just a matter of satistics.

I think in the end, just do what you can do and frankly, it gets so over whelming listening to all these platforms and videos. Half the time you can watch one good You Tube video and save yourself a lot of time listening to filler and paying out bucks!

So be aware, there are alot of folks on line here now, who just want more and more and more! Once you listen to one free webinar, you are destined to have your inbox filled. And spam isn't going to work. They are going to keep re-writing their spam alogrhythm to get past your very soon out-dated ad blocker no matter whether it is gmail or proton mail! You can manually block and then bam, they are back. How they think this is going to keep you interested, I have no idea, but they will. Spam takes on a whole new meaning when they have 8 spams a week coming into your mailbox at least!

I don't think there is any short cuts or easy way to get results. It is a lot of trial and error, and yes, even with social media, if you don't know what your doing, even that is a waste of time for advertising. Marketing is one aspect I have been putting off and will discuss again at a later date.
Keep on doing the writing. In the end, that is what matters!