tgmiko
Junior Member
Posts: 25
Joined: Oct 12, 2012 9:25:26 GMT -8
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Post by tgmiko on Oct 14, 2012 23:44:49 GMT -8
Hi Folks, I am confused: It looks like the meatgrinder accepted Amateur Hour, and it is now available on all formats, including Kindle and Nook. I thought that the whole idea of the Premium Catalog was that I would have to wait for a couple of days while a human at Smashwords actually reads my book, and decides whether or not they will post it on sale in the Premium Catalog? Or, is the difference that getting placed in the Premium Catalog is the equivalent of being placed on a prominent shelf in the store? BTW Once I get the hang of the technical aspects of publishing on Smashwords, I don't see myself bugging you guys with zillions of questions every time I finish a book. Tom Miko PS: Ms. Andrassy, just curious: beszelsz magyarul???
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Post by Ted on Oct 15, 2012 3:43:40 GMT -8
Tom, Smashwords has again hired more people to vet ebooks for the Premium Catalog. But not to worry. The wait time for PC approval will again return to days as the number of authors choosing Smashwords increases and overloads the vetting staff with new works and Smashwords again hires more people to vet books. It's a never ending circle.
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Stephanie
Junior Member
Posts: 35
Joined: Oct 8, 2012 17:20:51 GMT -8
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Post by Stephanie on Oct 15, 2012 5:58:39 GMT -8
Hi Tom! Én csak beszélni angolul. Hopefully Google Translate got that right! Obviously, I don't speak Hungarian; only English. My father was born in Canada and married a non-Hungarian and so I never had the opportunity to learn. I understood that the premium catalog was simply a recognition that the book was formatted to the standard required by the retailers and that it would be shipped out for inclusion on their sites; that books not meeting the formatting standard were only available to be purchased from the Smashwords site. I don't think it speaks to the quality of the read but simply that the required elements and formatting are in place.
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erictimar
New Member
Posts: 8
Joined: Oct 17, 2012 12:44:26 GMT -8
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Post by erictimar on Oct 18, 2012 18:18:51 GMT -8
Here's another member with a good Hungarian name, but alas I don't speak it, either . . . well, I learned enough so I didn't starve when I went there in 2010 . . .
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Stephanie
Junior Member
Posts: 35
Joined: Oct 8, 2012 17:20:51 GMT -8
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Post by Stephanie on Oct 18, 2012 20:41:37 GMT -8
I am jealous, Eric, that you have been. I have not yet been so lucky, and there is just so much there that I would love to see, and family history that I would love to research.
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tgmiko
Junior Member
Posts: 25
Joined: Oct 12, 2012 9:25:26 GMT -8
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Post by tgmiko on Oct 24, 2012 7:10:02 GMT -8
Hi Eric, Stephanie, and Ted, Thank you for writing back. I disappeared because I spent all weekend creating a website for myself with my 3 books, and neglected smashwords. Okay, so I haven't actually looked for Amateur Hour on Amazon or B&N (this whole having a day job thing really interferes with being an author). I will do that tonight. If you only read this after 2 or 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday 10/24/12 then www.tgmiko.com should be up and running (godaddy.com needs to fix some IT problem i.e. they fixed it, yesterday, but said it takes 24 hours to post). I'm going to go back and tweak it with links to the Wounded Warrior Project on the page for Roadside Rest, because it's about an army sergeant who loses her leg in Iraq. Stephanie, I had a girlfriend in the 80s who was half-Hungarian, half-Croatian, and born in Canada. She grew up in Welland. She spoke Hungarian with a fairly heavy Ontario accent, eh.
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Stephanie
Junior Member
Posts: 35
Joined: Oct 8, 2012 17:20:51 GMT -8
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Post by Stephanie on Oct 24, 2012 19:57:42 GMT -8
Hi Tom! I just tried to check out your website but was told to be patient; that something good was coming but had not yet arrived. My Hungarian grandfather helped to build the Welland Canal - my only connection to that part of Ontario. I haven't visited there much so can't really speak to the accent thing that the Wellanders have going on, but I've always thought that the rest of us in "Hollywood North" sounded pretty much the same as the folks in "Hollywood South". Ted may have to back me up on this...eh Ted?
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Post by Ted on Oct 24, 2012 20:15:50 GMT -8
Stephanie, I'm spotted as a BC'er every time I open my mouth 5 feet across the US border or the Alberta border.
Tom, I had the same result as Stephanie when I tested your site at 9:14pm. It will likely be up and running soon.
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tgmiko
Junior Member
Posts: 25
Joined: Oct 12, 2012 9:25:26 GMT -8
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Post by tgmiko on Oct 24, 2012 21:21:33 GMT -8
Okay, now I'm pee eye ess ess ee dee. The good news: www.tgmiko.com is now open to the public. Please go back, and take a look. There is one mis-typed (not misspelled, just my bad typing skills) word that I will fix, tonight. The bad news is that now, after a weird time delay, instead of being out there i.e. accepted for Premium Content, now the stupid wen site (smashwords) says that I have an error to fix, that it has never complained about before: "The current status of Amateur Hour is Needs modification Problems were found in review Please remove the auto-numbering from the footer inside your book (it's showing up during conversion). When you're finished correcting your book, go to Dashboard: 'upload new version' to upload the new version. Thanks. " WTF??? I'll try to fix it, tonight, but I'm not doing what I've done the last 2 times, where I stayed up until 01:30 or 02:30 a.m., trying & failing to fix it. Tom
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tgmiko
Junior Member
Posts: 25
Joined: Oct 12, 2012 9:25:26 GMT -8
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Post by tgmiko on Oct 24, 2012 21:49:12 GMT -8
[Forgive me for answering my own post 15 minutes after I wrote it] Okay, I looked up how to do what it's asking for, and it's the same thing that I already did, so I found another secret place under Autocorrect Options and Autoformat Options and turned all of those suckers off, too, then saved it as a new document, and loaded that. here's what the meatgrinder said:
"Your book upload and conversion are complete. Please review the details below.
Title:Amateur HourDescription:Navy SEAL George "Pug" Ironhorse is part Navajo Indian, part Scottish, and part Armenian. Before they let him retire, he is given one last mission: stop nuclear terrorists from hitting Los Angeles. His uses his first suspect, a nuclear medicine technologist who photographs birds on the weekends, as bait to draw out the bad guys. Things don't turn out as planned. First book in a seriesCongratulations. Your work, Amateur Hour has been published on Smashwords and is now available for readers to sample and purchase .
Please review the conversions to ensure you're satisfied. For a summary of the most common formatting mistakes and how to easily fix them, please review The Smashwords Style Guide.
If you wish to upload an updated version later on, click on "Settings" next to your book within your Dashboard.
Proceed to the new page for your work » "
So, does that NOT mean that it accepting my file 100%? I clicked on "Proceed to the new page for your work," and it gives me the impression that anybody with a Kindle or a Nook can buy it FROM SMASHWORDS but it doesn't say anything about being on sale, yet, at Amazon and/or B&N. Does this mean that now I have to wait, AGAIN, to see if the humans at smashwords check it, and say, "Hey, he didn't get rid of the autonumbering, like we told him to." even though I did??? Tom
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Post by Ted on Oct 24, 2012 22:04:50 GMT -8
Hi Tom. You're almost there. You uploaded a revised work and it will have to go through the manual vetting system again before entering the Premium Distribution network.
When your work makes it through the vetting process without any errors then it will be a few days before being on sale at B&N and other retail partners. I usually figure on 2 weeks from the time Smashwords ships to B&N or Kobo before a work appears.
Your work will be available on Smashwords in mobi format if that was one of your selected format options, but Smashwords doesn't distribute new works to Amazon yet.
To have your work available on Amazon for their Kindle devices you'll have to join the Amazon KDP program and upload your work according to their formatting guidelines.
Amazon only accepts ebooks from Smashwords that have $1,000 in sales on Smashwords itself, excluding sales through any Smashwords retail partner. This insistence by Amazon assures no new works are distributed to Amazon and forces authors to join Amazon. It's a pain in the arse, but that's Amazon.
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tgmiko
Junior Member
Posts: 25
Joined: Oct 12, 2012 9:25:26 GMT -8
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Post by tgmiko on Oct 25, 2012 9:26:00 GMT -8
Thank you, Ted! More work! More work! You know, doing all of this stuff has taken me away from dong that thing I like to do called 'writing'. A friiend looked at tgmiko.com and offered a few criticisms: 1. He thinks the web site is too much about me, my hobbies, and my likes-as opposed to being about the books. He feels that it's just a mirror of my personal blog in which all I do is go on silly rants about everyday topics. The way I look at it, though, i.e. what I was thinking as I made the pages was that it would give readers an idea bout what the books are about, along with some thoughts about why I wrote what I wrote, and my creative process. I am interested in constructive criticism. 2. He doesn't like the different-styles of fonts on different pages. That I can fix in 10 minutes, when I go home, tonight.
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Post by Ted on Oct 25, 2012 11:12:41 GMT -8
You probably have a link from your personal page to your new site, which may get more traffic than your new site because it is general in nature, so I'd wait and see what your stats are for both sites after a couple of months and make any adjustments then.
I don't mind the different fonts on different pages, but then I'm reading it on my PC and not a smartphone or tablet or wifi enabled ereader which may not reproduce some fonts. Maybe someone you know or someone on the forum has a tablet/smartphone/wifi ereader that can let you know if the fonts you are using display properly.
I quite like your new site and how you explain various things about your works. It held my attention and I wanted to read more.
The picture of the helicopters confused me. You might want to briefly explain on the main page the significance of the 'copters to your works or to yourself.
You may want to add and About page and tell a little bit more about yourself. Perhaps in there you could explain the helicopters and their meaning to you and place a link on the front page to your About in the wording of something like "Why the helicopters picture? Find out in my About page."
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tgmiko
Junior Member
Posts: 25
Joined: Oct 12, 2012 9:25:26 GMT -8
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Post by tgmiko on Oct 25, 2012 19:48:13 GMT -8
Thanks for reminding me to put a link on my blog to the tgmiko.com site! Helicopters: 1. Well, I have to confess that it was one of the available templates at godaddy.com, and I thought it looked very cool/manly/military etc. But also, 2. There are helicopter scenes in all 3 books. In Amateur Hour, Pug keeps flying Jake around in helicopters, even though Jake gets airsick in them. In Roadside Rest, Kris' helicopter gets shot down, and that's when Pug rescues her from the bad guys. In Buran, there is a scene where covertly in Pug is in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation, and a Russian Hind-D is firing rockets and machine guns at him. More later. PS: Is there a way to edit my posts? I hate it when I only notice the typos afterward, and I can't fix them.
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Stephanie
Junior Member
Posts: 35
Joined: Oct 8, 2012 17:20:51 GMT -8
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Post by Stephanie on Oct 25, 2012 20:00:54 GMT -8
I found the site! Look like you were typing while I was viewing it. I was coming back here to agree with Ted about the helicopter explanation and missing "About" page. The site screams "manly"...and then there are pretty pictures of birds and butterflies. Very cool. And speaking of waiting - once you are cleared for the premium catalog, don't be discouraged if it takes more than a couple of weeks to show up at some of the retailers. Mine shipped to Apple and Diesel very quickly (within a week), but Sony took a couple of weeks, Barnes & Noble just listed this week (a month +), and Kobo is being shipped in early November I am told. They will get there...eventually. If you upload to Amazon (following their own style guide - which is not as scary as it sounds), you should be live there within 24 to 48 hours. So Ted - you didn't agree with me on the accent thing, eh? That's ok. The only time anyone pointed it out to me was when I was in the south and they said I sounded like a "northerner". I didn't get, "You sound Canadian". Next time I'm in the States, I'll have to make a point of asking and conduct a bit of research on that! I don't know about editing posts but would love to know the answer - like can I remove my posts when it was obvious I was lacking in caffeine when I wrote it? LOL
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