#WriterWednesday - December 19th 2018

I've been busy.

No. Not writing. Though that would have been nice. What I've been doing is something else. I could have been just writing instead, but I decided to do this, because I wanted to get it done before the end of the year, even though it meant a guarantee of no writing time while I did it. I figured I'd get it done, and then next year maybe I can actually spend my author time doing some writing, which would be wonderful.

Anyhow, I've been making Kindle versions of my books available on Amazon.

Those who have followed me for years might know that I actually started doing Kindle versions of my books in the past, and then I got annoyed with Amazon, and frustrated with the KDP dashboard's lack of screen reader accessability. So I stopped making Kindle versions, and unpublished the ones I'd put up. Smashwords does mobi (AKA Kindle friendly) versions, so I figured people could just go there, and save me the headache of dealing with Amazon's KDP dashboard.

Fast forward to this year, and CreateSpace merging with KDP, forcing me to either use the KDP dashboard, or find somewhere else to publish my paperbacks. Since I have more than 50 titles, learning to deal with the KDP dashboard seemed like the easiest option. So, that's what I decided to do. With that being the case, I figured I might as well also use it to make Kindle versions of my books available. Especially since I happen to know there are people out there who only buy books for their Kindles via Amazon, so would possibly appreciate my doing so. At least, I hope they appreciate it.

Luckily for me, in the few years since I last used it, Amazon has improved their KDP dashboard, and it's a lot more accessable. So, well done to them for that, because it totally helped. There's room for improvement, but it's a start.

Their customer service when I was dealing with getting the old titles unlocked was better too. Their technical team was slower than I think they needed to be in getting it done, but at least the customer service people were attempting to be helpful, which is an improvement on how things seemed in the past.

I even managed to get them to link me as one of the authors for "Wyrd Worlds II" (which I have a story in) and accept that "Frank The Friendly Ogre" is free everywhere else, so they should list it as free too (which is currently being arranged, so it should show up as free soon).

So... My books now also have Kindle versions.

Although, since I couldn't make it let me back date newly added titles - I'm not sure if they no longer let you do this, or if it's an accessability issue - I had a choice between having all the titles I hadn't previously added show up as being published in December, or pre-releasing some to publish over the next few months. I chose to do the latter. I still have several books publishing each month between now and March, because it wouldn't let me go past three months in advance, I had a lot of titles I hadn't previously added, and I wanted to get it all done before the end of the year. But at least I was able to space them out a little.

I don't suppose it really matters when the release dates are though. Not for my older titles. It will matter more when I'm bringing out new books, and want to do promotional stuff, release announcements, etc. For now, the point is, if you prefer to get Kindle books directly from Amazon, you can now do that with my books. You're welcome!

You should be able to see all my books - a full list of all formats Amazon offers, even though I haven't had time to work on getting Amazon to link those that for some reason didn't link their various editions properly when I was making the Kindle versions - on my Amazon author page. I've linked to my author page on Amazon UK, but you can find my books on Amazon sites in other countries too, so go ahead and look on the Amazon you would usually use.

Anyway... Let's see what writing related links I've managed to find for you in between publishing Kindle books, shall we? There are quite a few, so you might want to make yourself comfortable.

First, take a look at these tips for writing story middles, and then check out these tips for writing endings.

Regardless of what part of your story you're writing, remember to write medium.

Remember: your first draft is a terrible giant mess... Love it anyway!

Is it time for you to start on the rewriting and editing phases of your current project? Then check out these reminders about editing, these early draft cuts for a stronger manuscript, and these self-editing tips. Also, if it sounds like writing, rewrite it.

You'll also want to examine your dialogue during the revisions and editing. So, here are some tips for writing dialogue that isn't boring, and moves your story along.

Do you write fantasy? If so, here's a post about the importance of city guards in fantasy, which you might want to give a quick read. Also, have any city guard characters in your story take a look at these tips to being a city guard in a fantasy world. *wink*

Regardless of the genre you write in, are you writing a series? Do you want to create a mascot for that series? If you answered yes to both of those, check out these tips to creating a series mascot.

Or, are you someone who enjoys writing flash fiction? If yes, check out this post on resolutions, which is the fourth in a series about writing flash fiction (I'm sure I shared the others in previous posts, but links to the others can be found in the post I just linked to anyhow).

Whatever you write, here's some advice on what not to do in your marketing.

Speaking of things you do for marketing: here are some ideas for Christmas promos for writers. Might be a bit late for this year, what with Christmas being in less than a week. But you can always bear them in mind for next year.

No matter what you do to market the things you write, this is why you need to stop comparing yourself to other writers.

You probably know this, but writing is not a 9-5 job. Sometimes writers work odd hours, and sometimes we work long hours to finish projects on time. The trick is to find that balance between working extra to finish projects and not over-doing it, and hope your loved ones will at least pretend to understand. If you can though, find someone who believes your writing matters. But, here's what to do when it feels like no one 'gets' you.

Mind you, this is why writing is stressful, and sometimes you also have to learn how to say no to a new idea, because there aren't enough hours in the day to invite every single one in, and start working on it. I know, shame, right? But that's the way it is. Although, even if you do have that time available, pace yourself, and don't use up all your creative energy at once. Yes, big dreams need big to-do lists. But don't try doing it all at once.

No matter how much you write, or when you do it, if you've received some negative feedback, these tips on how to recover from painful negative feedback in five steps might help you. Also, here's a bit more advice on reacting to feedback.

By the way, are you a writer who finds yourself trying to balance your writing with another job? If you answered, "Yes," to that question, you may like to check out these tips for writers that have day jobs. Or, perhaps, in your case, weekends are for writing?

Regardless of your job situation, if you write poetry, and have a published poetry book - or more than one of them - here's how to request that your book is added to the catalogue of the United Kingdom's National Poetry Library, in case you'd like to have it listed with them.

Speaking of publishing: did you know that audio books are the fastest-growing segment of publishing. Makes me glad I decided to make audio versions of my books available. Although, due to some production issues, I do have some that are yet to become available in audio. Those titles should soon join the list of my available audio books though.

Finally, and on a similar note to what we were discussing in the previous paragraph: yes. Blind people read books. We write them too. Please stop thinking otherwise.