Tag: new book

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Epic Fantasy Fun! I Just Began Writing One

Andy Zach Fans

Epic Fantasy Fun! I Just Began Writing One yesterday. Boy, did that feel good, to finally get started. I wrote my first scene, 700+ words.

So what’s it all about?

Do you know who Dionne Warwick is?

If you know Dionne Warwick, let me know and I’ll give you a free book.

Epic Fantasy Fun – The Premise

I have working title for my next book. It may or not stick. If you got a better one and I use it, I’ll give you any book of mine, any format. Send your suggestions here or to [email protected].

My working title is: Magic Arrives. My premise is simple: our Earth, in 2023, becomes magical. I’ve worked out most of the rules for my magic system, but I won’t tell anyone, not even the readers of my book. I want the reader to discover how the magic works as the characters do.

Epic Fantasy Fun Andy Zach Fans
Earthrise on the moon. Click the pic to get autographed books directly from me.

What kind of cover am I thinking of? Something like this:

I’ll have my artist add magical hints to make it more fantasy, so people know this book is in the fantasy genre.

Where do you think I get my fantasy ideas from? Take a look at my reviews below.

Epic Fantasy Fun – My Reviews

Epic Fun Fantasy

[ 5 of 5 stars ]
Shelvesfantasy, 
FormatPaperback
StatusJanuary 11, 2023 – Finished Reading
ReviewPatricia McKillip practices her craft of writing fantasy at the highest level in this atmospheric depiction of a city, Ombria, rocked by the death of its regent, Royce. The mysterious and manipulative Black Dominia immediately orders his mistress, Lydea, out on the streets, presumably to die. Lydea, a beautiful former tavern wench, makes her way across the dangerous city at night to her father’s tavern. A mysterious girl, Mag, helps her.

Mag, was raised by a sorceress, Faey, who stays in the shadows of Ombria, content to sell her spells to the highest bidders–including the Black Dominia.

Ms. McKillip introduces more colorful characters, without explaining the magic they contain at all. The complex political and magical mystery continues until the end when the mystery pops like a bubble.

This is a must read for any fan of fantasy with vivid characters. (less)
 

Check out this Fantasy Review

Epic Fantasy Fun

Bronze Rank Brewer (Hawkin’s Magic Beers #1)
Rating[ 4 of 5 stars ]
Shelvesfantasy, read, rpg
FormatKindle Edition
StatusJanuary 6, 2023 – Shelved as: rpg4
ReviewFirst time I’ve read a book by James Ghoul, and I’m looking forward to the second!

Bronze Rank Brewer is a very unconventional RPG-type novel, where the main character, Hawkin, decides to embark on a brewing quest. He doesn’t want to travel; he loves his woody wilderness. He is very sociable and friendly. He befriends both a hideous, deadly monster who becomes a friend and helper and also earns the loyalty of a rejected goblin. And a goddess.

The goddess is of astral planes, not of brewing. Somehow, she thinks Hawkin will become the greatest brewer ever, and the brewing god is upset. So he sends his most trustworthy brewer to find Hawkin and find out his secret.

You will enjoy this one.

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Finishing My First Draft and Starting My Second

Villain's Vacation cover

Finishing My First Draft and Starting My Second of my latest book, Secret Supers in Space. What an adventure! Let me tell you about how it all happened.

First, this book is the third in my Secret Supers series. The first is:

First Draft Interesting Links
Secret Supers – click for to get yours

Jeremy Gentle fell flat on his face at therapy. That was normal since he had cerebral palsy. But his new superpower wasn’t normal.

Then things got weirder when his best friend, Dan Elanga, got a different superpower. But Dan was still blind.

Kayla Verdera and Aubrey Wilcosky, two girls in their middle-school special ed class, discovered they too had new superpowers. Kayla was mute and needed a walker. Aubrey lost two legs and used crutches. But they were as powerful as the boys.

What should the four friends do? Jeremy knew if the word got out, it’d be a media circus. Then they started fighting crime, as the Secret Supers. Who knew a disability could be a perfect disguise? No one would ever think of disabled kids as superheroes. Then they ran into problems they never expected.

Secret Supers blurb

Then I wrote the second novel:

First Draft Villain's Vacation cover What is it like?
Villain’s Vacation cover. Click for your copy!

Four disabled seventh-graders with superpowers take a vacation at Coaster World. They need a break from fighting criminals. Ever since the beginning of the school year when they acquired their unusual abilities, they’ve been training and using those powers to fight crime in their town.

Little do they know the arch-villain they recently defeated also loves coasters and is vacationing at Coaster World. Worse, the villain wants revenge. Nothing less than turning these teens to a life of crime will satisfy.

Can Jeremy, Dan, Kayla, and Aubrey withstand the villain’s attacks? Or will they become Super Villains?

You can only find out by reading the adventure ‘Villain’s Vacation’.

Cover blurb

And now, I’ll tell you about my WIP, Secret Supers in Space.

We Interrupt This First Draft to Edit Another Book

I began SSS in November 2021 as my novel for Write a Novel in November Month. But instead of writing fifty thousand words, I wrote 3,940. My stats from my tracking spreadsheet as of November 30, 2021.

Start WordsEnd wordsWordsWords/hour Running total of words Running total of time
3,8373,97313670.343,97321:29:00
from my writing log spreadsheet

Why so few? I spent more than half my time editing my non-fiction book, The Gospel Medley.

First Draft Gospel Medley Writer's Block: My Experience
The Gospel Medley cover. Click to get

Why did the Gospel Medley get priority? 1) It was almost done and 2) I’d been working on it for forty years.

Everything Takes Longer Than You Think

“Everything” includes editing my non-fiction book. I didn’t finish that until April 2022. By the end of April, my stats were:

Start WordsEnd wordsWordsWords/hour Running total of words Running total of time
6,1016,1292814.006,12942:43:00
from my writing log spreadsheet

Why did I write so little in 42 hours devoted to the book? Research.

I had to research Space Camp. That included its curriculum, the space simulations it runs, and when they occur during the week. I watched Youtube videos and learned a lot.

You see, as I write the first draft if I have a question I must answer it before I can write anything else. You might say, ‘Just guess and check it later.’ But no–I can’t write something factually wrong. It drives me nuts.

Some might say I’m already nuts.

First Draft
Nut expert.

Why Did It Take Five Months to Write 30,000 Words?

You’re right. It’s odd it took me that long. One excuse is I had several book conventions–ten from March to September. I love them, but each takes up three to four days of my time: preparation, travel, selling, and documentation, where I record my sales.

Here are my final stats:

Start WordsEnd wordsWordsWords/hour Running total of words Running total of time
35,38936,7961,407686.3436,796149:10:00
from my writing log spreadsheet

You ask me, “Andy, what took you one hundred hours to write 30,000 words?” The answer is more research. I studied SpaceX, the Dragon capsule, the International Space Station, the docking procedure, the undocking procedure, the landing procedure, and where the Dragon capsule lands. I studied the map of Florida, the Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico for hiding places for my villains.

That’s where my time went. Ask me a question and I’ll send you a free book. Or, just click here to get seven free audiobooks.

What’s next? My second draft. Look for another blog post on that.

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Kindle Publishing in 5 Easy Steps by Andy Zach

Kindle Publishing

Kindle Publishing in 6 Easy Steps by self-published author Andy Zach. Do you have your book all ready, but have no clue about publishing? Follow these 5 simple steps and see your book appear on Amazon.

Ready? Set? Go!

Life After Life Chronicles - Kindle Publishing
Enjoy all four novels in audiobook, paperback, or Kindle format!

Andy’s four books in his first series he published on Kindle, The Life After Life Chronicles.

Kindle Publishing – Your First Step to Success

Your first step is: Get a Kindle author account.

How?

  1. Here’s a helpful video. Basically, you must create a KDP author account. https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/
  2. “That’s nice Andy, but it doesn’t help me get an account.” Right. Here’s the REAL FIRST STEP: Create an Amazon account on Amazon. Just a regular old account here: Click here. Of course, if you already have an Amazon account, just sign in.
  3. Then what? You create a Kindle Author account here. Click here.

That wasn’t so hard was it? Now you’re ready to create your book.

Kindle Publishing Secret Supers Cover

Secret Supers – the first book of my second series.

Your Second Step to Self Publishing

You need to create a book. This is done in three steps. The first is the book details, listed in the six steps below.

I’m assuming you’ve already written it and you’re looking to publish it.

  1. Log into your Kindle Author KDP account. Use your Amazon account if necessary.
  2. Go to your KDP account homepage and click on Bookshelf. I’ve circled it in red below.

3. Next, you’ll see the choice of creating the Kindle book or a paperback book. Since the paperback has longer lead time, I always create that first. You can create either or both in any order. Click on the + Paperback option. You’ll see this.

Kindle Publishing

4. You can put in your book title and subtitle here, as well as the language. You can also put in the series number and order.

For example, I’ve put in my soon-coming book Zombie Detective – The world’s only detective specializing in zombies in here. I also edited the series order of my Life After Life Chronicles series so Zombie Detective is number 2.

Kindle Publishing
Sam Melvin, Zombie Detective

Sam Melvin, Zombie Detective Click to get notified when it comes out. Cover reveal soon.

5. Moving on to the lower half of the book content screen we see:

Fill in the details appropriate to your book. For Zombie Detective, I have Edition 1, myself as the author, Dori Harrell as my editor, Rik Hall as my other editor, and Sean Flanagan as my illustrator. I also supply my book description.

6. Finishing off the screen we have this image:

Supply the details appropriate to your book. Note that book keywords and categories are a whole realm of alternatives that affect your sales. I won’t cover them here. Then click Save and Continue at the bottom of the page.

Your Third Step to Kindle Publishing – Upload Content

What content? Take a look at the Content page in the Kindle process below.

You’ll need an ISBN. You can buy your own for your own publishing company or you can use Kindle’s. I bought my own for Jule Inc.

Kindle Publishing

Since I’m publishing this month, June 2021, I’ll use the Kindle publication date. I also use black & white paper for the interior. If you have color pictures, you have a choice between standard and premium. My Trim Size or book size, will be 6×9 inches.

The next section of content includes Bleed/No Bleed and Matt/Glossy finish on the book. I pick No Bleed and Matt finish for my books. This is another area of printing details I won’t cover here.

Kindle Publishing

More importantly, this is where you upload your completely edited manuscript. Aside from correctly all typos and grammatical mistakes, you should also have at least a line edit done where the editor reviews all your sentences for optimum structure. If you haven’t had your manuscript professionally edited, go and hire one now. Developmental editing can also be helpful. Do your own research on this subject.

Similarly, your book cover should be professionally designed. I cannot stress this enough. Your cover is more important than your book content. If your content is bad, people may never buy another book from you. If your cover is bad, people won’t even look inside!

After your manuscript and cover are uploaded, you’re almost done. Kindle will check the content for any obvious errors. You’ll be able to review the whole book online before publication. Set aside a few hours to do that carefully.

Your Fifth Step to Kindle Publishing – Distribution and Pricing

Distribution–what does that mean? Where Amazon will distribute your book around the world.

Pricing–that seems obvious, what Amazon will charge for your book–but the book’s price determines what Amazon will pay you. Take a look at the distribution screen below.

I always choose ‘All territories’ for distribution. Why not?

Primary Marketplace for the US is Amazon.com. The other Amazon sites are listed below.

Your pricing is trickier than you think. The higher the better? Maybe. You’ll get paid more for each sale–but will high prices hurt your sales? I compared Zombie Turkeys to all the top zombie books of comparable size–and I picked the lowest price for that sized book (187 pages). I’d rather take less per book and sell more books. Do your own price research.

The other areas’ prices are based off the US price. I don’t touch them.

With your prices and distribution set, hit the publish button!

Please Stand By While Kindle Publishes Your Book

You may have to wait up to 72 hours for the book to be everywhere you need. For your own copies of print books, expect a week for the first batch to be printed and another week or more of shipping. You can always pay more for faster shipping, but I hate to do that. This is why I said you have more lead time with print copies.

What about Kindle ebooks? No problem! They’re out there when they’re approved. Enjoy!

If this isn’t clear enough, leave a nasty comment or write to me here.