Focus?

Nook
Kindle

I am having an usually difficult time focusing on anything today. Typically, that means a day filled with food, TV and twitter.

Today, however, someone must have had big plans, because in my twitter roaming, I came across this article on Indie Author News Usually, I would have disregarded the topic and moved along to the next post of some pretty young actor. Instead, I clicked it.

The premise of the article is simple.

• Ebook formatting takes time, effort and love. 

• Ebook conversion takes two seconds and a few clicks.

I have done both and therefore chose to take some of my procrastination time and look through my various eBooks on their respected sites. I was appalled. My Kindle book looks wonderful. Then again, with the time I poured into the formatting of it, I sure hope it's wonderful. The same goes for my Nook book. The ebooks on  Smashwords are drastically different. In fact, they are nearly embarrassing. All of the images have been stripped, images that took weeks to create, mind you, and the result is a mass of words on a screen!

Just to clarify, I take the blame. I was tired of formatting. I was tired of working on a four year old idea and I really just wanted to move on with my life. Maybe write the sequel to that very cliffhanger ending. So, I went to Smashwords, I clicked a few buttons and I promoted it, a lot. It all sounded so wonderful. All those different formats available on one site. It sounded too good to be true. In this case, I think it was. I will allow the books to be published and available through Smashwords for anyone interested. I just don't think I will spend quite so much time promoting the books.

What did I learn, you ask. I learned a very hard lesson. One I've been trying to teach my children (and my husband) for many years. DON'T BE LAZY. Especially, if your name is on it. Do the work with pride and you will be happy with your results.