Happy Hump Day and welcome back to Writer's Words of Wisdom. I'm Tammy and each week I join three other authors sharing the things we've learned in our journey in the publishing world. We talk about what's worked and not worked for us and from time to time we'll host guests who'll share their bits of wisdom as well.
This week I'd like to share the second half of my story about my experience using Scrivener for the first time. The original post was in February and around the time I published my second poetry book. As I mentioned last week, Scrivener was a fabulous tool for that project and has since been my go to organizational program for all of my projects including more poetry, short stories and full length novels.
I'm still in the middle of edits for The Surrender of Julia (Now and Forever 3) and don't know how I can do without this program! Using the split screen feature, I have two editor's versions of Julia's story side by side. I'm able to compare all the notes from both editors at the same time, or alternate between the two of them and my final manuscript incorporating all the necessary changes. What a time saver!
Here's the post from February. Afterward, I'll add a few more comments. Enjoy!
Last week I wrote about trying out the organizational program called Scrivener. I was using it to compile my vampire inspired poetry in order to have a file to submit to Smashwords, Amazon, and Createspace to end up with both ebook and print formats of The Courtship of the Vampyre. This week, I'm here to share how it all turned out.
Now, formatting a book of poetry is a little easier than a novella or novel. First of all, there are no chapters to deal with. Each separate poem was it's own folder or file if you will. With that being said, it was a great way to feel my way through using Scrivener and figure out the features I will use the most. I was the most worried that I wasn't going to have a file that I could could use for Smashwords, but ultimately I was worried for nothing.
I decided to save each file for the publishing outlets as a .doc file. This turned out to be the best thing for me since all of them accept this file type and it is the one most publishers (like Siren Bookstrand) accept as well. Let me show you what some of the screens looked like for my first book file created with Scrivener.
The above is what I call the main screen or continuous screen. It shows all of the folders in continuous flow with lines separating the files/folders. If you look at the list at the left, it shows all the folders I've created including one for the cover photo, the dedication/acknowlegments, a copyright page for Smashwords and Kindle, all the poems and my About the Author section.
Now, I made a separate copyright page for each publishing outlet because they each need to be worded just a little differently. At the compilation stage, I can choose which folders are to be included in the final draft. Let me show you my favorite view...the cork board.
See how the index cards are all laid out? I can actually rearrange them in whatever order I want them to appear in the final draft. I've included the notes on each card reminding me what is still needed in the folder or a brief summary of what the poem is about. This was very helpful when figuring out the order of the poems so they told a story. I didn't want to just toss them in there willy nilly. Next I want to show you what the first compilation screen looked like for this project.
See the check boxes? This is the screen where you pick which file or folder will be compiled into the final manuscript. There are more options in the next steps which are very easy to follow by going through the tutorial. I even kept the tutorial open so I could refer to it when I was at this stage.
How did it all turn out? I'm happy to say The Courtship of the Vampyre was released on February 22 as an ebook on Smashwords and Amazon, and on February 23rd on both Createspace and Amazon for the print version. It's currently available on iTunes, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and many other retail outlets. To help celebrate the release of the book, I had offered a code for readers to be able to download a copy of the book for free from Smashwords.
I'd like to offer that again. All you have to do is visit SMASHWORDS and use the code CW28E.
Next week I'll talk about how to turn the final manuscript you created with Scrivener into all the ebook formats you'll need in order to sell on your own website, All Romance ebooks and Omnilit.
Until next time,
~Tammy
Learn More About Tammy
Tammy Dennings Maggy is a best selling, multi-published poet and erotic romance author with Siren and Sassy Vixen Publishing. Her writing explores many facets of romance from ultimate betrayal to finding your soul mate. Her poetry serves as a companion to her novels and has inspired entire series all on their own. Tammy and her alter egos Lia Michaels and Stephanie Ryan make up the core authors at Sassy Vixen Publishing and together they've created the shared world series Temptations Resort. Look for the first books in that series to come out later this year.
Now happily married to her own Muse and soul mate, she continues to live her dream and act as secretary to all her characters demanding to have their stories told.
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If you'd like to share your experiences in the publishing world, please contact us about setting up a guest appearance. We'd love to hear from you!
