Saving Time with Kindle Previewer Tool

Kindle Previewer is a free tool that emulates how your book will look on Kindle devices and applications and shows how the text displays for any orientation or font size. Once you’ve finished formatting your MS Word manuscript for KDP and saved it as a filtered web page, you can use Kindle Previewer to check the layout of your book and make sure it’s displayed properly. You can also check that the Table of Contents and any links are working properly.

It’s a lot easier and quicker to make changes to your book now, rather than waiting until after it’s been published to KDP!

Using Kindle Previewer

1. Go to https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A3IWA2TQYMZ5J6 and download the latest version of Kindle Previewer (v2.9 at the time this book was published).
2. Open your formatted MS Word manuscript and select “Save As” to save the document as a “Web Page, Filtered” (for PC) or “Web Page” (for Mac).
3. Open the Previewer and then open your filtered web page. The previewer automatically converts the web page into the mobi file and opens it.
4. The tabs at the top of the document allow you to preview it in several different Kindle viewers. You can also select “Devices” from the menu bar at the top of the screen to see what your file will look like on an iPhone or iPad.
   
   
   For more tips like this one, check out our latest guide on self-publishing “Publishing and Selling Your Ebook on Kindle” available on Amazon’s kindle store at http://amzn.to/1gJSDmj

Publishing Your E-book the Easiest and Quickest Way Possible--New Book Tells You How!

Many authors are daunted by the process of self-publishing and think it's too much to learn.  Month after month they put off publishing and selling their e-book on the world's largest online bookstore--Amazon.
I took the plunge a year ago and along the way I took notes on everything I learned through the process of self-publishing.  A friend of mine, Louisa J. Dang, and I put our notes together and published an e-book titled "Publishing and Selling Your Ebook on Kindle." 
We cover all of the main problems you may stumble upon when editing, formatting, converting, publishing, and marketing your e-book on Kindle.
It's a book that I'm very proud of.  The information in this book will speed up the learning process for those looking to self-publish their e-book quickly.  I hope you'll give it a try and if you like it, please leave a review or tell your friends about it.  Thanks!
Note:  In this book, we cover the process of publishing online from beginning to end.  This book mainly focuses on publishing via Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing, so if you're looking for a book that focuses on other publishing platforms, then you may want to wait for additional books from us or check out others.
Here's the link to our book http://amzn.to/17QAspk

New book cover for "House of Mirrors" thanks to Jeanine Henning!

I've given HOUSE OF MIRRORS a book cover makeover.  I tried to make a homemade cover to begin with but decided it's better to go with a design professional like Jeanine Henning of J.H. Illustration.  If you're looking for a professional book cover artist, please check out Jeanine's work at J. H. Illustration or her website.
Here's my new book cover for HOUSE OF MIRRORS:

Why should you use Goodreads?

I learned about Goodreads by looking for book recommendations on Twitter about a month ago.  Little did I know, I’d be hooked a month later.  I check my Goodreads account for updates now more often than I do Facebook, and that’s a lot. 

Basically, Goodreads.com is the essential go-to website for bookaholics, bibliophiles, book worms, book lovers, book addicts, whatever you’d like to call us. 
For those of you unfamiliar with Goodreads, here are some features that I love about this site:
It keeps a tally of the books you’ve read and reviewed as well as those of the friends you make on Goodreads.  It’s great for getting recommendations by people you’ve chosen to “friend” on Goodreads.  For instance, I could friend or follow a person who loves The Shining by Stephen King which I absolutely think is one of the best books of all time, and then I can look at that person’s profile and see what else they’ve read and liked.  Also, people recommend books to their friends and that’s helpful. 
One of the greatest features about this site is the groups section.  They have groups that are genre-focused like Paranormal mystery books, Horror books, Mystery aficionados, etc.  I love that I can peruse these forums for likeminded questions I have about the genre or books.  Some of these groups serve as online book clubs, so if you like assigned reading and sharing your thoughts with a group, this is an excellent place for you to check out.
If you’re an author, Goodreads is a wonderful opportunity for you to meet readers who enjoy the genre in which you write.  For instance, my author profile Lisa M. Logan on Goodreads can be found simply by typing in my name in the search field or my novel’s title “House ofMirrors.”  You’ll see a bio and they can even feature your Facebook and blog links on this profile page.  They also keep a tally of your reviews on Goodreads.  It’s not, however, a place where you should spam book lovers about your book.  But if you’re an author like me who also adores books and reading, you’ve found the right place at Goodreads.com.  Another note for authors who want to use Goodreads to help promote their book:  There are numerous groups of writers on goodreads.com which are specifically geared toward promoting and help one another.  I encourage both readers and writers to check out this site!

The Price is Right! Choosing the right price for your e-book

Here's the deal on pricing your e-book for Amazon Kindle:  If you price your book below $2.99, you will not receive the 70 percent royalty on sales; you'll only receive 35 percent.
But while I'd like to charge $2.99 a copy, I've got to admit nobody knows me or my writing yet.  So I feel a little pretentious starting out so high at $2.99.  But maybe that will be a good experiment to conduct before I upload my book to Amazon Kindle Select.  I'll let you know when that happens.  In the meantime, I'm working on a new mystery novel.  It's one I've been working on for some time.  I'm finally coming into the home stretch on it, and I'm shooting for April as my due date. 
In the meantime, I'd love to hear your thoughts on what you think about pricing e-books.  What do you charge?  Is that price level working for you?