Magick Charm Re-release Cover Reveal

             I’m excited to show everyone my new cover for Magick Charm! This book was originally released about four years ago, and the rights have recently been returned to me. I’ve been working hard at polishing up this second edition, and I’m proud to be self-publishing it on April 1.

            While I loved the original cover, I wanted a new look and something that will have continuity with the upcoming covers in this series. Luckily, I have a close friend, Samantha Harvey, who’s also a graphic design whiz, and I asked her for help. I absolutely love what she came up with and I’m sure you will too!

            We discovered two fantastic images on Flickr that were combined into the final cover photo. Bourbon Street at night was taken by Sara Kelly and the twin lightning bolts picture was taken by Broderick Delaney. You can find the links to their work and their pages below.

            If you’re looking for a cover design artist or website designer, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Samantha Harvey at contact[at]13magickalmoons.com. I’m looking forward to seeing what she comes up with for my upcoming titles Gypsy Magick and Free Spirit!

            In the meantime, it’s only 12 days until Magick Charm is re-released!

   by  MsSaraKelly 

.

   by  wxcasterphx 

Formatting a Book for Self-Publishing

What is this formatting thing I hear of? I recall it happened after I finished my last edits with my publisher. It went to someone who did some magical stuff to it in their computer and then all the Kindles and Nooks and iThings were happy to download it.

Now that I’m stepping out on my own, I become the someone who does magical stuff to my document. If only I had some clue of what I’m supposed to be doing!

That was my thought last month. I practically begged a friend of mine to figure it out and do it for me, and because she loves me, she agreed. But I decided if I can learn to do it myself, that would make things easier for future books. Plus, she has an eleven-week-old, so I’m pretty sure she’s got her hands full already! ☺

This is what I’ve learned so far. Formatting basically translates your Word document (or whatever program you use) into the different languages each e-book reader uses. No, I don’t know why they don’t all use the same one, though that would make sense to me. This is probably why I’m not a computer person.

In addition to the translation, you also have to take into account the margins, copyright page, fonts, tabs… basically how everything looks and make sure it’s all consistent.

How does the book get from my word processing program to your Kindle?
(Image from Amazon)

I was dreading doing this sort of thing by hand. So it was like kismet when I heard of a formatting program that was being recommended at around this time. Not to sound like an ad, but it’s called Jutoh, it cost $39, and it does all the formatting into all the different e-reader types.

About a week ago, I started working with it, and after a few false starts, I managed to get something that looks like… a book! I’m pretty happy with it. So now I will do yet another read-through to spot any remaining typos, any odd characters, or anything that didn’t translate quite right, that sort of thing. But it’s coming along, and I feel all publisher-y and almost like I know what I’m doing.

Writing Update

I promised a work update, so here it is.

In late January, I received an email from my publisher stating that all of their authors were being released from their contracts. What does that mean? Well, three main things, at least as it pertains to me. One, my books will be going out of print. Two, the rights to those books will return to me. That basically means that what happens to those stories is completely in my hands now.

And that leads to the third thing. I will be self-publishing those books as well as their related, previously unpublished, sequels in the upcoming months.

Right now, I’m doing my best to learn about self-publishing. I’m finding there’s a lot more to it than I ever dreamed. I’ll try to write up a few behind-the-scenes posts as I go along so you can see what I mean.

My current goal is to have Magick Charm published again on April 1. After that, I’ll be working on getting Practically Dreaming back for sale. I’ve been asked about sequels to MC, and they’re coming, I promise! I’ve got a novella on the way as well as at least two more novels in that series. Likely, I’ll also be writing a novella as a sequel to PD, but that’ll be a little ways farther down the road.

If you are on Facebook, please come and “like” my new, improved author page!