EDEN launch party!

Ohhhh, yeah! Time to party!

In honor of Eden’s impending launch into print and beyond, I’m throwing a party. Bah, do we really need an excuse?

Come one, come all! Bring a friend (or 10)! I will have copies of Eden on hand for purchase (details below). Maybe I’ll sign some… We’ll have music, merriment, monkeys and surprises!

… okay, I might not be able to swing the monkeys.

—–

Place: Southington Masonic Lodge (Southington CT)

Date: Saturday November 6th

Time: 7ish PM thru 11ish PM

Directions!!

Cash or Check only for books on hand:

Paperback: $10

Hardcover: $25

(no need to RSVP)

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Ode to my iPad

Oh iPad, oh iPad,

Where have you been all my life?

You have changed me today,

Would you consider replacing my wife?

—-

I once wrote on the plane with my laptop,

But douchebags in front of me always lowered their seats.

Couldn’t they see I was working?

What a bunch of rat-dick-meats.

—-

Speaking of meat that is smelly,

I love how Pages knows English perfectly.

Good-bye forever Micro$oft Word,

You have failed me as an ally like Italy.

—-

I know there are things you cannot do,

Like multi-tasking and working with files.

I’m willing to forgive those flaws,

But only for a while.

—-

Yes, as you can see,

I am a fickle sort.

Just ask anyone who plays games with me,

Of their criticism I have no retort.

—-

** – No Italians were harmed in the making of this Ode

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Find your Element

A few of my facebook buds posted this link and it’s a very insightful little read:

Are you in your creative element?

The bit about public schools is extra-interesting to me, since my mother was a teacher and my kids are now “entering the system”. My experience is probably similar to most everyone else’s: did just fine in school, went to college for this degree, ended up doing something else. Of course, what I do to pay the bills still isn’t 100% aligned with who I am as a person. I haven’t taken that leap yet! But I do have mountains of respect for those friends of mine who struck off the beaten path to follow their “Element”. That takes some courage. 

Then, some of my other friends/family have gravitated towards a career that both pays the bills and fits their creative Element. I’m very happy for those fortunate individuals – well played!

Anyway, if you’re reading my blog, you know I’ve already found my Element — isn’t it time you found yours?  (if you haven’t already) 

Go out there and kick some ass, people!  🙂

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Eden available in Hardcover!

Yeah… ahem… well, I wager only my mother will pick it up – it’s just too expensive. I cannot do hardcover through Amazon quite yet, so Lulu is my best option right now. I’m throwing the link over on the right bar, but I strongly suggest you wait for the Amazon paperback if you want a dead tree version of Eden. Retail of the paperback will be $14.99-ish, and I’m sure Amazon will discount that price and offer better shipping rates.

So, if you really really need a 1st edition hardcover copy, follow the “Eden Hardcover” link on the right hand navigation… but, I warned you about the sticker shock! I wrote the damn thing and I don’t think it’s worth that much. Maybe I can offer some hardcover copies at the launch party/signings for a lower price, but I’m not sure…

Anyway, enjoy!

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Quick Eden Distribution Update

Just a quick update on where we’re at:

PRINT

I get another proof from the printer today. If it all looks good, I can approve the Amazon listing. It may take a few weeks for it to be fully available on Amazon, however. Oh, and it will be available internationally thru Amazon, which is cool for all my international friends who I know are losing precious hours of sleep each night wondering when they can purchase Eden… right? 

In parallel to Amazon, I’m also finalizing the paperwork for both Barnes & Noble (may hit at the same time as Amazon) and Ingram. The importance of being in Ingram is you could walk up to a brick & mortar bookstore, feed them the name/author, and they could order it for you… not that I expect that to *ever* happen.

Now, if my print looks good today, you *could* technically order Eden in print tonight. However, Amazon has better shipping deals and usually applies a discount. If you order directly from my publisher, they don’t have any deals going on right now. So, I’ll provide the links, but I recommend waiting for Amazon.

KINDLE

So close, yet so far! I have Eden in MOBI format, but my kindle distribution may still be a few weeks off. Amazon recently changed some rules about accepting MOBI documents, so things are delayed a tad. However, I downloaded a PC-Kindle application and read part of Eden in a “kindle-like” window yesterday! It looks great! So, all the parts are in place, it’s just a waiting game.

NOOK (Barnes & Noble)

Does anyone actually own this device? Well, I decided I wouldn’t leave anyone out… so, it should be available on the Nook in ~8 weeks. Yeah, Barnes & Noble moves at glacial speeds.

OTHER DEVICES

Sony and Kobo readers are also somewhat “mainstream”. Eden should be available on those in ~2-3 weeks.

That’s all for now! Stay tuned!

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What to do while waiting for retailer proof?

So, while waiting for my retailer proof copies to review/edit/approve (the last step needed before we’re on Amazon with Eden), I decided to correct a terrible mistake.

You see, I began the next book in the “Eden Saga” on Microsoft Word a few months ago (just chapter 1). M$ Word = Tragedy. To correct this, I bought Pages for my iPad tonight and began a new Pages document on there to replace my already-failed M$ Word document. One of the main reasons I purchased the iPad was for plane-writing. So, this was a good preview of what that experience would be like. Ya know, it’s not half-bad! I certainly type a tad slower, but I could probably speed that up with a bluetooth keyboard.

So, I’m already ahead of the game by beginning in Pages. We already know the secret to converting it to ePub, so all we have to do is apply some chapter styles and we’re done! No more epic battles vs. Matt’s manuscripts.

We kinda have to wait on some of our marketing strategies to play out a little before going full-bore on that front… and it helps if the book is available in print and more e-formats (kindle, nook, etc) before we really throw down the gauntlet there. But, believe me – the gauntlet will be thrown! We have a few things in the works already, and we have a ton of great ideas. In the end, it may all be for naught, but that doesn’t mean I won’t fight like a cornered wolf for what I believe in. I’ve been here before, and I’m more stubborn/resilient than most…

Anyway, here’s what it looks like to create a book with the iPad:

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Eden is available on iBooks!!! Trailer Inside!!!

Believe it!

Eden Available via iBooks:

Follow the link on the right pane of this blog, it will bring you here:  http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/eden/id393746065?mt=11

Of course, the easiest way would be to fire up your iPad or iPhone, install iBooks, search for “eden” (mine is the first hit).  You can also search for “plourde” on iBooks – I’m the only one at the time of this post. Feel free to post a glowing 5-star review to support your friend here. The iBook version is the prettiest. It’s also one of the cheapest, which is just extra-good.

Amazon is soon to follow (this week or next), then the kindle and Barnes & Noble!  Stay tuned for those announcements.

Eden Trailer is Live!

You can use the links to the right to browse to my Youtube channel… or, here is the direct link:

Youtube HD Trailer

Exciting times!

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The Eden War Room

 

(Yes, that is a “pile” of iPads under the large monitor)

Okay, okay – I know it’s a stretch is call it a “war room” when it looks like a carousel vomited all over the room… but the Eden ePub file is complete!!

After a brutal battle that ended at 3am this morning, Mike & I stood victorious over the slain body of our ePub foe. What the hell is an ePub file? I’m glad you asked! ePub is a common format for online/digital books (most famously used by the iBooks application for Apple folk – of which I am now forever a member… read on). You can download a free ePub reader (just Google it) to view ePub and other files on your computer. Usually, these readers come with handy reading tools like bookmarking, word-lookup, cataloging and other neat things. In order to submit Eden to the iBookstore (and a few other places), we needed to make an ePub version of the book… yeah, that wasn’t as easy as we thought it would be!

First, a little history lesson: Eden is 10+ years in the making. It started in Microsoft Notepad/Wordpad/Word 2000. Through the years, the unfinished manuscript migrated to M$ Word 2003 and eventually Word 2007. I attached bits onto it from emails to myself and copy/pastes from other word processors (I think I even had one of the original versions in an early HP mobile writing tablet device). Needless to say – the manuscript was/is a Frankenstein… which is fitting if you know how the doctors pieced me together in 1999. Anyway, there was just no converting the manuscript to ePub. I failed with many free tools and other M$ Word snapins. Then, my right hand man Mike, had a brilliant idea – let’s try from iWork Pages on a Mac!

Doh! *smacks forehead* I could’ve had a V8!

After a few successful and unsuccessful tests over email, we decided we maybe knew enough to give it a whirl. We constructed the War Room last night (pictured above), and began our assault. After 7 hours, 2 iPads, 1 Mac laptop thingy, 1 Mac mini thingy, 1 windows machine (just because), much frustration and many offerings to the fickle ePub gods – we had triumphed! Not only did we successfully convert to ePub, but it looks damn sexah! The iBooks version of Eden will far and away be the finest, and it will also be the cheapest… go figure! We were able to put a few neat things into the iBooks version that will blow your mind. Good stuff! In a few days, for $8.99, you will be able to download Eden to your iDevice and leave me a glowing 5-star review on the iBookstore!  🙂

It will be a few weeks until I get it on the Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook – but those are coming too!

 Wait a minute Matt, you said you are in the Mac camp now? What was that about?

Oh yeah… that. Well, after discovering that it was impossible to complete my task of converting my M$ Word document on a Windows-based machine, I’m no longer a Microsoft faithful. My first computer was an Apple IIc (about 25 years ago), and my next computer will 100% be a Mac. My world has certainly shifted over the past few years, and I think a Mac will serve me better.

If all goes well, my 2nd proof will be perfect and I can get this this fuckin’ thing on Amazon in the next 1-2 weeks.  As the book becomes available at the major retailers, I’ll post links to the right on my blog linkbar.

 Stay tuned for the video trailer and more Eden news!

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Proof #1 is here!

Wow! So, 3 days after ordering the proof, it arrived at my house. It left the Wallingford FedEX facility at 6:20am and arrived at my house at 8:30pm yesterday. The traffic must have been epic! I almost lost faith that it was going to arrive… like everything really wasn’t happening and I was imagining things on the FedEX tracking utility. 

Anyway…

The immediate response was one of pure joy – my creation was in my hands, available in a format for all of my fan to enjoy (still singular). Then, just like we examined our son immediately after we rescued him from that orphanage, I donned my glasses and gave the proof copy a thorough cavity search. The text on the cover needs to be enlarged, and the text on the back requires a tad more formatting. However, the print quality of Axel’s art (and the text) was superb – no blur or anything. The binding looks a little suspect, but we’ll see how the next proof looks before I pass judgement on this press. 

The text on the inside was crystal clear, much to my relief (I had worries it would be blurred or bleeding into the spine). But, alas, my font was too small. That’s why we order proofs!

Unfortunately, the prices to print the “pocket” sized paperback are far higher than a 6″x9″ paperback (and almost as high as a hardcover!). So, the pocket paperback will likely only exist as a novelty from my personal storefront. The # of pages jumps up too high when I increase the font size by 2 orders of magnitude (by “Matt Math”, that’s what’s needed to fix it). So, the good news remains the same – I’ll be on the kindle, ibookstore and Barnes&Noble Nook lists in e-book format, and that’s where I can actually compete price-wise. Since I’m not forking down $20k for a first run, the physical books will be a tad more expensive than “other” books. When I weigh the cost difference between $0 and $20,000 – it’s just a fact of this process I’ll have to accept.

In any case, I’ve ordered another proof (6×9 paperback) and we’ll see what that looks like! 

We’ll fix the cover tonight, maybe have the video trailer done, and get the epub format ready for the iBookstore, Kindle, etc… Eden should be available within the next week/few weeks!

… I’m thinking a party is in order!

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Eden Proof ordered

We’re nearing launch!

This weekend was crazy. I spent the whole time editing.  I’ll be lucky if my kids remember my name. After I received the final copy from my editor, I made those changes. Then, I read the whole thing again for a final “Matt pass.” Luckily I like my own work – this is full edit #11 or 12 (I lost count).  However, I hadn’t read it in a while, so it was nice to revisit the world I created (well, “destroyed/created”).

In addition to all the massive editing, I worked with my right hand man to get the cover (front and back) done.  The M$ Publisher mock-up I posted last week looked “too much like a romance novel”, according to him.  I trust his judgement and the new cover he designed is pretty fantastic.

The most exciting news is the proof order!  I ordered a proof of Eden yesterday from my publisher.  It should arrive in 7-10 days (well, 6-9 now!!). Can you tell I’m jazzed?  I’ve been writing for a *long* time.  I’ve published some small things, I’ve gotten plenty of rejection letters.  I believe in my work.  Now, for the first time, I’ll have my book in my hands. My book!  I’m not doing this because I expect to make money (I don’t).  I’m not doing it to change my career (I’m realistic, my career is consulting).  I’m doing this because I enjoy telling stories.  That’s the long and short of it. If all I accomplish from this is the ability to easily share this story with my friends and family, then I have succeeded.  I don’t know why I thought I needed to do things “the proper way” when I started.  That’s not me.  Just like my fight against cancer – if the path is impossible, then I make my own path. 

When that proof copy lands in my hands, I think it’ll finally become real for me.  I’m making my own path and it’s bringing out a side of me I really want to keep around. 

I’ll leave all my fan (still not plural) with a little gift from the photo shoot. The full version of this picture (I cropped out all the important bits) will be unveiled in the video trailer – hopefully this weekend!  (along with a few other pieces of art from Axel)

Digital Editing was completed by Miceli Productions. Background is from Axel‘s work.  The model is a good friend of mine.  Enjoy!

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