Create a pdf file of your writing!

Today I experimented on the free site simplebooklet.com. I am thinking of writing a few historical picture books to share with my little grandsons, and I was looking for an interactive website that would allow me to do that. I signed up for the free Simple Booklet account, using Firefox as my browser (IE won’t work with this site). Then I was prompted to upload a pdf file, so I uploaded the first few pages of Writing Historical Fiction: Digital Age Advice, including the preface. You can also add text, images, audio files, videos, and links to each page of your booklet, and I will certainly try that for my grandsons.

It took a few minutes for the pdf to convert to the ebooklet, but when it was finished, I was prompted to click on a button that created a custom URL so that I can share my publication. Here is the link http://simplebooklet.com/writinghistoricalfiction

My PDF has been turned into a web optimized flip booklet that I can now email, share, and post the introductory pages of Writing Historical Fiction across the web. Of course, the free account means that my ebooklet will contain ads, but for a small fee, I can have the ads removed. Now, to get busy on that historical story for my grandsons.

Track your book's sales!

Whether your book is self published or traditionally published, it’s easy to track your Amazon sales on the website NovelRank. First, go to your book’s listing on Amazon and copy the link. Next paste the link in the box at NovelRank. The site then gives you your book’s sales rank for Amazon.com, .co.uk, .ca, and .de. You can check a box to add to add France, Japan, Italy (.it), China (.cn), and Spain (.es). Once you have added your book to the site, Amazon begins tracking sales. The site notes that historical data prior to listing your book to the NovelRank site is not available from Amazon, only NovelRank tracking data going forward. Once tracking begins, you will be able to see sales made per month. The free site also includes a FAQ link and a blog.

Writing historical fiction for young readers?

Do you write historical fiction for youngsters? Want to share your writing with young readers online? Or maybe you just want to read the work of others online. Wattpad is a site that allows you to browse the work of newbie and published writers. It contains work in all genres, including historical fiction, with a special appeal to young readers (teens). For the published writer, Wattpad might be a place to increase sales if you post a chapter and then include a link to the title in an e-store. Then a reader could go to the link and purchase your book.

The site is free, but you must create an account to use it. I was able to create an account via Facebook. I plan to use this site as a reader in order to discover what young people are reading and writing in the genre of historical fiction. I think an exploration of the material on Wattpad will inform me as I create my own historical stories for young readers.

New Year's Resolution

Did you promise yourself that you would get more writing done in 2013?  Me too. One of my favorite apps that help me to stay on top of tasks is iDoneThis. IDoneThis is an iPad and iPhone app and website that asks the question every night at about 8 pm: What did you get done today? Then a notepad appears on which you can list your daily accomplishments that you can later access when you want to keep track of them over a longer period of time. This year, I am going to use the app to keep track of how much time I actually spent on writing related tasks.  Then, at the end of the year, I will assess how well (or not) I kept my New Year’s resolution for 2013.