Meredith Mansfield, Author

As part of publishing FIRE AND EARTH, I tried something new.

For the first time, I also made a print version available. Print on Demand services like Amazon’s CreateSpace make this possible, now. Nobody has to pay for a large print run. Copies are printed when ordered.

That’s not to say it’s just as easy as uploading a file. Neither is e-book publishing, come to that. There are various formatting issues that have to be solved with e-book publishing and those aren’t immediately obvious the first time or two. But then the learning curve kicks in and it gets easier.

Formatting for print, without having access to desktop publishing software, has its challenges. Certain quirks of MS Word made it more interesting. It wasn’t until I got the proof of FIRE AND EARTH that it finally became clear to me. What word showed as the left-hand page was reall, in print, the right-hand page. Ah. No wonder I hadn’t been able to make sense of the margins. (You see, you have to leave a larger margin on the inside so the print doesn’t run into the binding and disappear.)

Well, now that I’ve figure it out, I might as well capitalize on the learning curve. So, in the near future, I will be adding a print version of BLOOD WILL TELL and also probably a collection of the three shorter pieces I currently have available as e-books, “Heart of Oak”, “The Music Box”, and “Becoming Lioness”.  In fact, BLOOD WILL TELL is almost ready to go. I just want to tweak the cover a bit. That dragon bothers me just a little when the cover is blown up to 6″ x 9″. The edges are a little rough.

In other news, new chapters of FIRE AND EARTH and BLOOD WILL TELL are available on wattpad.

Next post, back to work in progress, MAGIC AND POWER (which is likely going to need a new title). This one is now over 46,000 words, so, yeah, it’s going to be a novel.