A good start on Chapter 2

 I have started Chapter 2 and have about four pages done.  It will need editing, of course, but at least I have  a start. I have also written up one of Ram's first blogs.   I will post it when I have worked on it a bit to clean up.

Nothing posted on the tabs.

Not much work during Christmas

I'm sorry for you and I'm sorry for me but I didn't have a chance to do much writing over Christmas.  My wife and I went from Nevada to Colorado to see her daughter and son-in-law and five grandkids. We had a fine time but there was no time for writing even though I took with me a laptop I bought  from one of Brenda's friends during Thanksgiving when we visited them in southern California.

Even though I didn't do any writing I did managed to jot down a few more notes , such as some of the names of the towns I'm going to incorporate in the book. I've just a little bit left to finish  in chapter 1 and then I will be, beginning chapter 2, I have most of the chapters laid out Excel.  Right now I have laid out 24 chapters, but that, of course, is subject to change at any time ( and the order as well).

 Well, I guess I better get writing  orthe book will never get finished.

No additions to any of the tabs right now.

I Actually Started the Ram Book

Well,  , I've actually started writing my Ram book. What I find the most difficult to do when writing a book is to start.. I don't imagine that I'm alone in that regard  but I'm never quite sure  exactly how to start. . That being said,  I did get the first three pages  done.  the next thing I did of course is edit the pages and make some  minor modifications. I guess the pages aren't too bad. Now, on to finish the first chapter.

Starting with a Spreadsheet

I started making notes in Excel for my Ram book (That's what I will keep calling it). I mentioned before that  I use Excel to plan what going in the chapters  because it makes the chapters easy to rearrange if  I decide to change the order. Also, I can use the columns to record when the chapters are finished and each time a particular chapter is edited. I didn't work on anything except the Ram book yesterday or today.

Not much to report

Not much to report. I did play poker yesterday and placed fourth. I have organized my notes a bit for the Ram book, but haven't done much else. I will be working at it and the waterfall book today. Maybe work out in the garage some too. We shall see.

I'll report again later if I find the time.

Today I updated my pages:
On Gambling (Played poker yesterday)

Christmas book is now finished (as of Thursday)

Yes, I have finished my book "The Christmas Village Book" and it is posted on Amazon. Now I'm at a loss as to which book I should write next. I have so many ideas. Here are my next seven (not in any particular order except the first three in the list)

1. My book about Ram (the point of this blog)
2. A non-fiction book on how to build an eight-foot waterfall by yourself (I did that - check out my tab On Waterfalls (I know there is nothing on the tab, but you can follow the link to my web page to see the picture of the eight-foot waterfall I built).
3. My book about "how to loose at least three girlfriends by being too much of a gentleman: A cathartic tale" (somewhat autobiographical)
4. A sequel to my Last Killer Standing book (already have slightly plotted at least 10 sequlals)
5. A sequel to my Order of the White Feather: The sword of Dalamar book (already know where this one is going but it is not fully plotted out)
6. A book similar to the National Treasure movies (I already have the idea for the plot, but I won't give it away here)
7. A book about a psychic little girl (don't yet have much of a plot, but I do have a title thanks to Heather, my daughter and MUSE)

Honestly, I will probably work on the first three books in the list at the same time, so when I get stuck on one, I can write on one of the others for a break. Obviously, they are three totally different kinds of books.

I will try to post at least a short blog each day to let you know my progress and which book I was working on that day.

I will play poker this afternoon, of course and I will post the results tomorrow.

(Please post some kind of a comment to let me know someone out there is actually reading this or I will just stop doing it and work on the books instead).

Christmas book just about finished

Hello from Edward J. Coburn

Well, I'm just about finished with my Christmas book. I hope to be done today. It is not very long. It  should be less than 50 Word pages when done. I'm not sure how many Kindle pages it will be.

Today I have updated the following tabs:

1. On Gambling
2. On strokes and other problems

Now I lay me down to sleep

Hello from Edward J. Coburn


Now I lay me down to sleep
Into my room the monsters creep
If they should eat me before I wake
Please dear Lord, give them a bellyache.
Just something I came up with and thought was kind of cute. Gonna post it on YouTube.

It is Posted at Now I Lay Me down to Sleep

About my Christmas book and other things

Hello from Edward J. Coburn
Just to let you know, the Christmas book is about what to do with those houses, people, and maybe animals for Christmas villages you may have recieved or gotten yourself. If you have them and want to do something a bit more fancy (like a diorama) with them this year, You may want to check out my book (lot's of pictures). It will be a kindle book.

For those of you without a Kindle, my other two books are now being offered in many other formats (including PDF) from a site called http://www.Smashwords.com. My books can be found at:

Last Killer Standing 
and
Order of the  White Feather: The Sword of Dalamar

Today I updated my pages:
On Gambling (Played poker yesterday)
On Interesting Quotes

That's all for now. Still lots to do before I can start on my new book about Ram's Ramblings and now (believe it or not) I have started another book (probably gonna be a bit embarasing admiting some of this stuff) called "How to loose at least three girlfriends by being too much of a gentleman: A Cathartic tale".

 

It's been a While

Hello from Edward J. Coburn

Well, it's been two weeks since I have written anything, but I didn't really have anything to say. I have played poker the past two weekends and it didn't go too well though I ended up fourth both times. I have updated the quotes page with some more interesting quotes I have gathered.

I spent a lot of the last week repairing my Kenmore washing macine. I have had it for about 14 years and the pump started leaking. Well, rather than pay a repair person some exorbitant amount, I decided to do it myself. Unfortuanately, when I got the washer cover off, I discovered that the pump was rust-welded on the motor shaft. It was impossible to get off. Thus, I had to break the old pump apart with a chisel (and other tools) and work for several hours to get the remainder of the old pump off. It was a real treat. Then, after the pump was off, the motor shaft was too big for the new pump (which cost $60). I used sandpaper and a Dremel tool, but finally gave up and used a grinder. That did the trick and I finally got the new pump on and all attatched. Then, after putting the cover back on and hooking it all up, it new pump worked without any leaks. Glory be. I was amazed, but I probably saved a couple hundred dollars for the service call because I would have had to pay someone else for his labor time to get the old pump off. So, all it cost me a a lot of time and frustration.

What's interesting is the preachers sermon this Sunday was about perservence. I guess that about covers it. I persevered.

I am working hard on my Christmas non-fiction book. We'll see if that one sells.

Working on my non-fiction Christmas book

Hello from Edward J. Coburn

I had yesterday off for Veteran's day. Nice. I worked on my books.

Well, I am hard at work on my non-fiction book for Christmas. It's a how-to book and, as such, has lots of picutures. Unfortunately, Smashwords has a 5 megabyte limit on the size of the manuscript and mine is way beyond that. Thus, I am having to shrink my images so they are smaller in size and will allow a smaller manuscript. At least that's the hope. But, if I can't get it down small enough for Smashwords I will still publish it on Amazon. I am not going to give up.

More later, I hope to find the time.

A bit about writing and Work

Hello from Edward J. Coburn

Well, not much to say again today except that I had an okay week at work. I am currently doing corrections on 84 invoices that were converted incorrectly several years ago. Some of them take several hours each.

Onto writing. I have discover a web site that proports to be the largest publisher of  indie (independent) books called Smashwords so I republished both of my books

• Last Killer Standing
• Order of the White Feather: The Sword of Dalamar

on Smashwords. The interesting thing is that you post to their site using a Word document and they have an engine that translates it to 9 different formats and it gets sent to 9 different web sites that sell books (such as Barns and Nobel).  You have to follow their rules (such as what fonts and styles to use) but if you're versed in word, they're not hard to follow. Wish me luck there.

I updated

• On Gambling 
• On Ed's Books

Not much to Say

Hello from Edward J. Coburn

Well, not much to say today except that is was a bummer to have to go back to work after three days off. Oh well, at least I have a job. I have start a new poem but only have one verse done so far. I am going to YouTube it when it is finished. I'll also put it on my website and here as well.

I updated only the On Gambling tab today.

Maybe I'll write more befor I go to bed, but I doubt it since I have to answer the door for trick-or-treaters.

The Pricing of EBooks

Hello from Edward J. Coburn

I am going to dispense with putting the informatioon about why this blog is called what it is. If you want to know that, look at some of my older blogs.
I was looking for information aboout NonFiction publishing to ebook (Kindle) and ran across a couple of interesting blogs. They are:

• Fiction vs. Nonfiction E-Book Pricing
• How much should I charge for my eBook 

Myself, I originally priced both of my books:

• Last Killer Standing
• Order of the Whit Feater: The Sword of Dalamar

at $2.99 (70% royalties so about $2 a book) and sold what I consider to be, very few, based upon what I have read about other authors. So, I lowered the price to $0.99 (35% royalties or about $0.35 per book) and for a month, sold only two. One of my daughters says I should price them higher (maybe as high as $5.99 - 70% or about $4.20 royalties per book) because people see value base upon price. I don't know if I'm quite ready to try that yet, but, maybe I will.

Based upon one of the above articles, I think I had better get my nonfiction books out there, I am going to write two to begin with, but I have several others in mind. One is a good book for christmas and one will be good for spring (making an eight-foot waterfall). But then comes the question of what price I should charge. I think I will start at $2.99 and see how that goes.

Overall, I figure if I get enough books of different types out there, I may actually make a little money. I don't expect to get rich, but a bit of extra income when I retire would certianly be nice.

I am going to start writing rhyming children's books too. I have already written two, I am just waiting for my daughter to draw the illustrations. The first one that will be out will be one where the kids in the book are trick-or-treating. It's kind of silly, but it's supposed to be for younger readers and just look at how popular Dr. Seuss books have been (seems like forever) and most of them use silly rhymes and nonsensical words.  I am going to steer away from nonsense words because I think todays children are a lot more advanced than they were when Dr. Seuss was writing. Though I still think his books are fun, I am going to stick to my guns and steer clear on nonsense words (like, for example, "A Wocket in my Pocket").

I just read a short blog that says children's books don't do well as eBooks. Well, I'm going to try it anyway since they're already written and my daughter is working on the illustrations.

Well, enough rambling for now. On to writng nonfiction.

How I write

Hello from Edward J. Coburn

First, I will always copy the explanation of the name of the post, shortened a bit:

You may be wondering why my blog is called Ram's Ramblings on Writing. But why Ram's Ramblings when my name is Ed. Well, it all started with a blog by Robert Adam Madigan (or RAM), a blog that doesn't actually exist because Robert Adam Madigan is a character in a new book I am writing and, in the book, he is the author of the blog call Ram's Rambings although his name is not really Robert Adam Madigan. He is hiding from his real name which is Frederick Martin Scope. You will have to read the book (when it's finished) to find out why.

Today I thought I might explain a technique that I found very useful when I wrote Last Killer Standing.

I wasn't quite sure how I wanted the book to procede, but I knew how I wanted it to end. Thus, I laid out my chapters in what I thought was a logical progression. Then, about when I had finished chapter four or so, I decided the order of the chapters was wrong for what I then had in mind. Therefore, I took the short chapter summaries and put them in Excel (a spread sheet) so they were easy to move around. For example, at one point what I thought should go into chapter 25 I then decided, because of what I had written, needed to be chapter 18. With Excel, all I had to do is move the summary line for that chapter to the appropriate point.

I found many additional benefits from using Excel.

• I could keep track of whaen a chapter was finished (by putting the date in another column)
• I could keep track of how many pages were in each chapter (word would tell me that) and a running total of how many in entire book, which is approximately 96,000.
• I could keep track of how many times I had reedited a particular chapter (a different column for each time it was edited). I edited each chapter at least five times before I published it along with the edits other people suggested for me.

You may say five edits per chapter is not enough. Well, I would respectfully disagree. I used to write college text books, some of which can still be found on Amazon:

• Visual Basic Made Easy
• Visual Basic 5 Made Easy
• Microsoft Windows 98
• Advanced Basic Structured Programming for Microcomputers
• Microcomputers, hardware, software, and programming (my first textbook)
• And others

You may wonder why, with all these text books published, am I not rich? The answer to that is simple. None of them ever sold very many. I made some money every year, but really not very much. Certainly not enough to be able to retire (I have virtually nothing in savings).

But. I digress, the point was how I determined that five edits, or so, for each chapter is enough. Well, while writing my textbooks I found that constant editing sometimes caused more harm that the help it provided. I found that after a while, I ended up changing a passage back to what it was several edits ago.

So, how much editing is enough. I find that after I have corrected all the misspellings, which generally only takes one edit, I am editing for content. Ocassionally I run across something that doesn't make sense in it's position, and I have to go back to an earlier portion of the chapter, or even an earlier chapter, and make additions or changes. But, after I have gone through a chapter a couple of time with virtually no changes, I consider that chapter done. Unless, of course, that chapter is changened because of something found in another, later chapter. Then I may feel obligate to edit it several more times.

I have read postings on the internet where writers have claimed they are editing their material 20 or more times. I'm afraid I don't believe that. I really can't image that anyone edits a chapter more that six or seven times. As I said, to my way of looking at it, you would end up changing it back to a previous version.

If you disagree with this, please leave me a comment. I relish differences of opinion.

Today, Saturday, 10/29/2011, I have added a new tab to post a few of the more interesting passages from my books. Hopefully they will not prove to be spoilers. I will try hard so they won't be.

I also posted changes in the following tabs:

• On Ed's Job

Ed On Writing

Hello from Edward J. Coburn

Okay, finally, here is my second post. I have decided that I will try to post every day (at least a little) and I will post anytime I put anything on the tabbed pages so with a quick look at the front page you can always see what new was added. First, I will always copy the explanation of the name of the post, shortened a bit:

You may be wondering why my blog is called Ram's Ramblings on Writing. But why Ram's Ramblings when my name is Ed. Well, it all started with a blog by Robert Adam Madigan (or RAM), a blog that doesn't actually exist because Robert Adam Madigan is a character in a new book I am writing and, in the book, he is the author of the blog call Ram's Rambings although his name is not really Robert Adam Madigan. He is hiding from his real name which is Frederick Martin Scope. You will have to read the book (when it's finished) to find out why.

So today, Sunday, 10/23/2011, I have posted changes in the following tabs:

• On YouTube videos
• On Strokes and Other Problems
• On Ed's books
• On Interesting Quotes
• On Ed's Poems
• On Gambling

 

Ed's ramble for the day is:

You may have wondered why I posted my latest book (Last Killer Standing) as a Kindle (ebook) book rather that getting it traditionally published. Well, the answer to that is simple.

It is next to impossible, if not downright impoossible, to get to a publisher without having an agent and getting an agent is next to impossible as well. And what's worse, when you send a submission in to an agent:

• some will answer you with NO so soon after submission you have to wonder if they read you proposal at all (probably not)
• And the others you will probably never hear from at all.

When I sent in Last Killer Standing I sent it to 22 agents:

• Heard from two so soon I seriously doubt that they could have read the proposal,
• Heard from about 10 of the other ones after a lot of weeks with no more explanation than a blanket refusal 
• The others I never heard from at all after waiting  five months.

Thus, since I didn't want my book to just sit on my hard drive never being read by anyone at all, I felt there was no other recourse but to self-publish it as a Kindle book.

The problem with that is that with so many books being self-published through Kindle, yours and mine, no matter how good, they are hard to locate and can easily fall through the cracks without hardly any readership. Which, of course, translates into no money for all your (and my) hard work. And, anyone who thinks that writing a book and self-editing it many times isn't work, has never done it. And, of course, it is very frustrating work when nobody get the opportunity to read your brilliant prose.

But, a note about doing a book as a POD book. What is POD you may ask? POD stands for Print On Demand. In theory, it is a good idea. The pulisher warehouses only a few books and prints in sets of 25 when the demand dictates that they need more copies. The problems with this concept are many:

• The publisher I used, (AuthorHouse) acording to many things I have read on-line, isn't paying me, or most of the other authors that used them the royalties which their books have earned through sales.
• Self-publishing is expensive (though POD publishing is less expensive than traditional vanity publishing).
• Some of POD publishers do a lousy job with the publishing process and you end up with a book that looks horrid (according to what I have read). AuthorHouse did do a good job of the publishing process, fortunately. (too bad they don't pay the authors the way they should)

Given all this pain and frustration with the publish industry as a whole will I stop writing? Of course not. Like most authors, I can't. I can't  just leave my ideas along to wither away. (To use a rather trite phrase, I Can't Not write (and, yes, I know that's a double negative, but I plead author's license). My mind is simply too fertile for that. Besides, I really don't want to be a greeter at Walmart (I'm of that age) and I have to do somthing with my spare time. When I finally retire, a few years yet, I will have oodles of spare time (like most retired people) and I have never been very good at just sitting around doing nothing (just ask my mother who really knows).

My new book (about Ram) is just going to be the first of 26 (at least) and I have ideas for about 15 or so "Standing" books in that series, and I have ida for several "Order of the White Feather" books (series).

To make matters worse, I have started to write rhyming children's books which my daughter Shannon, will illustrate for me (she's a good artist and the inital drawing she has sent me are wonderful) while my other daughter Heather, as she has done in the past, is helping me edit, acts as a reader and critic (though, sometimes, I think she is not aa critical as she should be, not mean (I hope), just critical when my wtiting is not up to what I can really do). I have at least 7 ideas for other chidrens books in that series (I guess I will keep Heather and especially Shannon quite busy).

Well, I will call a halt to this posting for now. More postings will follow, I promise.

Ram's initial post

Hello from Edward J. Coburn

You may be wondering why my blog is called Ram's Ramblings on Writing. Well first of all, I wanted to call it just Ram's Rambings but there is already one called Rams' Rambings. It is written by a columnist in the Winston-Salem Journal about the Ram's of Winston Salem State (sports team for the college). But why Ram's Ramblings when my name is Ed. Well, it all started with a blog by Robert Adam Madigan (or RAM), a blog that doesn't actually exist because Robert Adam Madigan is a character in a new book I am writing and, in the book, he is the author of the blog call Ram's Rambings (with, I guess, apologies to Winston-Salem State). I think, with author's license, I can call it anything I want to as a fictional blog, especially since Robert Adam Madigan is not my character's real name. He is hiding from his real name which is Frederick Martin Scope. You will have to read the book (when it's finished) to find out why.

But what about this blog?  I am going to use this blog for ramblings, some mine, some Robert's. Whatever comes to mind on the particular day will go into this blog. Many of my ramblings will be about writing to be sure, but some of them will just be ramblings, pure and simple.

I will ramble about

• Strange things that have happened in my life (Robert will probaably ramble about them as well)
• The struggles I am having writing this book
• The struggles I have had in my writing career which has stretched over many years
• The two books I have on Amazon in Kindle (ebook) format and how sales are (or are not) going
• When I finish and post a new book and what it is about, I have several series in mind. There is the Order of the White Feather series, the Standing series (starting with Last Killer Standing) and the series staring Robert Adam Madigan. I won't give you the name of this series as I don't want someone else to write any of these books before I have the chance.
• The struggles I have had in life in general
• The new things I have posted on my web site at EdwardJCoburn.com such as poems, book chapters and short stories
• The new YouTube videos I have posted. Thus far, there are two, Mighty Bradley a "take off" of Casey at the bat except about football, and If I Could, a love poem. The next one I will post is Circle of life, which I hope to post today or tomorrow.

Well, that's enough for the first blog. I will add things to the tabs soon. I will write more when I get the chance and when I have at least a few readers. I do not wish to write a blog just for my own enjoyment (though it is fun).