You’re either earning or learning.
That’s what my father used to say to me, but I never really caught the meaning until I was well into my forties.
I hate that for myself.
I applied in so many areas in my life, and if I had taken this advice to heart and been very serious early, I wouldn’t have made so many of the wrong choices that just made life even more difficult
I don’t regret a thing I choose because I know I choose it soberly, but man…
No harping on days past.
So I came to a dilemma, as many of us have. I was spending money, but it was not putting me back in the black. I needed to find a way to do more, but without spending more money.
So I assessed I needed to fix holes in the back end so I can build a better front end.
This meant jumping into the dreaded back catalog.
Now my mission is :
Finish old books that aren’t finished (i.e., Two Ways to Pleasure, The Murderer’s Lover, Betrayed, other series like the Heart Family and The Hardy Boys Series, and the saga Her Substitute Husband… His Boss)
Revamp old book covers and reedit/update stories (i.e. Sin’s Iniquity (revamp), Mistaken Identity, Love Like This (needs to be 5×8), Tanner’s Devil (new cover and TOC in book), Teach Me to Love (edit), Stealing Innocence II (new book cover), Drawing the line (revamp), Vengeful Obsession aka Sex Weed (revamp & reedit).
Yes, that looks like a lot of work in order to move forward, but if you can’t fix the engine, you might as well throw the whole car away, right?
I’m not willing to throw this car away. So I’m digging my hands in and doing the work. Initially, I was going to pay for everything, but the economy slapped me in the face, and I found costs were rising.
I couldn’t take advantage of the price increase until I fixed the situations I’d mentioned above.
So I decided to roll my sleeves up and just start with the interior. I used to do my own all the time, so I was like It’s just a TOC-Table of Contents, I should be able to fix that. Plus, many of the older books need companion book mentions and updated bios.
In comes, Kindle Create. Initially, I opened the book in Word. (Now I should note, I was happy Amazon made the original upload file available because some of these older books, I had no files on them anymore. After I made the changes in Word, I was able to open Kindle Create, generate a TOC, and save the file as a KPF. (This format is important for later.)
I could now re-upload the ebook and fix those small issues I was having – getting my ebook interiors up to Amazon standards, which was usually just a TOC.
As I said above, I had to remake a lot of my book covers, and I started that journey two years ago, but funds were drying up. I cut down on a lot of expenses to afford that, but money was still coming up short.
Now I am getting books edited, but I still need the covers to be banging out as well.
In comes ChatGPT.
Since I paid for the images and paid for the designer, I was able to load the synopsis, pictures, and what I needed, and the AI was able to push out what I needed.
For instance:
In Stealing Innocence II, I submitted the initial cover and asked for an update. And then I told it to use the tone of the book cover and revamp it altogether for a more current look. I’m only showing snippets of things because the whole thing was FIRE!!
MY MOUTH DROPPED OPEN AT WHAT IT CAME UP WITH.
Another instance, if you’ve been following me on social media, then you know I’m working on Tanner’s Devil when I should be editing Desire’s Tryst and writing the current serial story, His Substitute Wife… Her Best Friend.
And this is where the meaning of this post comes to.
Since I’d familiarized myself with creating my ebook interiors in Kindle Create and updating the ebook covers with ChatGPT, I plunged into the paperback world.
In Kindle, the file can be saved as an EPUB (a generic ebook) or a KPF file, which is an exclusive digital file for Kindle Direct Publishing.
When you upload your KPF file to KDP.amazon.com for your paperback, it will format your file as you specified.
BOOM!
I got the interior paperback formatting out of the way.
Then I had to conquer the paperback exterior.
That is the outside of the paperback book. The wrap-around. I had the cover, but the spine and back were the hard part.
Cause it’s an exact science, and I’m not a mathematician. Nor an engineer.
I’m a writer, and I didn’t want to learn all this complicated software. I mean I could have, but I’D RATHER BE WRITING.
In comes two things I already have at my reach
Canva.com
Using the calculator, I entered the specifics about the book, and it created a template for me.
This one is for Tanner’s Devil.
I then went to Canva, entered the overall dimensions in the custom design, and started designing my book around the template’s specifications. Using my updated cover, I revamped the back, added my bio, and even my website.
Two days later…
What do you think?
What did I learn in all of this?
To be brave and just try to break something.
I’m good at breaking things.
It’s hard for me to be brave, but if I do it together, I might be unstoppable.
Your author, Sylvia Hubbard
PS: All the books mentioned that aren’t linked can be found at
sylviahubbard.com/books
even the unfinished ones.
