Taking a break from the blog

It seems the more time you spend dreaming up ideas for companies and products, the less time you have for family and friends... so I'm taking a short break from this blog—and dedicating more time to my loved ones.

Believe me, this is a good thing. It's difficult to cut things out of your life, but it's like trimming a fruit tree, or weeding a garden—your efforts are well rewarded.

And so it is, I'm signing off for now and will return when time permits... Hopefully, I'll have some great news to share when I do.

--Mash

Fixed Layout EBooks on Apple iPad and iBookstore

Apple introduced a fixed-layout feature for the iPad and iPhone that makes it possible to reproduce beautiful, full-page illustrated childrens books. For months they kept it secret while testing the new layouts. But now they've given us access to the format and we have started the process of making FastPencil compatible with these new full-bleed childrens books.

Today, I'm happy to announce we've updated our system to support the new format on the Apple iPad for iBooks. There are a few extra steps necessary to get our default EPUB file ready for this format, but we can make the changes for you after publishing upon your request.

If you have an illustrated childrens book that you would like to distribute through the iPad and the Apple iBookstore follow these steps and we can get your book uploaded in a snap:

1. Export each page in your book as a JPG image, no larger than 1476x1970pixels. Use JPG compression of 85.

2. Make sure your images are in order from first to last by name. For example, page001.jpg, page002.jpg, page003.jpg and so forth.

3. Zip up your images and send them to us. You can email or we can give you a drop box to upload them, just contact FastPencil first.

4. Go to FastPencil.com and start a new eBook project but don't write in it. We will be using this empty project to upload your childrens book.

5. After we upload your files you can publish your ebook and purchase wide distribution.

6. Once we receive your order we will add our special fixed-layout codes to your ebook and send it to Apple for distribution through the iBookstore.

It's pretty easy, and you can get all this done for about $200 bucks!!! So jump in and try it out.

If you would rather not do-it-yourself, we can put together a package to help you through each step for under a grand.

The journey from book idea to publication

I've been helping people write books for years and I keep telling them how easy it is. But now that I've done it myself, I have to admit the process gets increasingly more and more difficult with every step. On a scale from 1-100 with 100 being impossibly difficult, this is how I rank every step in the process:

Step One: Coming up with a book idea = 1
This step is so easy it's almost laughable. I talk with authors all the time who are afraid someone is going to steal their book idea. But having gone through the entire process, the idea is the easy part.

Step Two: Outlining the idea = 20
Once you have the idea it's not that much harder to outline it.

Step Three: Writing = 30
Writing is mostly about discipline. If you can force yourself to sit down and hammer on the keys you can get through this phase.

Step Four: Editing = 50
It's a lot easier if you can get people to help out. But it also makes it harder. The more people who give you their opinion, the harder it is to trust yourself. In the end you have trust yourself.

Step Five: Design = 30
It used to be really hard to design a book and a cover. But today it's a snap. The only reason I gave it a 30 is because the book cover design is still pretty tough. If you can entrust this to a professional, do it.

Step Six: Publishing = 99
I used to think that publishing was the easy part, and technically it is. All you have to do is push a button. But making the decision to push the button was really hard. I kept wondering if I was done. I kept thinking maybe I needed more editing, maybe I should change the title or do more writing.

I think this is where most people fall apart. They get stuck trying to make sure everything is perfect and the project loses steam. The dream fades. And once you lose momentum it's really hard to get it back.

That's why I think the hardest thing an author will do is release their book into the world. So my advice to you is this: Pull the trigger. Don't wait for things to be perfect. Just do it. Trust yourself and push the publish button. I did it and it feels great!! Good luck.

Inspired by Matt Cutts

Matt Cutts does this 30 day challenge and I like reading about his experiences and how it affects him. So this month I've decided to give it a try myself. He asked his readers to give him some ideas and there were some good ones on the list. I actually suggested he write a book, and of course I'd want him to use FastPencil.com but it's not for everyone. Tom Foremski just did it and I think it took him about 3 weeks. Wallace Baine did it and it took him two. But they are journalists with years of old articles and blog posts. It would be more difficult if you started with just an idea. But that would be a good challenge.

KION FastPencil Interview

I had a chance to speak with the nice folks at KION about FastPencil and how writers are flocking to self-publishing during the economic downturn. Now that authors can choose print-on-demand and ebook distribution on the Kindle and iPad, publishing is actually cost-effective with almost no risk. Today you can sign up with FastPencil.com, import your manuscript or start a new book, click a few buttons and be a published author. Here's the snippet from the news: http://www.kionrightnow.com/global/story.asp?s=12591814

Memoirs of a Texan: War by Tim Murray

Memoirs of a Texan: War

by Tim Murray

Preview this book at FastPencil.com

Tim Murray has some words in him! Memoirs of a Texan is over 500 pages of real, civil war, historical fiction. I have to admit, I'm not a Civil War buff, but Murray does a wonderful job of wrapping an interesting story around historical events and people. You can preview the first 50 pages or so at FastPencil, then buy the book. It's worth it!

Seth Godin interview and the AuthoREvolution

Seth Godin is an Authorist even if he doesn't know it. This interview is a great glimpse into the future of eBooks, Kindle, iPad and the AuthoREvolution. Enjoy, http://ping.fm/q9Rqa