In the early summer of 2014, I set myself the challenge of writing a short story. I’d been dabbling with various forms of writing for a year or so before that, and found that writing was something I enjoyed immensely. That first story would become ‘Damage’, chapter three in my book: Departure and Other Stories (available for download now through the Amazon Kindle store).
With ‘Damage’ successfully completed, I started to write a second piece, set in the same fictional English market town with some crossover characters, and the idea that I could try writing a whole series of linked but standalone short stories, each written from a different, first-person point of view, began to seem like a realisable goal.
By March 2015, I had five finished and edited pieces. Without any significant cutting or adding of words, they had each clocked in at a comparable length to ‘Damage’, giving me a manuscript of over fifty thousand words: certainly enough material to create a book.
But a fair amount of formatting is required to turn a Word document into a functional e-book interior, complete with a navigable table of contents and relevant front matter. Every book needs a cover, thus a cover graphic must be designed and created. Then there are publishing considerations: choosing which platform(s) to use for sales, pricing, getting the description and categorisation right, and marketing.
In this blog I’ll reflect on what I’ve learned about e-book creation, on the writing process itself, and will provide links to the websites I’ve found most useful.
L. M. Webb | Author Blog 