Monday, June 23, 2014

Announcing: E-Book Launch of FORGIVEN

I'm pleased to announce that my second novel and the companion to FAITHFUL, FORGIVEN, is now available as an e-book on Amazon Kindle for $2.99.

If you haven't read FORGIVEN - and I hope you'll give it a try! - here's the synopsis: 

Kula Baker never expected to find herself on the streets of San Francisco in 1906. The daughter of an outlaw, Kula is soon swept up in a world of art and intrigue – a world she hardly dared dream of back in Montana. She meets handsome David Wong, whose smiling eyes and soft-spoken manner have an uncanny way of breaking through Kula’s carefully crafted reserve. Yet when a mighty earthquake strikes and the wreckage threatens all she holds dear, Kula realizes that only by unlocking her heart can she begin to carve a new future for herself.

This is the second launch for FORGIVEN. Unfortunately, it's been out of print for almost a year, but fortunately my options as an author with an out-of-print book are now greater than ever.

I'll share a bit of my journey in case you're curious or in the same position.

First and foremost, here's my new cover, designed by Elijah Toten:



I couldn't be happier with the design, which pulls together an image of San Francisco after the earthquake and fires of 1906 with the period flavor of the girl's clothing and the sense of searching that dominates the novel.

I found Elijah after scouring the web for cover designers and choosing him for the clarity of his designs. I also had advice on all matters including cover design from Chris Eboch and Dotti Enderle, who have much experience with e-book creation. And I should add that Elijah's price was extremely reasonable.

After returning my electronic rights to me, my publisher graciously supplied me with an epub version of the manuscript. This was great, because it allowed me to retain much of the interior design; but Amazon uses mobi files, not epub, and I'd decided to launch with KDP Select because the terms are better for me.

My web designer Lynn Kinnaman helped me by converting the epub first to Word and then to mobi, and then we set up the book to publish. We had to go through several corrections but Amazon makes that easy by allowing you to preview the text since sometimes glitchy little software errors do creep in. I looked through the text carefully because I find it no fun to read an ebook with quirky issues.

If you have a final, clean manuscript in Microsoft Word, it's much easier to go from there, but all interior design has to be removed. Frankly, I was thrilled to have Lynn's help, as my left-braininess doesn't extend to the tedious job of formatting.

It felt like it took forever, but really the process was very easy, thanks to all the advice and help. If you have questions, please fire away!



4 comments:

Dotti said...

It's so nice that we can give our OOP books new life. I hope you have many new sales!

Janet Fox said...

thanks for your help, Dotti, and I so agree about new life!

Lynn said...

Thank you for your kind words, Janet. I was delighted to work with you on this as I love helping writers "get the word out" and gain new fans.
... and I know you will!

Janet Fox said...

Thank you so much, Lynn! I couldn't have done it without you.