An Ordinary Day…

Today was a nothing day. It started late, then I persuaded Husband to help me put my Kindle book, Invisible Jane, on the Amazon paperback programme. This was more complicated than expected and involved a lot of maths (measuring mainly). I managed all the typesetting stuff, but making the computer pages the correct size for the printed book was beyond me. We kept looking at the previews – the first one had words disappearing off the edges, the later ones had tiny amounts of texts in a big page, or giant margins. Eventually we managed to upload a pdf that looked, on the computer screen, okay.

I have never tried the kdp service before, so I have no idea what the finished book will be like. They print them to order, retaining enough money to cover costs. The good thing is it costs me nothing (other than time – lots of time) and I will not have hundreds of books in the cupboard under the stairs (they sort of mock me). The downside is I have absolutely no control over the quality, so they might be no better than if I’d made them myself on a photocopier. I also have absolutely no copies myself, unless I buy them. So when I do book fairs, this book won’t be included. I will order a copy and let you know what the quality is like. I am hoping, as I am not the publisher, that this means the annoying libraries that can demand free copies will approach Amazon, not me. And all those discount secondhand shops will be taking business from Amazon, not me.

Alongside the publishing activity (which took most of the day, on and off, because we kept having to wait for things to load before we could check them), we went to Sevenoaks. Sevenoaks has the best cafe – Marcos – and we wanted a nice coffee and croissant. While we were there, we popped into the Vodafone shop. My lovely iphone3 is finally dying (I get texts three days after people send them, and all my apps keep being cancelled because my phone is too naff for the new systems). Husband took the lead, which was good, as I understood very little of what the assistant was telling us. He talked a lot about androgynous phones, and pixies being in the photos – I just smiled along and pretended I understood. We didn’t buy one. Need to check with Son first.

The rest of the day was taken up with walking the dog, cooking dinner (homemade mince with pasta) and sorting the chickens.

As I said, a nothing day. The sort of day, when you are young, that you feel like you could do without; and the sort of day, if you are going through a bad time, that you long for. As you get older, you realise there is something very precious about an ‘ordinary’ day.

Hope you have a week of nice days.

Take care,
Anne x

xxx

Thank you for reading.

If you enjoyed this, why not take a look at one of my books? Available as Kindle books (in any country) or paperback, they can be bought from bookshops or Amazon. (I think JOANNA is the best one. But my Mum prefers Hidden Faces. And my sister-in-law likes Counting Stars best. Which one do you prefer?)

PS. I have now received a paperback copy of Invisible Jane. The first attempt had rather odd font – so was like reading a school text book. I had another try, and the next one is really very okay. It isn’t as good quality as the books I have published myself, but it does not feel ‘tacky’ – it is still nice enough that you enjoy reading it. I will write a longer blog at some point, comparing the costs and quality of both methods, but I am actually rather pleased with it.

Also, the sunflower (only one survived) in the corn field is now in bloom. This is very exciting! Yesterday I saw a man stop his car and photograph it. I thought that was lovely – son informed me he is probably an investigator for the farmer, gathering evidence for my court case. If I write the next blog from prison, please send bail. And chocolate.