KIM BRIGGS GUEST POST & AND THEN HE GIVEAWAY

Happy Monday Everyone! Hope you're having a great start of the week and a fun holiday weekend planned. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

First, I want to let you know that WordTango (see the ad on the left sidebar) is offering a fantastic discount to our followers. They are offering a 25% discount on a  query writing class until Tuesday, November 24th. To take advantage of this offer, go to wordtango.com/weekend-query and use the code "LitRambles".

Today I have something different for you. Kim Briggs is here with a guest post. She's also offering a giveaway of her NA thriller AND THEN HE.

Here's a blurb from Goodreads:

Mature audiences only and not for the faint of heart.

AND THEN HE combines sex and evil in all the right ways. Think "Bared to You" meets "Misery."

The fifth year reunion. Tiffani thought she’d suck the lifeblood out of a dozen exotic locations by her fifth year reunion. She certainly didn’t envision herself as a diner waitress serving giant slices of pie to diabetic townies. The best-selling author she planned to become now writing, “Hold the pickles.” Yet limited funds, monstrous debt, and a high school sweetheart with big league ambitions of his own force her to set aside her own dreams. She soon discovers loneliness is a seductive mistress.

Enter sexy stranger.

Tiffani spends most of the reunion with Jeb, a classmate she doesn’t even remember. He awakens a hunger in her that both frightens and excites her. Tiffani mistakes Jeb’s lifelong obsession for love at first sight and soon finds herself a prisoner, but it’s a hot, steamy trip to get there.

Now here's Kim!

THE FINAL STEPS TO PREPARE YOUR MANUSCRIPT FOR SUBMISSION/PUBLICATION 

Pushing a book towards Submission/Publication takes work. A lot of work. And it takes heart. More heart and sweat and tears than you’ve put into anything else you’ve ever worked on.

The Submission/Publication Process is brutal. Your book should be as near perfect as you can make it before you even consider subbing it out to Agents and/or Editors or publishing it on your own, but you’re not alone on your journey. For one, you have me. I’ll cheer for you and happy dance for you when you get good news, and I’ll pat you on the shoulder and offer you cyber chocolate when your dreamed ‘YES’ turns into the dreaded ‘NO.” And two, I’ve shared with you my final steps of the journey that made all the difference.

KIM’S FINAL STEP BEST ADVICE: View your manuscripts in different mediums.

1. READ IT:

Kindle allows anyone to send a document from their Amazon email to their Kindle/Kindle App email. I

LOVE the ability to read my story this way. I can take it to the gym and read it on the Elliptical. I can read it in my car. I can read it wherever and whenever the mood strikes me. This medium also allows me the ability to read my story tinkering with every little word and period.

Keep a notepad close by to take notes. Then later, you can decide if you need to work on little things or if you need to change the passage/chapter/sentence/word entirely.

If you don’t own a Kindle, download the Kindle App on your computer, your phone, your IPAD. I’m not familiar with Nooks but they may offer a similar option.

KINDLE DOCUMENT DOWNLOAD HOW TO: (Amazon provides directions. I just simplified the process.)

            1. Sign into your Amazon Account.

            2. Go into Manage your Content and Devices.

            3. Select Settings.

            4. Page down until you get to Personal Document Settings.

            5. Then Send-to-Kindle E-Mail Address Settings.

                        **Amazon assigned you a Kindle email address when you registered your device or app. Each device and app has it’s own email address.

            **YOU MUST USE THIS ADDRESS AS THE RECIPIENT OF THE EMAIL OR IT WILL NOT WORK.

            6. Page down a bit more to Approved Personal Document Email List

                        **When you opened your Amazon account, you added an email address. This is different than the assigned Amazon Kindle address. You have the ability to add email addresses but you must be logged into your Amazon account and in Send-to-Kindle Email Address Settings to do so.

            **YOU MUST USE THIS ADDRESS AS THE SENDER OF THE EMAIL OR IT WILL NOT WORK.

SENDING A DOCUMENT TO YOUR KINDLE DEVICE: Okay, now with these TWO addresses in hand, you can send a document to your device.

            1. Attach your document. IT MUST BE A WORD DOC or PDF. 

                        *Amazon claims you can send a Zip file. I have an older Kindle—it doesn’t work for me, but my device might be too old to read it.

                        **If you have Pages or some other type of writing program, you need to export it into a Word Doc or PDF.

            2. Send an email using the correct RECIPIENT address and the correct SENDER address or it won’t work.

            3. It’ll take a few minutes to download onto your Kindle.

           

TROUBLESHOOTING:

•    If the document comes up jumbled, resend the document as a WORD Doc or PDF. Play around and see what works.

•    If the document doesn’t load onto your Kindle, make sure your WIFI is turned on.

•    Check the Settings option in the Menu and sync your device.

•    If it still doesn’t work, double check all the addresses and make sure you’re sending from the email Amazon identifies as yours. You might need to go back to Manage your Content and Devices.

2. LISTEN TO IT: The ability to listen to your manuscript is invaluable. You should read your manuscript to yourself—especially the dialogue to make sure it flows naturally, but you should also listen to it as an Audio book to pick up on any nuances or problems you might otherwise miss.

I use Natural Reader. A friend recommended it to me, and I’m hooked.

The Free Natural Reader app can be downloaded on any device. It will read 5,000 words of your document for free. Then it will ask you if you want to upgrade. Click, “No thanks” and press play again. It’ll read the next 5,000 words, before you need to start the “No thanks” process all over again, but it will eventually read your entire document.

Natural Reader allows you to select the voice and the speed at which the document is read to you.

The Upgraded Version includes more voices and will read continuously. There are also some additional features available, but the Free version works great and did I mention it’s FREE?

Here’s the link to Natural Reader: http://www.naturalreaders.com/index.html

You can also go into the App Store and download it. 

3. PRINT OPTION 1: I like to get my hands on my book. I’m a visual, hands-on kinda girl, so I need this part of the process.

            1. Duplicate your document—or Save As to create a new document that you can manipulate.

            2. In the new document, change the font. Set the margins at 1”. Set the printer options to TWO pages per sheet, and print out that masterpiece!

            3. I fold the pages in half and binder clip the entire document. The end product looks like a books. I use those in-between blank pages as notes or rewrites.

4. PRINT OPTION 2: When I want to look at my entire story—where chapter breaks fall, page layout, length of chapters —Big Picture Visual Stuff, I go into my printer options and set the printer preferences to 9 pages per sheet. I print out the document and lay it out on the floor.

I find this method especially helpful at the end of the journey to really double check and triple check to make sure the visual impression of the book is as powerful as the written expression.

I also examine my first lines and last lines of chapters to make sure that they’re strong and powerful—readers NEED to keep reading the story because she MUST know what happens next.

And finally, when you’ve gone through these steps a few times, yep, you read that right, a FEW times, and your Critique Group/Beta Readers have read it, and you’ve gone back through your manuscript and fixed everything and started the FINAL STEPS TOWARDS SUBMISSION/PUBLICATION all over again, then, my friend, you are ready to hit SUBMIT/PUBLISH. Good luck and may the Writing Force be with you!

If you have any tips you’d like to share, PLEASE leave a comment. I love learning new things! And be sure to stay in touch!

Write on,

Kim Briggs

Website: http://www.kimbriggswrite.com

Twitter: @kimbriggs_write

Blog: All Things Writing http://kimbriggs.blogspot.com

FB: Kim Briggs, Author https://www.facebook.com/KimBriggsWrite/?ref=hl

AND THEN HE Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27216309-and-then-he

AND THEN HE Amazon Link:

http://www.amazon.com/AND-THEN-HE-Adult-Thriller-ebook/dp/B016P59NAQ/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1

Kim  generously donated a copy of AND THEN HE for a giveaway. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower (just click the follow button if you’re not a follower) and leave a comment through December 5th. If your e-mail is not on your Google Profile, you must leave it in the comments to enter either contest.

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog, mention this in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry. This is for US and Canada.

Here's what's coming up:

Next Monday I have a guest post by Dorine White and a giveaway of a book in her MG fantasy Cleopatra's Legacy series.

The following Monday I have an interview with our followers and debut authors Jessica Haight and Stephanie Robinson and a giveaway of their MG mystery THE SECRET FILES OF FAIRDAY MORROW.

The following Monday I have follower Tyrean Martinson here with a guest post and a giveaway of her new YA fantasy CHAMPIONS DESTINY.

Then I'm participating in the Midwinter's Eve Giveaway Hop on Sunday, December 20th.

Hope to see you on Monday!