Whitney McManus Oldendorf is a worldly and somewhat eccentric woman, not unlike Miss Klickitat in this book.  When she isn’t writing and drawing, one may find her jogging in the rain, cooking a gourmet meal, or cracking jokes over strong coffee.  She earned a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts studying painting at Maine College of Art, and a Master’s degree in Elementary Education at Portland State University.  She has worked in a variety of education related jobs, including teaching and tutoring, before pursuing her dream of becoming a Children’s Literature Writer and Illustrator.  Ms. McManus Oldendorf lives with her angelic husband in Portland, Oregon. This is her first book.

Amazon’s Whitney McManus Oldendorf Page is ready! You can view it at:

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00HHG6HSY

If you are a self published author like me you probably want your book to be available in as many forms as possible including ebooks.  A document file for a print manuscript is very different than a document that will read well when converted into an ebook.  Unfortunately, this means one must convert the original file. After working at it- basically re formatting my whole book, I understand why createspace (my publishing platform) charges $150 dollars to convert a book with several images, like my book: Pretzel, A Miss Klickitat Story.  It’s a lot of work if you choose to do it yourself, but you can do it.  There are a couple of things I’ve learned that will make the process much faster next time.

If you own a kindle or any e reader for that matter you know that the display and formatting are different than print books. .  Ereaders allow the user to choose a font and font size along with other customizable features, so forget about changing fonts or enlarging any text for emphasis.  Keep in mind, hitting return between paragraphs or tab for indenting doesn’t hold a space or page break when the doc is converted to ebook form.

There are a ton of resources for information about ebook conversion and plenty of places that will take your money to do it for you ($70-$150). Half the battle is finding the right information that pertains to your book.  Converting a text only manuscript from a recent version of Microsoft word is easier (and less expensive if you have pay for conversion) than a book many with images, easier meaning a few less steps. Doing two simple things would have saved me a lot of time from the get go:

1. Save a continuous (no page breaks) document without line or paragraph spaces in Microsoft Word of your manuscript after it is edited and perfect.  If you are inserting images keep them in a separate file (as jpegs) for now. After step 2 you can insert them into the doc. .
2. Download and read this free booklet: Building Your Book for Kindle by KDP Kindle Direct Publishing.  AVAILABLE AS A FREE DOWNLOAD  AT AMAZON.COM for mac or pc.

As I mentioned, this is a work in progress. More to come…

Cash and Addie love to cook, especially to bake sweets and eat them with their somewhat eccentric neighbor Miss Klickitat, but today Miss Klickitat has a new recipe in mind for her young friends, a large, extraordinary item, a pretzel. With help from neighbors and the community, Cash, Addie, and Miss Klickitat embark on a culinary adventure with gigantic, festive results.

 Pretzel, A Miss Klickitat Story, is written at a fourth grade reading level and makes a great read aloud story for children of all ages.

Available for sale at:

Amazon.com

Createspace.com

https://www.createspace.com/4250853?ref=1147694&utm_id=6026