Episode #26: On the Growing World of the Ministry and eBooks Deconstructed

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• Benedick says “Hi.”
• It’s not like we’ve got an Idris Elba fascination in this household.
• Holy cow, we won a Parsec?!?
  • Hang on…let’s feed the kittehs first.
  • Having a laugh about winning a Parsec.
  • The 2013 Parsec Award Finalists for Best Speculative Fiction Magazine or Anthology
    • Toasted Cake by Tina Connolly
    • The Drabblecast by Norm Sherman
    • The No Sleep Podcast by David Cummings
    • Every Photo Tells… by Katharina and Mick Bordet
    • …and Tales from the Archives, Volume 2 by us.
• And Pip fixed a toilet!
• The Parsecs have got us looking at how the Ministry has grown over the years…

• The eBooks are done and we are now working on the final details for the print
• Pip goes through her workflow in making the 99-Penny Dreadfuls (and other works we produce) into ePubs
  • Keep your fonts simple.
  • Formatting. Not a good idea.
  • Short stories are a piece of cake compared to a novel or anthology.
  • Rethinking the workflow
• The challenges of eBooks and digital reading devices
  • Control is in the readers’ hands, not the publisher.
  • Each ereader handles the source file differently.
• Tee’s workflow for eBooks and print books
  • First stop — Adobe InDesign, Tee’s weapon of choice.
  • Next stop — Calibre, as InDesign was squirrelly about exporting something to Kindle.
  • What Tee prefers: a file per chapter as opposed to one massive file. Insane? Well….
  • Creating a Book file in InDesign: why it works so well.
  • Tee’s fastest turnaround time: 24 hours (for Pip, actually…)
• The difference between eBooks and print books — personality.
• Workflow, Part Two
  • Create two copies of the InDesign files, label one “PRINT” and the other collection “DIGITAL”
  • In the DIGITAL folder, use “Find Font” and remove all instances of “unique” fonts.
  • Times New Roman — the “go to” font for eBooks.
• Tee’s looking ahead with Weather Child, re-worked by Pip and edited by Tee Tate.
• Before you release your eBook, test it on as many platforms as possible.
• And after you do test it, test again! Otherwise, your eBooks can wind up like George R.R. Martin’s…and not in a good way.

35:03 — Writers Off the Clock

• Hard to believe Pip is a two-time Parsec-winning podcaster…
• Tee, Pip and the Boom head out to Comics and Gaming of Gainesville, VA.
  • Great place, and kid-friendly!
  • Enjoying some “geek parent” moments…
• Purchasing some games. One is called Planet Steam. (Anyone know this?)
• A COOL DISCOVERY — Pacific Rim: Shuffling the Deck
• What looks like a gimicky card game actually works as a great game of strategy and concentration.
• Wait — hold on — is Pip REQUESTING a drop-in?!
• A great game for fans (or giant robots fighting monsters) of the film that doesn’t get too cutthroat.
• This game has been Boom-Approved.
• …and while you’re visiting your local bookstore…

44:35 — The Wrap-Up

Find us on Twitter at either Tee’s or Pip’s account,
leave us a voicemail or question for the show at 703.791.1701,
or leave us a comment here at the blog.