Peril On Your Street

There's nothing like a bargain for the holidays. Hey, I'll give you a bargain that is amazingly inexpensive, too. The Smashwords Holiday Sale is underway! This is a volunteer effort for authors, and they agree to reduce the price of their novels. That's right, we agree to get lower profits and you (yes, YOU) reap the benefits. Here's the deal for my novels from now through New Year's Day. The Search For Circe is available for $3, a true half-off offer. It's a rich mixture of wounded emotions, walls to hide behind, family drama, family trauma, the drive to right wrongs, and even some heavyweight science fiction scenario. Yes, it's all that, and it all makes sense. Just read the novel. One Summer Season: A Young Man's Brutal Baptism Into Love And Baseball, is available for $1, a 75 percent markdown from its original price. The novel, released in 2016, is an homage to baseball, my old hometown of The Dalles, Oregon, young love, shaky relationships, ...

Sounds ominous, doesn't it? Going through a meatgrinder is never a good idea (although I can remember several deadlines in journalism that definitely qualify). But to publish on Smashwords, I had to go through the Meatgrinder. It's a tough-sounding term for a friend to anyone who wants to self-publish. The Meatgrinder is Smashwords' whimsical term for the program that will take a full manuscript and convert it into an ebook that matches the company's parameters. The Meatgrinder is painstakingly detailed. Mess up on those details and the Meatgrinder can turn your precious work into pulp. Here are some convenient tips for anyone who wants to publish on Smashwords or simply wants to know the process. 1. Read the Smashwords Style Guide. Follow the guidelines religiously. The Meatgrinder likes those who follow the guidelines. 2. Make sure your manuscript is a Word.doc file and not .docx. The Meatgrinder rejects .docx. 3. The biggest time consumer I faced in following...