Friday, February 4, 2011

Once Again It Snows; I'm Confused

Last night they said we would have snow showers today, with no mention of accumulation. So I assumed that meant a dusting, with no accumulation. This morning that was changed to a winter weather advisory, with 1 to 3 inches expected. Right now it's snowing heavily, and has been snowing since 10 AM, sometimes light, sometimes heavy. It's pretty out there, but not exactly what I'd call "snow showers". Oh, well, I don't suppose the weather dudes can get it right every time. They did really well the last time.

So this noon hour I spent time researching the Kindle publishing process. Talk about confused! I have so much to learn. Somewhere I read that you basically create a Word document, don't use footers or a few other features, upload it to Kindle, add page breaks, and publish. But today in the FAQ, or somewhere on the Kindle pages for would-be self-publishers, I saw all kinds of talk about html. I don't know html, and despite some attempt to learn it I have failed. If I have to learn html to eSP, I'm done before I start. Surely I'm confused as to what it will take.

I finally managed to get to the Kindle Forums, and will start browsing. I have always found the forums, wherever I go online, as a good place to start and to get information. Perhaps browsing the forums will be the cure to my confusion.

So, the activities to further my writing career are going on these lines. First, complete works to eSP. I've mentioned these in previous posts. Second, learn the mechanics of eSP. This may take longer than I'd like, and may end up being more a case of doing than of learning. Third, I'll continue with my freelancing work. Suite101 and Buildipedia are my two main outlets for this. I'm not actively chasing any other freelance gigs. The one for Safe Highway Matters came to me without any marketing on my part.

I guess that's a pretty good game plan. It's certainly enough for the moment. Later there will be more works, and more learning, and promotion of eSP works. I can't really think that far ahead. In fact, it's now after 5 PM. My thoughts have turned to the drive home, with a stop at Wal-Mart on the way to pick up the urgently needed things so we don't have to go out tomorrow. For the next 90 minutes I'll be able to work without confusion, on the mundane tasks of life, concentrating on the shopping and the roads.

2 comments:

Gary said...

Doesn't make sense for authors to know html before they can esp. Too much work unless you are making your own web pages, and even then there are plenty of packages that do the heavy lifting for this - some are even free. Kindle must have this (mostly) automated.

David A. Todd said...

I agree, Gary. That's part of my confusion. I'm sure I missed something in the "how to e-publish" part of the Kindle site. I'll just have to go back and start clicking links again.