Re-do!

Ok, went through the Kindle copy of Soul Mates and found all the bugs. (some typos too...I'm so embarrassed!) Everything should be fixed by tomorrow if I can get my partner in this crime to move on it. Little things, nothing big, but for some reason undetectable before uploading.
I don't know if some of this was just stuff I missed or if the conversion to Kindle warped somethings. I did see some weird stuff like a few "o's" that went thought to become "0's". Now really, a zero? This was definitely s0mething that w0uld have glared 0ut from the page. Besides, numbers are s0mething I have to reach for and not the easiest thing to type repeatedly in several words without n0ticing.
A few wrong line breaks too but those were few and far between.
Whew!
This is quite a journey for one little novella. I haven't really done any advertising or blasted it out to more than a few close people. One already asked me for a print copy since he doesn't have Kindle.
Now I have to consider the other options. Nook? Create Space? What do you do? Where do you find the most success?
After trying to advertise a bit I'm back to working on the next book. It's written but needs some desperate editing.

Formatting glitch!

I downloaded Soul Mates on my Kindle and for some weird reason some of the "o"s are coming up as 0 (zeros). Very weird. I found one word that was correct in my document and come out as a different word on the downloaded Kindle version. Close but not right.
Now we're going back to figure out if it was just weird on my Kindle or will it download incorrectly on all of them. Probably, right? So I can't blast it out to the universe right now. :( >sigh<
And I was so excited to get this up on Amazon. I did email the link to a few close friends/family as sort of a test market. One of them was my brother, an editor for a major newspaper, who already grabbed it up. In a panic, I shot him an email right away about the formatting issues because I didn't want him to think I was that stupid! or that bad a typist.
Anyone else have these formatting issues? Could it be the font? What font do you use? Tips? Hints? Aside from these issues everything else looks okay. Paragraphs are working, chapter breaks, etc. all look good.

Soul Mates is on Kingle

My novella, Soul Mates (A different kind of love story), is up for sale on Kindle! After a tragic death on mean city streets, a woman meets God and begs him to let her reincarnate to bring the heavenly message of unconditional love to the world. Follow the adventure when she is tossed back to earth as one of the smallest dogs on the planet.

http://www.amazon.com/Soul-Mates-ebook/dp/B007KLDXF6/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1331838726&sr=1-1
How can this be exciting and frightening at the same time? It's a good thing, it's what I wanted, I really like this story but sharing it with the world scares the heck out of me. I can see the cover is a little pixeled and I have to fix that ASAP. I bought it for my own kindle so I can check it. Problem: I've read this book 8 million times so am I really going to know a problem when I see one? Now I get the second and third thoughts. Does the story flow, is it too wordy, did I stay in character, does it all make sense? Did I price it right, What about the title page? Was I suppose to do something else? Okay, Universe! Do with it what you will. I'm going to go channel all this worry energy into my next book....I need to bang on the keyboard for a bit. Happy Reading!

Smashwords?

I'm hoping to have my novella up on Amazon soon. I've thought about doing it somewhere in print form but not sure if it's worth it. Should I watch and see how it does as an ebook first? I'm not even sure how to do it in print yet. Smashwords? What is that other one? I forget.
I know some people who don't have kindle or nook and I'm wondering if I should do paperback or since it's a novella and only 156 pages, is it worth it?
And what about Nook? If you Kindle, do you Nook, too? I like the writing part of this business better. All this ebook publishing and paperback issues are sooo confusing. It's like a whole new world. I guess this is how the agents earn their money. All these details make my head spin.

And people think all this writing and publishing is easy. If you mention that you write people always have a book they want me to write for them, a story idea they want me to turn into a book or a genius remake of something already out there. And they'll split the profits with me. Isn't that nice? I write the book, do all the editing and stuff and they will be nice and split the cash. They don't even know if I can write or what type of books I write, but they'll make the deal with me to write their book.
Ha!
They have no idea of the crap shoot writing is. If you can get the book actually written, edited, edited and edited, and sent out a ga-jillion times to publishing houses and agents you might just get a bite. And a year from now, if you're lucky, it might see print.
Now we have indy ebooking. Much better but still not a sure thing. You can get your book up but then you have to sell, sell, sell.
When people ask me to write their book I tell them to give me a complete outline and character sketch of all main characters. So far no one's gotten back to me. hmmmmm...

Book Covers

Book covers are important, they draw people in, make them want to read and tell something about whats inside. And getting one designed for an ebook can be expensive.
But that's not why I did my own.
I like completing a project. The cover is part of the whole book and I do have some things I want to show. And I love art. I paint, draw and do other kind of brochure, design work on the side so the book cover is something I want to do.
In Soul Mates the main character goes to heaven; see sky and clouds. She comes back to earth as a dog; see paw prints.
Now I worry that this cover is a bit simplistic. I worry if people will get the right message. I want the readers who like dogs and maybe a bit of the heaven-god story peeps too.
The only thing I don't have is the actual dog and I vacillated quite a bit over finding a dog to put on the cover. Then I wondered if this wasn't your kind of dog would you turn away because it wasn't the dog sitting at your feet. So dog came off the cover and now I wonder if THAT was the right move. Decisions, decisions, decisions.... So? Opinions?

Next Project

As I wait for Soul Mates to go up on the Kindle store I'm contemplating my next project. I have several books finished in first draft but need to think about genre. Blurb for Soul Mates: After a tragic death on mean city streets, a woman meets God and begs him to let her reincarnate to bring the heavenly message of unconditional love to the world. Follow the adventure when she is tossed back to earth as one of the smallest dogs on the planet.
So should I stay in the same genre. I mean if I want to create a name for myself? What if my next book is a tad darker? Serial killers, demons, darkness...would I blow my chance at forming a readership? I'm guessing people who like animals and feel good stories should like this story.
Or should I come up with something softer, more in line with Soul Mates? I do have a few ideas. I also have a Vampire story I'm having fun writing but that is so far out of left field that I'm thinking it wouldn't make good next book for the Kindle store. So now I spend my writing times rocking back and forth on which to work on, what should I be aiming for and playing with my T-shirt designs. Crazy Painter T's