New Book Release!

I'm so excited about this one!!!

This is book #4 in my middle grade mystery series, The Samantha Wolf Mysteries. (I also have a YA scifi trilogy)

It's called, The Heiress of Covington Ranch.




Blurb:
Middle school presents a new kind of challenge for Sam and Ally, but also a chance to make a unique friend. When one of their teachers needs help, the three of them come together to lend her support.

Nestled in the woods that surround their homes is Covington Ranch. An abandoned estate once used to raise famous horses, a family tragedy has left it forgotten and neglected. But someone has come back.

What does their teacher, a rich stockbroker, and a stolen ruby called The Eye of Jupiter all have in common? Sam and Ally vow to find out, and in doing so, start a chain reaction. It could either have dire consequences for those involved, or bring a broken family back together again.

Link to Amazon


I've appreciated the on-going encouragement from my 'friends' here at ATS! I was a member for years before I started my self-publishing journey,and it's been fun to document it here. I hope that if anyone has similar dreams, and needs either advice or also encouragement, that they will comment here and let me know what they are up to!

Congratulations on the new book! Would this series and your trilogy be books that older students would enjoy?

a reply to: westcoast

Congratulations and many sales to you!

Can you give any tips on formatting? I've had the worst luck with that part of the process in the past. It looked great on my end but the "live" version ended up all wonky in spots.

a reply to: Pillywiggin

Hello! And thank you!

To answer your question, I think that it all comes down to what a reader enjoys. I describe the mystery series as a 9-12 age group, but anyone who enjoys books like Nancy Drew or Trixie Beldon would enjoy them. They are light, fun reads that go quickly. (rated G)

The YA scifi trilogy is definitely more mature. I still call them clean reads, though. The first book, Bloodline would be a PG rating. No sex at all, a few very mild curse words and some violence. Really, it's just the creep factor that makes it a more mature read. I have had 12 year old's read it without a problem. The second two books are more of a PG-13, simply because of a few more mild curse words, a little more violence (still not graphic) and a couple of kissing scenes (still no sex). Again, the story plot is simply a more complex read. Anyone who read and like the Hunger Games, Divergent or the Fifth Wave would love this trilogy.

Hope that helps!

originally posted by: msfitte
a reply to: westcoast

Congratulations and many sales to you!

Can you give any tips on formatting? I've had the worst luck with that part of the process in the past. It looked great on my end but the "live" version ended up all wonky in spots.

Thank you!

As to the formatting: It depends on the platform.

Amazon is the largest, single on-line publisher. If you go exclusive with them, then you would publish through KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) Here is the LINK

Once you have a file that is ready to format, you have a few options. I found that THIS is the best tool. (and a free publication)

One of the nice things with KDP, is that once you upload the formatted manuscript, you can then download a MOBI format, which is what a lot of people like to have, if you are sending a manuscript for reading. (I guess you can send this to a kindle/ereader via email and read it that way. I haven't figured it out. )

THe main thing to remember with ebook formatting, are no tabs, no extra hard returns, page breaks whenever you want a new page, and you have to have a correctly created table of contents.

NOW...I know that Smashwords has some different requirements, but they also have some step-by-step guidelines, though not as good as Amazon. I don't know about the other self-publishing platforms, because I haven't used them.

What in particular are you having a hard time with?

What in particular are you having a hard time with?

It was a couple years back and the guide I followed (written by an author) involved using HTML and whatnot. It was mostly okay but my inished product had spots where the text was off in size and some of the line spacing was weird.

I just picked the guide from Amazon/Kindle you posted the link to, thanks. Hopefully it's more straightforward and easy to follow.

Generally I've gone with established e-publishers. Having them provide the editing, formatting, cover and such is worth the cut they take. But I have a new book that doesn't seem to "fit" anywhere and I'd like to get it out there.

Thanks again.