Posts Tagged ‘Lightning Source’

Books4free.com – Hippopotamus Sea; My Viral Sobriety by Jared Bryan Smith

Posted: October 11, 2010 in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Well the book launched yesterday! I was very excited as I didn’t realize it was basically automatic from the acceptance of the proof with Lightning Source. I was putting pressure on my graphics designer/web designer who was basically stalling and putting it right back on me, which drove me a little batty. So I was thinking books4free was going to have to call LSI, which is always a pain in the ass, and find out how to connect LSI and Amazon together. Thankfully it was all done automatically.

Hippopotamus Sea; My Viral Sobriety, written by me, Jared Bryan Smith, 2.5 years in the making, and it finally launches on 10-10-10, a sheer coincidence. Chronicling a 17 year drug and drinking binge, sobriety,  the 12 Steps of AA in their modern workings, haha, as well as, of course, the contraction of Hepatitis C, the insane costs of the treatment without insurance, the charity given by Roche, and the grueling Interferon treatment itself, it’s certainly a book anyone in recovery would appreciate.

It doesn’t sugar coat much, and cuss words are modern, and used liberally. Anyone who has Hep C, isn’t going to be offended I suspect, but it may not penetrate the staunch religious aspects of AA as some are very averse to cursing. My God doesn’t speak English exclusively so he could care less how many times I drop the F bomb. I didn’t cross the GD line though, haha. It’s a good book, regardless of anyone’s delicate sensitivities. I couldn’t write honestly and not cuss a little.

So as of yesterday my best ranking was in the top 32000 on Amazon, but today, Monday, we’ve drifted back to about 75k, so my brother just bought 3 copies to test this theory, see what happens. Very strange as a publisher books4free can’t just go and look up exactly how many copies they’ve sold, but I guess they probably just haven’t figured that out yet. I suppose books4free should call LSI regardless just to see how to do that.

I’m glad the book is up though. I used a technical editor, and in all honesty it wouldn’t shock me if later on down the road I ended up getting an editor specifically attuned to working on autobiographies, to get rid of some of the name dropping, probably crop some pages, but at this stage, it’s the very best I could do with the tools, resources, and time I had at hand. Especially the money. I would have saved thousands going through Lulu.com or any Vanity Publishing Press out there, but we wanted to use my book to launch books4free.com. We’ll see how that all plays out moving forward  I suppose.

So go take a look please, if you haven’t already!

http://www.books4free.com

-Jared Bryan Smith

Self Publishing; Lightning Source; Learning the hard way.

Posted: July 2, 2010 in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Do you know the difference between Perfect Bound, Case Laminate, or Dust Jack on Grey cloth, when it comes to books. Well at $80 a change, you had better figure it out. Also, unless you are your own graphics designer, make sure you use the lightning source cover template generator, lest you submit, only to find your specs are way off. And once you figure out what the above definitions mean, rest assured, you’ll have to change that cover. God willing, you have a patient graphic designer, or a ton of patience yourself, because learning all the ways of self publishing is certainly a challenge. Also its good if you go to meetings with your publisher who is using your book to launch his site, otherwise this shit would have been expensive as hell.

Ultimately though, I’m grateful books4free.com is learning the ropes with the book Hippopotamus Sea, as the next book will surely be easier.

I’ve already got a lead on a soldier coming back from war interested in publishing his memoirs. I hope to prove my method works with Hippopotamus Sea, so I can then persuade others to submit books to books4free.com.

Until then we’ll just keep learning the ropes. Almost two years in the making my book still feels a few weeks out, while I await the final changes (hopefully) from the graphics designer… argh… Some days I wish I’d just used Lulu, or Authorhouse, rather than doing all this shit myself…. Hell even Dan Poynter couldn’t have prepared me for all of this hoop jumping.

-JB Smith

Hippopotamus Sea – Hepatitis C, Recovery Memoir – Books4free.com Launch

Posted: May 20, 2010 in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
0

Wow, I remember when I began the project I believed I would finish the rough draft in approximately two weeks, and that was the Christmas break of 2008. One year and a half later, I am finishing up the final edit of my memoirs, having changed all the names, tweaking the ending, and adding the Amends to my mother, who passed from Cancer in 2004, and 3.5 years later, remains the one amends I’ve yet to make, and probably the toughest one of them all, as it ‘s a living amends one that I can not approach face to face. I’m sure I’ll uncover additional amends as I peel back the layers of the onion, but this one will finish the book nicely I believe.

Rand Hopkins told me a week before he died, that I should write the book, and that it would really help me more than anything else. He aslo said to live your dreams because you never know when you may get hit by bus. One week later, and a month after my mom died, Rand Hopkins died, and I stayed behind to continue my struggle with addiction. Man was he right. Finishing this book really helped me put it into perspective.

Using Thoreau’s quote, to summarize , Write as if you’re writing to relatives in a distant land, I was able to really detach myself from public opinion of the book. It’s for me and mine, and it’s  out there to share, if someone would like to read it, and it’s not aimed at pleasing or marketing to the masses, but really I think will be most helpful to those suffering from Hepatitis C, addiction, and of course the awful, but invaluable, Interferon treatment.

That being said, I’d love to sell a million copies, what writer wouldn’t.

Changing the names to protect the innocent bystanders, or others with the disease of alcoholism and or hepatitis C was my least favorite part of this project. Hiding under aliases felt so false, but the attorney and editor both strongly suggested it, and I’m not as headstrong as I once was. I would have much rather, published with all the real, original names though. I believe the story is still good, and solid and true, I just feel like some of the real names had a more poetic feel to them, and the false alias, felt a little fake, but I guess to strangers, who would know the difference. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

The process has been long and ardous to get it published as well. The publisher books4free just emailed me to tell me he just recieved the ISBN, and Bar Codes. The cover design editor has finally finished a rough draft that I’m happy with, but she still has some small customizations, and of course, I have to do a couple of small things. Finish final editing of about 90 pages, as well as set up lightning source account, amazon account, and link them all up to the bank accounts. 19.99 looks like it will be the book price for the hard copy, as I’m not trying to rape and pillage anyone, would rather be cheap and sell a bunch, than lose a single sale, and not reach someone. Also, of course, staying true to the name, the book will be available online for free. Hopefully though, this will sell more hard copy and epub formated books. Oh yes, also need to set up smashwords account for epub and digital formats….

So things are moving along, but slowly. The next book will go more smoothly I’m sure, but you’re first baby is always going to entail a learning curve. We’re getting there though.

-JB Smith