ALTERING YOUR E-BOOK AFTER PUBLICATION: A REPORT FROM A FUGITIVE.

Here are some thoughts on this...

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Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

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With provision, altering a published work is acceptable. But see the preceding paragraph.

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Let's set up a few provisions. Take from the pile as needed. Wouldn't want any of you going hungry.

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I've been working on Neon Gods. It's important that all the sub-plots match. I daren't have anything in book two or book three contradicting material in book one - unless I'm being deliberately devious in order to reveal stunning plot-twists later.
   The work had not been going well. Large cast of characters. Many cults and conspiracies to wade through. And a sticking-point that I only recently ditched.
   For a long time, I stuck to the view that each book in the series would be about the same length. I didn't want to ramble too far from the main path on every new adventure.
   The more I tried to stick to the arbitrary limit of roughly 180,000 words, the more I became a prisoner of the format. I had to break out of a convention that would automatically limit the nature and amount of action in each story.
   Having now ditched the limit, I'll just write the stories I am meant to write. No need to worry about squeezing in so many cast-members.

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Bearing that in mind, I started writing fresh material for Neon Gods. The scene? A rather plush house in the big city. Our anti-hero arrives by cab.
   In the first book I made it clear that cabbies were all government snitches. Cabmen couldn't be trusted. This new scene involved a tame cabbie, pressured into silence.
   I had to refresh the memory.
   Were these people cabbies, cabmen, or cab-men? Possibly a combination. I searched the original file and found my cabbies easily enough.
   Of the seven uses of cabmen, one was hyphenated. Inconsistency must go. I've updated Neon Gods Brought Down by Swords. Which brings me to this blog post.

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Just because we have the capacity to constantly update e-books, doesn't mean that we should. I'm on record as saying this...
   If you really want to go back in and make massive changes to the story, write a new story and call it something else. Make sure you are absolutely straight with your readers when you do so.
   You can, and should, alter your e-book with the following in mind...

One. Correct mistakes, formatting glitches, and other typographical inconsistencies.

Two. If you made a potentially defamatory statement in your e-book, go back in and remove it.

Three. Make mechanical changes to improve the reading experience. For example, a Table of Contents with a better layout. Areas in the front matter of an e-book deserve to be clutter-free.
   In the back-matter of an e-book, you might be forced to update also available entries or biographical notes.
   You may still live in Wisconsin with a husband, but if he's your second husband you might want to mention him by name to avoid confusion and dagger-stares. And a second divorce.

Four. Adding bonus material that was unavailable for various reasons. This is okay. Best to leave it in the back matter.

Five. You spot material that needs tidying on the following grounds...the material as written makes a nonsense of the plot and you realise this late in the day...
   New material adds clarity to the work...
   Legal reasons prevent use of the material as written and something must take its place.

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Time to look at those points. How am I doing?

One. Yes, I spent the better part of a year wrestling with one of Amazon's "known issues" before I found a fix. No one noticed, all the products were updated, and I continued as before.
   Fixing formatting glitches and killing gremlins is inevitable.

Two. No. Haven't defamed anyone yet. Misattributed a contributor, but I managed to put that right.

Three. Yes, I've streamlined Tables of Contents. Periodically, I update the back matter.

Four. I'm considering this, but haven't done it as I blog unto ye. Better, perhaps, to gather additional material in a new collection. Depends on the nature and size of the bonus goodies.

Five. The tricky one, with its three categories. And some of those can be subdivided into other areas. Okay, first part. My plots are all nonsensical anyway, so I have no reason to alter them once published.
   Second part. Adding clarity to the work. I am considering doing this for one story that is already out there. Two areas concern me, both are technical, and, after studying many a YouTube video, I've concluded that a few extra sentences here or there would help the readers out.
   That's not rewriting the story, changing the plot, altering the setting, revamping the characters or anything major. After having published more than a million words, I feel two rough spots could do with flattening. I call that good going.
   If I go ahead with the additional material, providing clarity, I'll talk about that in a blog post. I have no desire to alter the plots of any of my stories.
   The third part. Legal reasons. Haven't faced those yet.

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So what do you need to know about changing your e-book after publication? For the Kindle, you must inform Amazon. Go into the bookshelf, and use the contact us section. Provide as much information as possible. Amazon conducts a review.
   If changes to the work are critical, Amazon will e-mail the people who bought your book. Those readers are entitled to update to the latest version by managing their Kindle.

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What do you really need to know about altering your e-book after publication? My advice is to resist temptation. You write the story you write, and you throw it out there. Let it stay that way.
   If you want to write a better version or take a second stab at it, go for a sequel and show yourself that your writing improved since the Olden Times.
   Don't rewrite your plots. Reach a point at which you cut loose of your story, and let it go. Write another story. Keep going.

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Update on this topic. HERE'S A BLOG POST ABOUT THAT.

OFTEN, READERS JUST HAVE TO LUMP IT. NARNIA RAISED THIS POINT: A REPORT FROM A FUGITIVE.

In an earlier blog post, I wrote of posts that never make it to the blog. They are unfinished or unfinishable. I wasn't planning on using this material. Plans change.

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Writers make mistakes.
   I'm not talking about typos. No. (I tend to type thongs when I reach for the word things. That is a keyboard layout problem. Also, something to do with wildly flailing fingers.)
   Mistakes.
   If you send a woman into a scene with one name and she exits stage-left under another name, your reason for this had best be plot-driven.
   I was thinking about the second woman as I typed up the first woman's adventures. The scene itself involved a woman and a man. Luckily, I nailed the error.
   Yes, I find myself drawing diagrams to help me through the madness of steering characters across the vast plain that is the story.
   Stick-figures will ALWAYS be in fashion.

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Clive Staples Lewis. Lewis calls police. Clive is arrested.
   Lewis wrote all sorts of stuff. He is best-remembered for his books about Narnia. Characters from one world journey to another, and have adventures.
   Perhaps this is what Lewis did, moving from Belfast to England. He journeyed to another world and had adventures, carrying scraps of the earlier world with him.
   That is neither here nor there.
   In telling tales of Narnia, he did something that many readers think of as a big mistake. Characters have access to Narnia. They don't reach the magical place by the same means each time. Also, there's a shifting roster of participants in the tales.
   If you haven't read the stories, I'll gloss over that ending.
   But I'll talk about a side-point that features in the story. One character, Susan, let's call her the sensible one, doesn't turn up in the last book.
   She is no longer a friend of Narnia. Her access to the place is gone. Susan became too sensible to believe in Narnia. It was all just a silly game of childhood pretence.

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Writers make mistakes. Readers do so, too. To what extent?
   The writer creates a tale.
   Once that tale flies free into the world, it is open to interpretation. The writer has to lump it. However...
   There may be things in that tale the writer determines as fixed. Immovable. Beyond wild interpretation. Often, readers just have to lump it. Narnia raised this point.
   Readers thought Susan was somehow banished from Narnia. She'd fallen from grace, committed some crime, discovered nylons and lipstick and invitations...
   Lewis received letters. He did his best to answer the point about Susan. Was she sent to hell? No. Did she ever reach Narnia again? He hoped so.
   Lewis talked of having to write a different kind of book for a tale featuring a grown-up sensible Susan. The writer always has a treasure-store of other considerations when it comes to writing a story. Those considerations don't feature in every story. Not enough time.
   Sensible Susan. Well, going by the book she doesn't feature in, she's silly when no longer believing in Narnia - for she's turned to the sensible world of another reality.

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I ran out of steam, stopped, and turned to another blog post. What was I trying to get at? In Neon Gods Brought Down by Swords, I gleefully murdered a few fantasy standards.
   Sword-wielding male mercenary teams up with female enemy to thwart greater threat. Does he end up in bed with her? No. Readers may bitch about that.
   They just have to lump it. I took that lesson from Narnia.
   And the sequel to Neon Gods...
   Is set at the same time. As is the sequel to that book. So the villain from part one is not brought to book in part two. Or part three.
   Sometimes readers just have to lump it. What appears to be a mistake is down to planning. The reader may feel this is mistaken planning.
   At which point, my advice to the reader is...write your own books. I encourage you to.
  
  
  

NEON GODS CHASTISED BY THIEVES: A REPORT FROM A FUGITIVE.

Dust blew off shelves, and I considered a few sequels. I can't publish Neon Gods Chastised by Thieves right after I've written it. The story collides with Neon Gods Derailed by Claws.
   In turn that story rubs shoulders, and knees groins, with later books. Yes, they are arranged alphabetically. No, that does not mean they take place in some semblance of chronological order.
   The first book was labelled steampunk. A frothy alleyway of the sword and science flavour, this clockwork sewer tributary of a term is neither here nor there to me.
   Still, if the shoe fits, Cyberella...
   I've been writing this series in some strange mosaically-inspired fashion. Eventually, the tiles will fall into place and we'll all see the bigger picture.
   Weeding is helpful. I found two chronologies - which makes sense. There are snippets from the dim past, and those have a place in the mosaic.
   What I found unacceptable was the different time-frames I'd employed across the files. The ancient era ends with the death of a despot a century before...
   He's cut into chunks.
   The year 500-odd is remembered by characters who grew up in the shadows of relatives and their remembrances of times past.
   So far, so normal.
   With the Tyrant's death, a new broom swept in and life rebooted in the year 1. The main story kicks off with the death of a king in the year 99, and the conspiracy that unfolds in 100.
   So far, so normal.
   Events from the Tyrant's time spill a long stain over the stories that happen a century on.
   Everything seemed easy enough to work out. Except, in one file, I labelled the early events in negative numbers leading up to the Tyrant's fall.
   So I had three numbering systems going. Weeding is helpful. All that year -25 nonsense is gone. I created a list, year by year - with the old system and the new - showing who was born, who died, what happened...
   And I banished negativity. This happened in the year 500-odd. And then, after the Tyrant's fall, in the year 23...
   I have whole sections written and whole sections planned. They must flow in and out of competing stories - whole novels - and still make some kind of sense when viewed as a mosaic.
   Progress is glacial. But it is progress. Dozens of files contain notes. Gradually, they are absorbed into larger files. These characters go on that adventure...
   And those characters turn elsewhere.
   This character appears across volumes.
   I have been drawing maps and making charts. Spitting teeth. All to build this strange mosaic. Readers should get it when they see what happens in book two.
   Oh.
   Like that. Or...
   Oh fuck!
   That's more likely.
   I mean it in a good way. Though bad things must happen to much-loved characters. Not that you know who those much-loved characters are, yet. Leave that nonsense to me.

  

HAMLET OR NOT HAMLET. THAT IS THE QUESTION: A REPORT FROM A FUGITIVE.

When I was generating a final copy of my annual archive, I spent time on the Twitter describing that process. I invented new words for slow.
   Bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh wasn't one of those words.
   I sailed into the night, back and forth, between two computers. One machine, at least, had the internet. So I whiled away some of the time in random searching.
   The name of an actress came up.
   I thought I'd check out the internet's opinion of this actress. She gave excellent performances in a few movies I'd seen. I'd long-ago decided she'd serve as the model for a character in one of my books.

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Which one? That character is in my Hamlet adaptation. To avoid confusion, the story's called not hamlet. And that's perfectly true...
   Better to say that it's not just Hamlet. Another story intrudes. One of the features of Hamlet that always interested me was the notion of a play within the play.
   Strolling players visit the castle. Hamlet manipulates them into putting on a particular play. He does this to drop heavy hints about his father's murder.
   Hamlet has no concrete proof - he's playing a hunch based on a chat with a ghost...
   But the play's the thing. Hamlet wants to see the murderer's reaction to the play.

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I thought, suppose the strolling players have their own plot going on. A tale following the murderous trail of the clown, Pagliaccio. Anyway, in my mash-up, Pagliacci works with Hamlet.
   Deep into the night, my archive takes an age to sort out, and, internetting, I stumble on this actress. She's the one I think of when I imagine the character Columbina.
   I fix files. And I copy files. I use the Twitter to reveal the slowness of file-movery. At some point, it's 2.00 in the morning and I'm reading the blog of an actress.
   She has a blog? Worth checking out?
   As events showed, yes. There were insightful gems on that blog.
   The night before, I was writing until 1.00 in the morning. Odd hours? I don't think so. Normally I wouldn't go far beyond 1.00 if writing.
   Background archiving was looking after itself, but I had to look after that too. I owned that paranoid feeling. Must do this now. If I switch the computer off and wait until morning, the whole system might fritz.
   Of course, that paranoia stems from an actual event. HERE'S A BLOG POST ABOUT THAT.
   This is why I stayed up until 2.00. Archiving wasn't allowed to stop for mere sleep.

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My Hamlet adaptation stalled after six chapters when no one wanted to publish it. After writing just six chapters, I decided I'd shop a story around unfinished.
   Confidence in the finished article, nestled in some futuristic world we'd reach one day.
   The future, though, was floating on the mighty Amazon. I published the first chapter of not hamlet in my INCOMPLETE UNCOLLECTED SHORT WORKS.
   Kindle's there to be used.
   I've been looking at that excerpt. And I'll let it stand as it is, in the collection. But for release into the wild as a full novel, I think my early attempt at Kindle formatting must go.
   Hamlet's adventures deserve shorter paragraphs. They'll be the same paragraphs - just chopped in half for ease of digital reading.
   Midnight descends. I'll finish this post another time. Sleep is considered essential by some. But only if you wish to function. No staying awake until 2.00 this time around.

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Where were we? This is not a tale of evil kidney transplantation. (With regard to a non-functioning external hard drive, we're in the realms of dodgy transfusion.)
   Hamlet. I stayed up late, fixing the archive. And I read a blog. That actress was on my mind. Obviously, I thought of Columbina. In my tale, she's Pagliacci's second wife. She serves as inspiration for Pagliacci's move into Hamlet's world...

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But this blog post isn't about any of that stuff. At 2.00 in the morning I'd read the woman's blog, archived my fiction, and had enough.
   Come morning, even though I was thinking of Shakespeare and Leoncavallo, my main thought was of the archive. I bring things forward each year, so my freshest vault contains the latest copies and updates of Kindle PRC files.
   That's in case I iron out a glitch or alter some blurb.
   Projects in progress as one year ends are archived within that year. Then they are copied to a new year for further work. The old archive is then left lying around on the off-chance that something catastrophic happens.
   Though for something catastrophic to happen to fresher chunks of files and NOT to me too, I'd have to be out of the building when that plane hits.

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My thoughts went to Neon Gods Brought Down by Swords and all its sequels and offshoots. I knew I had to weed out that sub-archive. So that's what I've been doing. Weeding.
   The books that follow the first volume don't exactly follow the first volume. They exist at the same time. Same setting. A few scenes overlap.
   Old ground. Different viewpoints.
   It's a nightmare, juggling those characters. She's here, and hears that news. So she can't be there when that event happens, as she's come from yonder to be here.
   Like that. Multiplied.
   I can't let things fester beyond all rational and irrational control. With this in mind, I started destroying duplicate files. Devious ones.
   Files with different names containing duplicated text. I had to cap a lid on that bullshit.
   And I created a massive table, showing the first book's timeline, with the out-of-sequence flashbacks set down in chronological order.
   Yes. The fun part of writing. Continuity is important to some people. Maybe it's a phase readers are going through.
   So far, only part of the plot of book four felt the strain. Sorting out the action in books two and three should smooth the running for books four and five.
   Especially as she's here when she hears that news.

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Lots of ideas. Plenty of books on the unwritten pile, waiting to go. Where does that leave Shakespeare, if I turn my attention to a sprawling series instead?
   I'll get to those assorted tales. Without rushing. Every year, my ambition is to write a whole bunch of books. And this year is no different.
   Every year I take interesting detours into reading, or experiencing stuff, or damn-well thinking through ideas that are no good and must be worked on. Sometimes, worked over. As in...
   Tied to a chair. Blowtorches are waved.
   Anyway. I published. And I'll go on publishing. Every detour into another project creates another project.
   I must away, to see to more archiving. There's a file (with chapter titles in it) that flies in the face of the plot of at least two books...

  
  



  

READ TUESDAY SALE FOR THE 10TH OF DECEMBER 2013.

Welcome to READ TUESDAY. This blog post draws attention to the first ever READ TUESDAY sale. Mad scientist Chris McMullen is responsible. He's hoping to build a death-ray - one he can use on that arch-villain, Illiteracy.
   Anyway, I know I have to plug my work. So here's that plug, for a few books. The first is a sword and science tale. You may think of it as steampunk. There's gas-lighting. Clockwork. Ooh, shiny things in the dark...
 
I am Sorcha Nic Lir. Kill me, if you dare.   Seven men are fated to be sent into the dark. They mustn’t know that they are going to die. There’s no telling who they’ll bargain with, if they think that they are under threat. If they manage to convert the assassin to their cause, everything will fall apart at the outset.
   Fortunately, there’s a plan for dealing with the assassin. It’s the same plan, with the same element of risk. He, too, must not know that he is marked for death. There’s no telling who he’ll bargain with, if he thinks that he’s under threat.
   Gilach Mac Gilach will bargain with anyone, and possibly anything, if it means staying alive that little bit longer. Sent to the city to extinguish the lives of seven ne’er-do-wells, Gilach falls foul of a sudden change in the political mood.
   Within seconds of arrival, he realises that the rules of the game, and promises of gold, mean nothing to the covert agents pulling his strings. The stakes are ridiculous, the odds beyond reckoning, and the treasure unwinnable. Those factors never stopped him before. They could earn him a spot six feet under, this time round…
 
Meanwhile, in another part of the forest...
 
Selena Salem spins tales o’ witchcraft, and worse. Mystified strangers are invited to her kitchen table to hear uncanny stories. Fanning the blood-spattered cards, Selena casts her storytelling spell into the rainy Scottish night.
   Tonight’s tale is one of war between greedy clans. The clan o’ the Hand hires the man in the scarlet cap to do the clan’s bidding. His task? Destroy the clan o’ the Eye and the clan o’ the Tongue. No easy feat for mortal man. A difficult job for a warlock.
   Enter Rory: bandit-killer and lover of married women. The Laird o’ Tongue sends Rory to redress the balance of power by hiring witches. Rory stands on the brink of destruction at the cottage of Selena – prentice witch. Selena’s uncle may be too tired for the fight to come. All the while, the clan o’ the Eye keeps watch. Who will triumph, in this devilish tale of magic gone awry in the service of mortal men?

   
For Amazon Kindle, free on Tuesday the 10th of December 2013.
 
Neon Gods Brought Down by Swords.
 
WITCHES.

MY AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE.

@RLL_author.
Signpost blog, RLL AUTHOR.

Blog, REPORT FROM A FUGITIVE. (THOUGHTS ON PUBLISHING BY AN AUTHOR ON THE RUN.)

 

GEORGE R.R. MARTIN AND NECROPHILIA.

By necrophilia, or what the Americans quaintly call necro-feel-ya, I mean the unfortunate exploitation of an artist's work beyond that artist's lifetime.
   Those of you interested in fucking corpses will have to look elsewhere. I have no evidence that George R.R. Martin fucked corpses - though he created plenty in his fiction. So, again, for those of you misconstruing the meaning behind this blog post, seek help in other places.
   I stopped reading A Song of Ice and Fire - Martin's saga inspired by the Wars of the Roses. I'll summarise and say imagine Lancaster versus York, transplanted to a world of Martin's creation. The bloody rose of Lancaster became the golden lion of Lannister. And so on.
   Why stop reading? I'm waiting for one of three things to happen. One. My death. Two. George R.R. Martin's death. Three. The completion of his series during his lifetime.
   I decided to hold fire. Not a hard decision. I'll wait for the whole series to come out before I pick up another of those books. When George isn't off spending time hunting a great white whale, he's planning deep in the labyrinths of his mind - for his brain contains more than one labyrinth.
   Putting the books out there is taking a lot of thinking and doing. Einstein gave us an equation for turning energy into published volumes. The effort is tremendous.
   If Mr Martin dies, whole worlds die with him. And then what? Necrophilia? What are the lures allowing another to finish what the creator started? There are two major lures which spring to mind. The first is monetary.
   Copyright law allows for the financial exploitation of material after a creator's death. At the time of writing, that period is 70 years. Or for as long as the Great Ormond Street Hospital exists, in the case of receiving certain royalties delivered by young Peter Pan.
   Why does the right exist beyond death? If you want to boil the notion to its essence, the literary estate is there to care for the deceased author's destitute spouse and child. That's your story nutshell.
   The other lure is the lure of unfinished business - finishing something for the fans.
   Both lures are of interest. They may be weak or strong. I don't happen to have a term for what happens to an estate that is managed well after death. (Lucky?) When the thing's done badly, why don't we call that necrophilia...
   There are a lot of people out there who foam at the mouth when it comes to George R.R. Martin and the time it takes that man to finish writing a book. Well, a book takes as long as it takes to write. That loose description is multiplied, not added to, when tackling a saga.
   Here's a quote from Mr Martin.
   "It never would have dawned on me to write to Professor Tolkien and say, 'You better hurry up with The Silmarillion before you die, old man.' What kind of cretin does that?"
   When I read that comment, I was reminded of the things that were said of Tolkien. His readers - and those were certainly not the fans he'd pick up later - went around frowning, muttering...
   "But what if he dies before he finishes it?"
   In Professor Tolkien's case, his son Christopher would have stepped, nervously, into that gap. Christopher ended up as a Gandalf-like literary steward for the printed side of the Tolkien estate. He had far less say over movie rights, which his father parcelled off.
   "They gutted the book, making an action film for 15- to 25-year-olds."
   You'll have to read The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, and sit through Peter Jackson's movies, to determine whether those films might stray under my heading of necrophilia. No one is saying you have to. I'm just saying.
   Inside knowledge. Is that a good thing? Christopher Tolkien's taste for scholarship and his insider's view of his father's work helped keep necrophilia at bay as far as the written word was concerned. He has his detractors, of course. Christopher happens to be one of them.
   I've heard wretched things said of Frank Herbert's son. Doesn't mean they are true. Frank Herbert created a story about giant worms in the sand. Or something. I'm not quite sure. Having not read the books, I thought I'd give the movie a go when it popped up on television.
   The movie is a brave effort to tell some kind of story about giant worms in the sand. Or something. The movie has its fans. One of those was Frank Herbert. I didn't take an interest in the books. Except to note that, after his death, the dunes of Dune seemed to stretch endlessly.
   Raiders of Dune. Henry and Dune. The Dune Cookbook. I may have made that last one up. Along with the first two.
   It's a dirty game, shooting at an unread target. I considered reading some Dune books to give this blog entry a veneer of respectability. But having a veneer of respectability would destroy the last shred of respectability I possess.
   When is necrophilia not necrophilia? Franz Kafka didn't want his work to see the light of day. Max Brod was meant to throw the pages on the fire. Was Max thinking of the money? Or of unfinished business?
   Brian Herbert was undoubtedly thinking of his dear old dead dad Frank when he raked around in the garage and uncovered notes for all those things of a sandy nature.
   An author dies and a movie goes into production. Unfinished business with the fans? Or the lure of cash for the destitute spouse and child?
   On a side-note, necrophilia conducted while the subject is alive is...I don't know. Cannibalism? When an author disappears up his or her own fundament.
   Accusations have been aimed at George R.R. Martin. He's lost the plot. It's very easy to say that if you've never had to plot. Martin is taking time to reach the end of his tale.
   We can only hope he reaches the story's end before his own. Then we'll see how much of the plot he lost. Or how much of a corner he managed to paint himself out of. His world is a large place, with a long history...
   I suspect one structural element to his saga bugs readers more than anything else does. Some of his characters die for no reason. Well, you see that in the news on a daily basis.
   People die for no reason. I think Mr Martin is attempting to hold a broad broad tale together without committing the ultimate crime...
   If you tie off every single loose end in a saga, you are doing something wrong.
   Why did I read the first few books? As entertainment. On the authorial side of things, I saw, immediately, that I didn't write that way myself. So it was good to have a bit of variety. Something different. Deep in my archive, I found early notes for Neon Gods Brought Down by Swords.
   And I was shocked to see I'd dated the ancient paperwork. Yes, 1991. So, old George and I set down ideas for a fantasy series in the same year. He spent half a decade getting to publication. A quarter of the time it took me to put my first volume out there.
   Why, Mr Martin. You are starting to seem speedy by comparison.
   I had many detours with which to contend. So how goes my own fantasy saga? I still see the series as ten isolated books, readable in isolation. Missed one? Not to worry. In that vein.
   Other stories claim more of my attention. But I return to Neon Gods from time to time. Book two bleeds into book three, and book three haemorrhages into book four.
   Some people sketch their worlds in coloured chalk. Others go for the bronze statue based on the oil-painting - that approach takes longer. I'm working my way up to coloured chalk, by mining it.
   Advice for writers? Try not to disappear up your own fundament - or someone else's, for they may press charges. What do writers owe readers?
   A sense of professionalism. Speed is another matter entirely. From Missy Biozarre came the worrying comment, "I rather like having credibility as a writer."
   She wasn't hinting that I have none, I hope. My head is in the clouds - and it's difficult to disappear up your own backside when the other end is far below. Yes, yes, in the gutter looking at the stars. As for death, I'm reminded of a recommendation from Kacey Vanderkarr. "Please don't die!"
   I'm not creating a broad tapestry. More a fishing-net. Yes, that was a reference to my own work. Hit that free audio on the blog for more details.
   Technique. I have a few corners I don't want to paint myself into. But looking across at George R.R. Martin, I don't have his trouble. I created a non-saga of a saga with Neon Gods - and that generates other problems on a different approach.
   Necrophilia? Mr Martin doesn't need the cash. If he makes it to his own end before finishing the story, cash will serve as the least of his worries.
   At that point, it's up to his wife - if she's still around - to say what's what. The other lure, of unfinished business, may prove contrary to George's wishes. Max Brod ignored Kafka so that Kafka would not be ignored.
   Was that a fancy way of hoping Mr Martin finishes writing the story so that we needn't worry over the literary legacy, body-snatchery, and necrophilia? Maybe. When the series is finished, I'll pick the books up again. Or more likely, I'll read the books from the start.
   Until then, other tales occupy my mind. Some of those are ones I'll have to start writing. And finish writing. Though clearly a fantasist, I am under no illusions when it comes to the heady notion of legacy...
   I can't shake the sensation that my work has no lasting merit. And I don't write with the intention of creating a legacy. So I should be spared necrophilia. In every fucking sense.

READ TUESDAY. MY SALE PLAN ON THE DAY - 10TH OF DECEMBER 2013.

This blog has seen several guest stars on it - all in the name of READ TUESDAY. (Described in blurb as a BLACK FRIDAY winter sale event, but for books.)
   Surely I can't plug my books here. This isn't just about the sale.
   Eventually, though, the sale comes. After plugging a whole bunch of people - but not in a gangsterish way - I've arranged a space on the blog. Here, I'll drop anchor and show off my wares.
   I'll repeat what I said over at GREEN EMBERS.

*

 

Click on that image to go to Amazon.

My FICTION FACTORY line is for Kindle stories around the 30,000-word mark. WITCHES serves as a great introduction to the series.
   If you like fairy tales steeped in intrigue, with a touch of what we Scots call the unca’ – the uncanny – then this story is for you.
FICTION FACTORY tales are full of witches, werewolves, vampires, assassins, aliens…
   Each story opens with a prologue and then runs three chapters, closing with story-creation notes. With that format, at that general length, you get a great story told in the space available for the price charged.
   So, on READ TUESDAY, swamped by all those cut-price full-length novels, consider my free story…
   Then find yourself on the sofa of a cold winter’s night, reading a tale o’ witches…

Read Tuesday Sale Plan:

I’ll have two Kindle books on sale come READ TUESDAY, but I’m not greedy – I’ll only plug the one here. Both books are free on the day.
   What? I’m not making money from the sale? Of course, those who like what they read may return to purchase from the paid stall.
But READ TUESDAY isn’t just a sale.
   It’s about getting people talking about reading and writing books. In the run-up to the big day, I’m featuring READ TUESDAY participants on my blog…
   However, I am also offering blog space to authors who can’t make the sale on that Tuesday.
   More importantly, I am offering space on my blog to those fragile creatures – unpublished writers. Publicity doesn’t always have to be in aid of the published.
   I’m willing to support those who want to see their books out in time for the next READ TUESDAY in 2014. Dare to dream. Then dare to do more than dream.

*

 

This is my blog, so I will give space to the other book on sale that day. I'll be using discount pricing in future sales - but, as the December sale day came through mistimed against my Amazon sale cycle, I'm not running partial discounts on the day. No - I'm going into the free zone...
 

 Click on that image to go to Amazon.

Looking to get away from the epic quest in fantasy fiction? You've come to the right place.
   Neon Gods Brought Down by Swords takes you through the steam-powered streets of a blood-flecked city.
   The only people who aren't on Gilach Mac Gilach's side are the ones who really really aren't on his side.
   Swords flash in the gaslight. Oaths are broken, or uttered.
   If Gilach is lucky, he'll have a moment of inspiration and uncoil himself from the Serpentine conspiracy.
   Of course, he'll have to survive an encounter with the deadly Sorcha - she's the sort of woman who'd want Gilach dead BEFORE meeting him.
   And there's wisdom in that view.

*

Check out both books now using the LOOK INSIDE! feature over on Amazon. To read of Sorcha's early misadventures, click on the HALLOWE'EN INAUGURATION page on this blog for a free story.
   Neon Gods Brought Down by Swords and WITCHES will both be free on READ TUESDAY. You'll find a bunch of authors plugged on GREEN EMBERS and in many other locations.
   If you pick up my free stories on the day, do something for me - an act of remembering. Remember those stories carry weight. They may sit lightly on your Kindle. Pretend they are heavy.
   Free weightless books take more effort to read on the Kindle, for some reason. Treat the stories as readable - I didn't write them to be stored. I say that as a reader of paper books...I know exactly how hard it can be to read free stuff on the Kindle...
   (It's hellish, kick-starting that engine.)
   If you are storing free books on the Kindle, ask yourself why. Then read something. This goes for all those e-books out there on the day. Not just mine.
   And now, I say this to you. If you read my work, try to write a review. I'm not asking for rose petals strewn ahead of my sandaled feet in the streets of ancient Rome...
   No.
   All any scribbler could ask for is reviews. I won't come to your house for dinner if you give me five stars, and I won't be camped outside with a rifle if your view heads in the other direction.
   READ TUESDAY is about reading and writing. Try reading our books. And try writing reviews. We, as writers, hope you enjoy reading. For we enjoy writing.

READ TUESDAY 2013.

Why not read every day of the week?
   READ TUESDAY is set for the 10th of December, 2013. This event is the brainchild of Chris McMullen. According to the Fleischer brothers, Christmas Comes but Once a Year.
   Though the push to sell gifts begins around September. What is a Christmas atmosphere? It's Christmas Christmas Christmas on television from the 1st to the 24th of December.
   On the 25th, the advertising industry turns its attention to holiday breaks. Book now!
   Let's apply that phrase to READ TUESDAY. Book now. Here's Chris in his own words...

*

THE PROBLEM: Black Friday and Cyber Monday are huge days for holiday shopping among retailers. However, most customers are buying electronics, toys, tools, and clothing.
   Most of the millions of books to choose from won’t be advertised as part of the Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales events, and most books probably won’t be discounted more than normal (except for any bookstores that choose to run storewide sales on those days).
   Many books may sell fewer copies than usual because many customers are busy shopping for other items that are featured in advertisements.
However, many people love to read books and would enjoy the opportunity to buy discounted books as part of a big sales event. Authors and publishers would similarly love to have a great sales event like Black Friday, but dedicated to books.

THE IDEA: Thousands of authors participate in special one-day pricing of incredible discounts. The event will be called Read Tuesday and is scheduled for Tuesday, December 10, 2013.
   It’s simple, really: Each author promotes his or her own discount while simultaneously promoting the huge event. No author needs to do more work than normal, but by being part of a huge group of authors involved in this, each author can gain the enhanced publicity of the event as a whole.
   This encourages authors to participate in the event, as well as small publishers and booksellers.
   Of course, Read Tuesday is wonderful for readers, too. It’s a great opportunity for readers to stock up on books by their favorite participating authors. It’s also a great way to send gifts: instant delivery – but you can schedule the delivery, too – and no shipping or handling charges.

*

Tuesday comes around, and the e-book industry has its sale day. How did I bump into Chris and his event? Amazon revamped sale days for Kindle books.
   HERE'S A BLOG POST ON THAT.
   Before I threw a story into the new discount sale process, I ran searches on the internet to see what people were saying. That's how I discovered Chris.
   Here's his blog post on AMAZON COUNTDOWN.

*

Self-publishing is about experimenting. I'm going to include Neon Gods Brought Down by Swords in READ TUESDAY.
   Yes, READ TUESDAY is a publicity campaign. But joining that campaign would be an act performed without heart and soul if I signed up to it and did little more than paint my book across the READ TUESDAY sign.
   I must do more than stumble across the threshold of a digital publicity campaign. This isn't about me. It's about people I don't know.
   We are in the same literate boat, sailing in a tempestuous non-reading ocean.
   Action? I'm going to do my best to plug writers participating in READ TUESDAY. How? I'll provide a list of twenty questions, for starters. Those I'll answer and give to other writers. Yes, I'll take my answers on tour.
   Meanwhile, those writers might just answer my questions here on this blog. I don't think that's enough, though. Something tells me I'll have to plug writers who are unable to participate in READ TUESDAY.
   Those scribblers may not be in a position to run a discount on the day - for assorted technical reasons. Hell, I'll throw their replies on the blog anyway.

*

I stopped blogging to set a wrecked train of events in motion. A few READ TUESDAY participants were easy to contact. One website exploded when I went walking across a grassy meadow.
   For grassy meadow read MINEFIELD.
   That was on the technical side. As for content...there are authors I wouldn't make blush. Sending my answers to twenty questions would redden the cheeks of more than a few scribblers.
   What of the debauched? They can look after themselves. Half the time.

*

The process is gathering prototype snowball speed. Stay tuned. This blog post was brought to you by the READ TUESDAY banner, designed by Melissa Stevens at www.theillustratedauthor.net.
  

AMAZON KINDLE COUNTDOWN.

Cut the red wire! No, the blue wire!
   Does it really matter, when the hero of our movie is the only colour-blind bomb disposal officer in the world?
   This isn't that sort of countdown. Since time out of mind, Kindle authors have been complaining...
   Well, that is the default setting.
   Kindle authors have been complaining about the difficulty of doing anything and everything for the Kindle arranging a discount at Amazon.
   The Kindle Countdown feature now does that discount thing. How well? Er...
   Glitches are expected. At the time of fevered typing, we're coming up on two years of Amazon's KDP Select plan for World Domination®.
   I mention that for a reason. Books enrolled in Select are now eligible for the discount scheme. Kindle books in Select are, by definition, Kindle books - digitally exclusive to Amazon for a 90-day stretch.
   Those books are free to read for Amazon Prime customers. And they are also free to read on five sale days within each 90-day period.
   Now the discount feature has been thrown at Kindle authors with products enrolled in Select. At the start of this offer, which will widen through a process of digital soil-erosion and computerised global thawing, two territories are available...
   Kindle Select books published on Amazon.uk, and the slightly larger Amazon.com, may be enrolled in the Countdown process. Territorial issues are for authors only - customers worldwide who access .com or .uk can purchase products. (I'll mention VAT in a moment.)
   The property in question is made available at a discount for a chosen period, with the option of using a sliding discount scale set against a ticking clock.
   Drop the price of your book to £/$1.99 for a one-day sale. Or run that discount for a week. Yes, there are terms and, glued to terms at the hip-joint, conditions. It is possible to run a sale for as little as an hour.
   As with standard sales, your work must have been available at the higher price for a given period prior to the sale. And your book will have to stay in Select for a set term after the sale, with some time- and price-based provisos.
   Good feature? The phased part of the sale. A book can start out at £/$1.99, then rise to 2.99 next day, 3.99 next day. Or you could run that by the hour if you wanted to cause a stampede.
   Get them while they're cheap.
   So how did my immediate experience go? I received the e-mail telling me of the feature late on Friday the 1st of November. On reading the Amazon FAQ list, I went straight to my bookshelf to check on two eligible books.
   Inside the dashboard I had the option to run free sale days, as usual under Select, or switch over to the Countdown. I decided I'd try the promotion immediately with one book, and hold the other back for a follow-up attempt.
   We're talking minutes after I received the e-mail.
   Nothing happened. I went to apply a phased sale to LYGHTNYNG STRYKES, which is available on Amazon.com at $9.99.
   Though if you buy my book on Amazon.com from anywhere in Scotland, VAT is added. Right now, that makes the book cost $10.32 to non-Americans.
   LYGHTNYNG STRYKES goes for £6.48 including digital VAT on Amazon.uk. VAT stands for Vampire Value Added Tax. The VAT replaced an unfair Purchase Tax with a new, improved, form of same. Improvement retained the sense of unfairness.
   Old-fashioned paper books are exempt from VAT. Shiny cutting-edge electronic books are not exempt, though the rate was reduced.
   Enough digression. I tried to apply a discount. A blank box came up with an X inside, allowing me to close the blank box. I shut the non-message. Then I tried setting the times for my discount sale. Couldn't access the calendar.
   I left that novel and tried Neon Gods Brought Down by Swords. Same thing. When I switched to setting free sale days, I found I could access the calendars without difficulty.
   All I could do then was contact Amazon for support. No discount for my books at all, it seemed.
   Saturday came around. Amazon confirmed that the non-message box contained a message I was supposed to see. This glitch was being fixed and should be sorted within the week.
   As soon as I read that e-mail, I jumped to my bookshelf - without a stuntman - and tried again. The fix was in, and I called up calendar details without any hassle.
   When it comes to Information Technology fixes, they'll take the stated week or they'll be fixed by the time someone tells you it'll take a week to see to the solution.
   I set my sale. As I was into Saturday by this time, the earliest I could run the discount was Monday. I thought, the hell with it. Run a Monday to Friday discount, stepping the price up each day.
   Self-publishing is an experiment. So, experiment. I could have run a heavy discount for a whole week. But I wanted to see what happened when I played with this shiny new toy.
   I'll start off at 0.99, and turn it up a notch each day.
   A few clicks of easily-clickable things, and the discount was set. I could still alter details up to a day before launch.
   But what did it all look like? I hit a few examples on Amazon, to see. The Amazon.com page was hellish. There was a clock, counting down. PRICE GOES UP TO XXXX IN XXXX. My first visit to the Amazon.com site was awful because...
   The clock was counting down second by second and THE PAGE REFRESHED EVERY SECOND, JUST TO COPE. Not a good experience for the customer.
   I immediately switched to Amazon.co.uk. The page didn't refresh. Instead, the clock animation worked as intended. Since then, I've revisited Amazon to see if that glitch persisted. The Amazon.com site now works just fine.
   It seemed important to me, in talking about the discount feature, to give you a taste of the glitches and gremlins I faced. So. Where now?
   The discount system does not destroy the value of the free sample. If you aren't sure about buying a Kindle book, check the free sample available on all Kindle books at Amazon.
   In the case of LYGHTNYNG STRYKES, you can read well into chapter three if I misremember correctly. That's 30,000 words, free. If I have you at 30,000 words, you may as well buy the damn thing.
   Buy it at a discount on Monday the 3rd of November 2013. It goes up in price the day after. And the day after that...
   Further thoughts? Yes. The discount system sits as an alternative to the free sale day option. Will discounting replace the free option?
   Free samples are fine. Check the Hallowe'en page on this blog for a free short story. Listen to a free audio version of a tale from INCOMPLETE UNCOLLECTED SHORT WORKS right here on this blog. If you are a DOCTOR WHO fan, there's a whole novel-length piece of fanfic right here on the blog. Not to come over all Guy N. Smith on you, but click, click, click.
   Of course, it's too soon to tell. Authors may make so much use of the ticking clock that the free option disappears under the weeds.
   We shall see.

*

Of all the things he expected to find inside the woman’s cupboard, this was the one thing so far off Johnny’s list that he thought he’d wandered into another house by mistake. Obviously, the next turn of events had to be even stranger than the last turn of events. Unless the next strange turn of events was a return to normality. That made perfect sense to Johnny.
   The only thing stranger than another strange turn of events would be a normal turn of events so normal that it would have to be classed as strange. He knew one thing. The town was well-named. Turning in response to the sound of voices, Johnny wondered how he’d explain his naked intrusion of the bedroom. The cute teddy covering his nether regions was no help at all.
   By night, Dick and Marnie are investigators of super-secret occult-based extra-terrestrial governmental cover-ups and conspiracies. During daylight hours, Dick sells gerbils to people who feel the need for pets. No one actually knows what Marnie does for a living.
   After years of hovering on the edge of uncovering THE ULTIMATE CONSPIRACY, Dick discovers that THE ULTIMATE CONSPIRACY has come looking for him. The consequences are far from cosy, and will lead Dick and Marnie to the strange town of LYGHTNYNG STRYKES. A town that’s about to turn ten degrees stranger.
   Join Dick, Marnie, Stealth Writer, the Man in Black, other Men in Black not related to the first Man in Black, Plausible Daniel, and a peculiar bunch of swans, in the search for the secret secret behind the real secret that isn’t the real secret.

296,000 words. Contains adult themes and blushworthy elements designed to frighten the horses. On hearing that there was a prize for writing bad sex scenes in fiction, I thought how hard can it be to win that? Though deliberately setting out to write such material may automatically disqualify me from the process…

 

 

BLOGGING WITH BLOGGER - NOT AS INFURIATING AS IT USED TO BE.

Cold rain fell in stair-rods.
   Now I am struggling to remember the last time I was in a house with stair-rods. That's far from the point. I'm remembering

Fuck - talk about irony. (WILL RETURN TO THIS COMMENT.)

   Anyway, as I was saying before I was SO interrupted, I'm remembering the weather from the night I opened my blog for business.
   There were comments before I opened officially. But the proper start to this blog came on a cold rainy night - Hallowe'en, 2011. I walked through the rain-drenched streets, dodging the raindrops.
   Rain fell so hard it clanged, disintegrated, and rose off the pavement in a misty swirl.
   My plan was to publish a book on Amazon. Before I did that, I'd blog six times. And before I did that six-post run, I'd start my blog. Before I did that, I'd run a test transmission or two.
   How to start my blog? Hell, if you blog as a writer of fiction then put a story on that blog.
   Over the weekend I wrote The Chalice in the Snow and nailed it on my blog's Hallowe'en Inauguration page. Just. Barely.
   Took me hours. Using this method of blogging. BLOGGER. I suspect infuriated users spell it in a slightly different way.
   Mm.
   I sat in the public library, sand running out. Wrestling the story into place was a hellish experience. The interface turned its face away.
   But I persisted, and the job was done. Spooky story, released into the wild Scottish night on Hallowe'en. Pronounce it hal. Not hollow. Then it'll sound more Scottish.
   It's hard to fit the letter r in there, to make the word sound e'en mair Callydonian.
   Hallowe'en...argh!
   Using the public library for internet access brought its own problems. Addicts in the library. Technical faults became REALLY technical in a public place. Other distractions.
   The limit of time.
   Looking at my archive, I see that I blogged ten times in that first year - not counting dedicated pages. After that opening, I blogged at least once a week.
   Lately, I've been blogging more - as I now have the internet at home. The constraint of time was eased away. That made blogging less infuriating.
   No addicts, or similar distractions.
   The blog interface changed from that time to this. BUGGER, whoops, BLOGGER used to be bluer. I grew familiar with the backstage layout. Then the bastards moved production to a new theatre.
   If you are desperate for a whiff of the olden times, the internet will help you in your quest to return to that earlier interface.
   I started this post thinking blogging was easier for two reasons. One. I use the internet at home. Two. The change to the interface was for the good, in the end.
   But I reached...

Cold rain fell in stair-rods.
   Now I am struggling to remember the last time I was in a house with stair-rods. That's far from the point. I'm remembering

   That's when I received the warning that my work couldn't be saved, and I'd have to do something about it. Sacrifice goats. (Again? Really?)
   Anyway, if you are planning to blog about being a writer of fiction, throw some fiction on your blog. Try that Hallowe'en Inauguration page. See how things worked out for me.
   The story serves as an introduction to Sorcha, from Neon Gods Brought Down by Swords. That's a book I published on Amazon, after running my blog for a few weeks...
   Yes. All according to a plan that depended on the public library for internet access. I'm surprised I managed to publish the short story under those noisy conditions.
   Blogging. Not as infuriating as it used to be. Haven't lost a blog post yet. Is that the main thing? It'll do for now.

  

KINDLE FORMATTING. PARAGRAPH INDENTATION.

This next piece proved useful to people, so I’ll repeat it here with a few visuals thrown in.

To turn my story into a Kindle product, I use MS Word and convert the file to PRC using Mobipocket Creator. (PRC is nothing to do with China, as far as I know.) Go to the Kindle section of Amazon. Find a book, any book, inviting you to LOOK INSIDE!

   Do just that.
   What are you looking for? The first line of the story. Chances are, that line is indented. Amazon has a default setting within its publishing factory, which has given rise to this decidedly non-paperback phenomenon.
   When I was struggling to deal with the format of my first self-published manuscript, I soon discovered this joyful stumbling-block. That’s what the Previewer is for. Well, how do I get my book to look like a book? With the first paragraph free of indentation…
   Solution?
   I couldn’t find one. Answer – chip away at all possible permutations until I found one that worked. This solution relates to using Microsoft Word for the original text, before it goes through the caterpillar-butterfly transformation.
   Start with the chapter title. Type carefully. The chapter title ends with a tap of the return key. MS Word recognises this symbol as a paragraph mark.
   On-screen, the symbol resembles a capital P flipped to face the other way, with the hollow section filled in, and two legs to stand on instead of the usual one leg.

 

   Some of you may think of the return key as the enter key. Others might still call it the carriage return key. I feel I must refrain from making comments about age.

   Follow that single tap of the return key with manual line breaks. Hit the return key and the shift key simultaneously. That generates a manual line break. On-screen, the symbol looks like an arrow coming down and veering left.

   I use three manual line breaks like that before I start writing the first paragraph. The general recommendation is that you never use four or more.

   That should do the trick. Chapter title. Paragraph mark. A number of manual line breaks to suit your own taste – no more than three. (People like to read books on their phones, and more than three breaks will cause trouble for those readers.)
   With the title/paragraph mark/manual line break sequence in place, the first paragraph of a chapter then loses the annoying (unseen) default indent.
   You can’t just use paragraph marks one after the other, as they don’t show up when used in a straight sequence. Once converted to Kindle, they might as well not be there – leading to no space between chapter title and first line. Awkward, unless you are aiming for that style.
   (However, note that, in the above screenshot on chapter links, I place a paragraph mark at the top of the page before the title. This removes a formatting glitch from the book in relation to hyperlinked chapter titles. The title shown isn’t hyperlinked, but I use the extra paragraph mark as a matter of routine. This extra paragraph mark doesn’t show up in the finished product.)

*

For breaks within chapters, I separate the sections by means of an asterisk.

   End the section of text with a paragraph mark. (The return key again.) Next, add a manual line break. (Shift and return. Not one after the other. Together or not at all.) Then type the asterisk, followed by the return key.
   To end the sequence, hit shift and return together. After that, type your new paragraph. Go back and centre the asterisk. The line break above the asterisk should also centre, though the one below should not.

 

 

   Beware. If the next section opens with direct speech, you may find inverted commas starting with closing quotes instead of opening ones. Some fine-tuning is required.

*

Why place an asterisk between chapter sections? The reader will always see the asterisk. If you leave a blank space between sections, that space can be lost in the Kindle shuffle, depending on font-size. A new section, without indent, should indicate where the next scene kicks off. The best solution is to have some form of character, preferably an asterisk, right there as an obvious visual cue.

*

For authors who wish to follow the advice, remember – this arrangement worked for me. You may be doing other things in the background, or foreground, bringing my advice into conflict with how you run your office. Solution. Keep trying.
   All of my books get around the Amazon default setting of the first line paragraph indent. Is this something readers are bothered by? We’re in the Twilight Zone on that one...
   How far does an e-reading experience stray from the paper one? An army of readers, used to paper publishing conventions, will want something that resembles what went before. With all the advantages e-reading brings, into the bargain. (Instant dictionary, etc.) In another generation, who knows...
   Some readers will convert completely. Others will mix and match between paper and e-reading. A few will sample then reject outright, clinging to the familiarity of the past. There is a cry for “proper” books, whatever those are.
   If you feel that you are going to alienate many of your readers by dropping traditional publishing conventions, do your best to take account of this. Though remember – there was resistance to the end of the one-page paragraph. Robinson Crusoe would be a touch easier to read if rendered in smaller chunks on the page...
   For my part, I couldn’t cut loose of an established publishing convention even though I embraced digital publishing. I wrote my fiction that way anyhow, and stuck to that format. To first para indent or not is your choice.
   If it makes production of your book easier and you don’t receive thousands of complaints, ye are harming none and saving yourself some bother if you decide to stick with the Amazon default.
   We’d all like to think it’s what we write the readers are interested in, and not how we encode our scribble...

*

Paragraph indentation itself is handled in the Format box. Highlight the text you want to indent. Inside the tab marked Indents and Spacing, there’s an option for Special settings. To generate paragraph indents, set the feature to First line and select a measurement. I use 0.5 cm, as shown in the screenshot.

   Once you’ve set up the indentation, that’s it for the rest of the text unless you put in obvious breaks. Then you’ll have to highlight again.

   I can’t cover all the quirks here, as I don’t know how you write your stories. But you’ll see how things pan out as you go.
   While your attention lingers on that screenshot…
   Line spacing should be set to 1.5 for the eventual conversion to Kindle.