Tag: Vellum

Day 15 – Handy & Used Often: Writing Tools I Can’t Live Without!
My Thoughts · My Writing · Self-publishing

Day 15 – Handy & Used Often: Writing Tools I Can’t Live Without!

Larada Horner-MillerLeave a comment
Writing - handy

Handy writing tools make my life as an author/blogger/poet so much easier. Here’s two I have used for years and one I added in the last few years.

Scrivener 3.5.2

Scrivener logo - handy

This app has become my go-to for beginning and organizing any writing project because of its power to keep everything in one place. Now, I don’t have to wonder where my files are—they are all in this app.

I really realized its power when I wrote the biography of Marshall Flippo, Just Another Square Dance Caller. I had 258,000 words to start with and so much research and files. This program saved my life! And I continue to use it today.

  • Tailor-made for long writing projects
  • Has Project Templates for Blank, Fiction (Novel, Novel with Parts, and Short Story),
  • Non-Fiction (Essay – Chicago Style, General Non-Fiction, Non-Fiction with Sub-heads, Paper –
  • APA, Paper – MLA, Research Proposal, Undergraduate Humanities Essay), Scriptwriting (BBC
  • Radio Scene Style, BBC Taped Dramas, Comic Script, Documentary Script, Screenplay, Stage
  • Play (UK), Poetry & Lyrics and Miscellaneous (Persuasive Lecture and Recipe Collection). It
  • has an Interactive Tutorial, User Manual and Video Tutorials.
  • k Scrivener 3.5.2 costs $59

How To Navigate

1. Download app – have Free Trial – and install.

2. Open App and select Template

3. Gives General Suggestions on Genre – Can import

4. LEFT MENU: Collections & Binder Info – Different for each genre – Shows your folders and files

5. MENU ACROSS THE TOP OF WINDOW: Differs with each genre

6. TOP MENU: File, Edit, Insert, View, Navigate, Project, Documents, Format, Window, Help

7. INSPECTOR – on the side

8. Backups when you save and quit–QUIT APP EACH TIME so that a backup version is generated. Important if there’s any problems later.

How to Add URL’s to Research Folder

1. Go to Research Folder

2. Go File>Import>Web Page

3. Paste in URL

4. Page appears in Research Folders

Resources:

8 Ways Scrivener Will Help You Become A Proficient Writer Overnight

Vellum

Vellum logo - handy

This program has grown with me and offers amazing beautiful choices today it didn’t have originally. It costs more than some of the other apps in its class, but I feel it’s worth it! As I’m working, I can see a preview to the right of what it will look like in the device selected. And recently they have added beautiful designs for lead pages in a chapter, emojos and so much more.

  • Gorgeous Print Interiors
  • Beautiful Ebooks

How to

1. Download Vellum & install

2. Open – Immediately you have the choice to “Import Word File, so click and import document.

3. MENU IN OPEN WINDOW: Navigator and Preview

4. LEFT MENU: Contents & Styles

Contents – Placed your document into chapters.

Styles – Choices for Heading, First Paragraph, Paragraph After Break, Ornamental Break, Block Quotation, Verse, Photograph, Portrait, Caption, Header and Footer, & Body

5. MENU ACROSS BODY: Asterisk Pull down Menu (Subhead, Ornamental Break, Image,Alignment Block, List, Block Quotation, Verse, Web Link and Store Link–PUT ALL TEXT WITHIN ONE OF THESE FOR FORMATTING. Bold, Italics and Underline text. Pull-down Arrow for Font Choices: Small Caps, Sans Serif, Monospace, Superscript Up, Superscript Down, Strikethrough. Right Margin Word Count: Total Document

6. MENU ACROSS PREVIEW: Ebook Formats or Print, Move Forward or Back in Document, Generate Button

7. TOP MENU: File, Edit, Chapter, Text, View, Window, and Help

8. SAVE OFTEN

Resources:

Self-Publishing Tips: How To Format An Ebook And Print Book With Vellum

Squoosh

Squoosh logo - handy

When I wrote Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? in 2021, I had lots of photos because of the topic. I’m a visual learner and I felt the photos helped offset the depth of the emotions we felt with the pandemic. When I published it as an e-book, it’s size was off the map, so after a session with my book coach and group, my book coach asked if I compressed the pictures. No, I had not even thought of it. So I went looking for an app and found Squoosh and have been using it ever since. On top of that, it’s FREE for both Mac and PC.

I use it weekly to compress the beautiful photos I include in my weekly blog. Since 2021, I use it to compress the photos I include in any e-book.

How to

  1. Download the app
  2. Open app
  3. Click and drag photo into app
  4. Immediately it compresses photo, but I usually go Under the Edit menu on the right to the Resize part & select “Preset” on the menu to the right, and resize it by 50% more.
  5. Then to save it, click on the download icon at the bottom of the menu on the right.

That’s it!

Resources:

I found the best image compressor tool, it is called Squoosh. Simple, Clean, Does it job. (Not sponsored)
byu/ishibam97 indevelopersIndia

Finally,

Writers need all the support we can get. These three apps have helped me tremendously over the years! Yes, they are handy and make my life so much more sane.

Larda Horner-Miller - handy
Yes, I smile because of these three handy writing tools!

Professional Reader

My Newest Books

Time Measured Out!: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry, Book #2 – $.99 for limited time

is my truth universal? book cover

Is My Truth Universal?: A Woman’s Poetic Odyssey e-book – FREE

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Was It a Dream?: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry, Book #1 – e-book or $3.99

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Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir e-book on sale for $1.99

Buy My Audio Books:

This Tumbleweed Landed

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Let Me Tell You a Story 

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Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Memoir Audiobook

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The Progress of My New Poetry Book: It’s Moving Along!
My Thoughts · poetry

The Progress of My New Poetry Book: It’s Moving Along!

Larada Horner-MillerLeave a comment
Progress

The progress of my new poetry book has been slow it seems. The dog attack set me back tremendously, but I’m pushing forward! I see daylight today!

E-book Cover Progress

The e-book cover is finalized and I love it! In reality, it has been done since June 26, 2024, but needless to say, my writing life has been diverted for the last ten weeks. I worked with a cover company, 100Covers.com, who created my last two book covers. From the information they requested, they created an inspiring cover. I’ll give you a hint! I collect feathers and have for years, and I didn’t mention that to them. Right now, I have a huge stack of turkey feathers on my buffet in my house in Branson, Colorado my brother saved for me! I just need to clean them up!

Paperback Cover Progress

The paperback cover requires more information because it needs the page count, the color of interior paper, and the book description, a short author bio and an author picture for the back. When I originally worked with 100 Covers in June, I had one page count, but after thinking about it for the last couple months, I changed my mind, and 100 Covers has patiently worked with me and accepted my change. What an amazing company to work with!

Interior Design

I use the Mac app, Vellum, to lay out the interior of the book. I’ve used it for years and love it. In my confusion over the last month or so, I had labeled a page “Table of Contents,” but I had not selected the correct content page. When I finished my book a couple weeks ago, I generated the .pdf copy and it produced no Table of Contents. The program automatically creates the Table of Contents.

So, I contacted the tech support from Vellum and had several emails back and forth about the problem. I even sent the Vellum file to the tech support. They couldn’t figure it out!

One day this last week, I looked at my Hair on Fire file and saw the difference in the item name and realized what I had done! So, I solved it and let the tech support know! Now it produces the Table of Contents perfectly!

KDP Keywords

Last night, I used another amazing app I have in my repertoire of writer’s tools—Publisher Rocket—to research the keywords and categories I will use when listing my new poetry book with KDP.

When an author lists a book on KDP (Amazon’s self-publishing site), you have to provide seven keywords or phrases. Each keyword can have as many as 50 words in it though, so you have to be wise how you list your keywords. I respect David Chesson at kindlepreneur.com and his findings because he has made my life so much easier with Publisher Rocket.

Here’s an article on his site about keywords I found helpful!

7 Kindle Keywords: Use All 50 Characters or Not?

KDP Categories

Amazon has thousands of categories and sub-categories, so the author’s job of find the ones that match your book is daunting. Amazon allows the author to place a book into three categories; however, you can have different categories for your paperback and your e-book.

Again, Publisher Rocket helped me identify which categories match my book the best and which have more possibilities for success for my book.

During the research for the keywords and categories, I created a spreadsheet to capture the information gathered. I’m excited about the results from my research for both the keywords and categories for my paperback. I have to finish the research for my e-book categories.

Finally,

I’ve tried to work on this book project this whole year but I got sidetracked with my wound. I see progress today! I look forward to a successful book launch in the next couple weeks, and as we speak, I’m organizing my poetry for book #2, #3 and #4 in this series!

DOG ATTACK UPDATE:

Last week, I had three appointments. On Monday, I continued my work with a therapist to deal with the trauma of the dog attack. I’m facing EMDR therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). I will keep you updated on the outcome of this type of therapy.

On Wednesday, I returned to the Wound Clinic for my weekly appointment. The wound is healing and shrinking. I don’t have to wear a compression sock all the time now—only when I’m up on my feet a lot. Also, I don’t have to return to the Wound Clinic for two weeks; however, Lin has to change the dressing twice a week. He changed it this afternoon and does such a conscientious job!

Also on Wednesday, I had two MRI tests: one of my foot and the other of my ankle. I will get the result of the tests this Thursday at my orthopedic doctor appointment. I hope the tests have some explanation for the severe pain I have in my foot and ankle.

eBook & Paperback Sweepstakes!

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Podcasts & My Interviews

Buy My Audio Books:

This Tumbleweed Landed

This Tumbleweed Landed audiobook cover

Let Me Tell You a Story 

Let Me Tell You a Story audiobook cover

Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Memoir Audiobook

Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir audiobook cover

Moving Parts of Publishing an E-book!
My Thoughts · Technology · Writing

Moving Parts of Publishing an E-book!

Larada Horner-MillerLeave a comment
Moving parts

Moving parts of publishing an e-book—so many for sure! My new e-book, Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir, has made it through the ringer, available now! This week I struggled with the process and succeeded. Let me share it with you!

Eagerly on Monday, first, I created the new e-book space on KDP, an affiliate of Amazon. I filled in all the required information, which I prepared for a couple of days ahead of time. Lots of research goes into launching a new book for keywords and categories. When a customer searches on Amazon, their search engines use keywords and book categories to find the book—super important for the sales of a book!

Then I uploaded the manuscript to KDP, excited I was finally there. Anticipation about this day had hovered over me for weeks. KDP has an online previewer, thank God! First, I realized I had the Copyright page in the wrong place—after the Table of Contents, not before it. So, in Vellum, the program I use to create my books, I moved it forward one page, but then had to upload the document again. Whew! All these moving parts!

Then, I have several pictures in the book and the placement in Vellum wasn’t true to size. So, I resized and resized and resized, going back and forth several times between KDP and Vellum. Finally, it looked good.

On Tuesday morning, I asked my book coach and group about using my ex-husband’s name in my book. None of what I wrote about him was derogatory, but I have become super cautious about using people’s names.

The solutions they offered: change his name or call him and ask permission. I haven’t talked to him in over forty years, so calling was out of the question. My husband, Lin, had offered the same advice while we discussed this in the hot tub on Monday night.

So somehow, while I was resizing the pictures, I forgot about changing his name in the revisions Tuesday night. Good thing I brought it up to my book coach.

On Wednesday morning, I knew I had to change my first husband’s name. I researched safe names to use for men characters in a book and came up with Alex. Lin came upstairs to my computer, and I told him what I was doing. He came up with a great idea: use a Christmas name. So, I researched Christmas names: Joseph, Nicholas, Rudolph, etc. Our decision: Rudolph!

So that ended the saga! I uploaded the new version of the e-book on Wednesday afternoon and it was ready for purchase shortly!

Finally, I’m waiting for the final cover of the print copy with the description, my picture and brief biography and the ISBN number. Hopefully, it will go smoothly! You never know! Moving parts!!

Did you know all the moving parts of publishing a book? If so, what was your experience?

~Jump in on my Book Launch special next week. From Wednesday, September 13 – Sunday, September 17, Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir will be FREE on Amazon. Click here!

Download new launch: Hair on Fire. Moving parts
Self-Publishing—How Difficult is it?
Book Production · My Books · My Thoughts · Writing

Self-Publishing—How Difficult is it?

Larada Horner-Miller5 Comments
Woman looking at books—self-publishing

As a self-publishing author, I usually do most of the tasks to publish a book. It isn’t easy, but I love it. I write the book. Next, I have always hired a professional editor because I know it’s impossible for me to distance myself enough from my work and not make mistakes. Because of my computer skills, I love laying out the cover, and I have done four of my six books. In self-publishing A Time to Grow Up: A Daughter’s Grief Memoir, I paid someone to do the cover, but I suggested the total layout and added to it.

Also, I do the interior layout with Vellum, a Mac program that creates the print version and four e-book formats. I also enjoy this part because it lets me express myself creatively in how the book’s interior looks.

See how my current book has gone! My new book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? has been hanging on the edge of being published for several weeks. After reading and studying many marketing books, I decided this time I would pay to have the cover done, and that’s been the hold-up. They asked me to send all the parts for the cover in one email and here’s what they required:

  1. Trim size/page size (5X8, 6X9, etc.)

2. Paper type (cream or white)

3. Exact page count of your fully finished formatted manuscript (to determine spine width)

4. Back cover text (the book description usually works for this)

5. Short author bio and picture (this is optional, and please make sure any picture you send for the back cover has a resolution of 300dpi or higher)

6. Your publishing venue (Ingram Spark, KDP, both… if Ingram Spark, please also send the ISBN)

6.5. If you want an Ingram Spark hardcover, would it be a case laminate, dust jacket, or jacketed case laminate?

Normally, when self-publishing, I do everything for the book and am in total control. Then I have total control of the timing. The book cover company I hired for this book finished the e-book cover about three weeks ago, and I liked it.

Then I had a delay with the book description for the back cover of the book which I never write. With my first book, someone advised me to never write my own book description—that I was too close to the work. So, I always hire someone to do it. Recently I was traveling, and she was too, so we had delays because of that. Then she missed the meaning of the book at first, so we had several rewrites. So, this delay held up the cover getting done. Finally, she got the message from the book and wrote an acceptable description.

Then, off to the book cover layout company with all 6.5 items listed above. I provided pictures I wanted used, so I created a Drop Box shared folder. When they did the first paperback cover, the front was easy—it was the e-book cover. They had lots of trouble with the back cover.

I shared a picture with them in Drop Box of Lin’s gorgeous garden for the back cover because I loved the whole idea that so many people adopted gardening and an appreciation of nature during the pandemic. This book addresses a hard topic, so I wanted that positive result reflected in the cover.

After waiting and waiting, I emailed the representative of the company, and he said he emailed it to me three days before—I never received it. So, he resent it. First cover they sent me to approve had no picture on the back cover—it was a bland back cover with only the book description, my picture and a super-short bio.

Then, we started the revision process that took several days—much longer than necessary. When they added the garden picture to the back cover, they overlaid a green shade over it, so you couldn’t see the garden clearly.

So, I asked them to fix that, and they did after several days. Finally, they sent me three choices. Here are two of them. My husband, Lin liked one; I liked the other. Help me select the cover for this book by responding in the Comments section below.

TWO BOOK COVER CHOICES

Choice #1 has the green overlay of the garden. Choice #2 has a colored picture in the background of the Lin’s garden. Vote for one!

Choice #1 – Green overlay
Choice #2 – No green overlay—Colorful

In my future of self-publishing, I don’t know if I will hire someone else to do the cover. If I don’t, I would avoid the frustration of working with an outsider and the expense. But I like the two choices provided for this book, because it looks professional and they did creative things I would not have! What a dilemma!

Are you self-published? How do you handle the stress of self-publishing? AND BE SURE TO VOTE ON WHICH BOOK COVER I SHOULD USE—#1 OR #2? (Scroll below to the Comment area and respond about which cover you liked and your self-publishing experiences.)

Recent Blog Posts You Might Have Missed:

~Pre-Order My New Book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? To be released in August. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdJNjMivaCzk2YcNWHGMoxG4FPsfVEqEQEzYbcYr4tX9cDPVQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

Flippo in the sand—self-publsihing
Flip for Flippo!

~HAVE YOU ORDERED YOUR AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF THE FLIPPO BIOGRAPHY? AVAILABLE NOW! Go to the homepage on my website & pay for it there: https://www.laradasbooks.com

~Here’s Christmas greetings from Flippo & Neeca, featuring his song, “When Its Christmas Time in Texas”: https://youtu.be/mpJCUGffU3A

ALL FOUR E-BOOK FORMATS OF FLIPPO’S BIOGRAPHY AVAILABLE NOW:

~Stop by my website for all the information you need about me & my books: https://www.laradasbooks.com

~Drop by my Amazon Author’s Page: https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B00LLQTXSM

~VISIT MARY ZALMANEK, A FRIEND’S BLOG: Cooking in a One-Butt Kitchen | Eating Well in Small Spaces: https://cookinginaonebuttkitchen.com/