Yesterday the fog cleared for a few minutes, and I finally understood enough about the new world of publishing an e-book to make a marketing plan for my new novel, Live from the Road.
It’s about time because Live from the Road went LIVE on amazon.com two days ago. This morning I did four items from my marketing list, but I’m still not sure if I uploaded the right files. I can’t find any explanations about how to upload a MOBI file from my PC so I faked it. Hopefully the $45 I paid to World Literary Café is not wasted as a result of my ignorance.
I know just enough to be slightly dangerous in this internet game I’m playing. I know I uploaded my cover image for Live from the Road properly.
When I downloaded the book to my Kindle, the cover displays. But alas on the amazon.com page there appears a box with the words “Image not available.” I feel like the kid who missed photo day at school, and the yearbook places a blank hole with the words “Absent” prominently letting his fellow classmates know he’s a real loser. I’ve been in contact with the Amazon folks, who keep telling me they’re working on it. And in the meantime, they write, “Are you sure you uploaded it properly?” And then for the fifth time in two days they provide the cover dimensions. Yes, I’m pretty sure I followed all the requirements, and so was the message box that told me, “Upload successful” after clicking on “browse.” And the artist I hired to design the cover is an experienced graphic designer for Kindle books. Also my Kindle seems to be fine with displaying the cover.
This morning I hit 1,000 followers on Twitter, and somehow I was inordinately proud of that achievement. Considering a month ago I only had fifty-nine followers, I guess that is cause for celebration.
I’m all for this revolution for authors, even though at times I’m not sure which page I’ve turned.
Who knows anything about MOBI? And am I the only one in the world who feels as I missed the day the yearbook picture was taken?
P.C. ZICK 