Preparing a book for Create Space

Have so far reformatted my book five times following instructions from internet! Each time it has been rejected by Create Space because there are issues/ problems with layout. It is driving me absolutely mad!

Finally got it accepted only to start on the cover. Well , guess what, there's problems with this too. The sizing is wrong they want a different format, there aren't enough dots per whatsit. At the moment I give up. Might just have an e book and be done with it! What a flaming palaver,
                                  Suzi

Writing one line stories

I was doing an observation of a pupil in a Y10 class today when I became distracted by the English lesson content. It was about writing a story in one line. The example given was:

He was alone in the dark. When he put out his hand , a box of matches were put into it.

I tried to think of another example.

'Hurtling down into the darkness, she saw a pair of yellow eyes pass before blackness descended.'

or,

'Hell ,' said the duchess as she fell over backwards off the tower. When they looked over she had gone. '

Any more ideas ?  Suzi

How to get boys reading?

I 've just checked my diary for next week. Three appointments to see kids with basically the same problem, all under 8, all poor readers. How do you get boys reading? One thing is to find high interest material which they want to read. That's why I wrote my first book, a reluctant reader published by eprint called The Mum Manager. It's simply written, easy to follow, lots of action, illustrations, cream paper etc. Check it out. Here's the cover. And read to your kids, especially dads. Did you know only 1 in 8 dads read to their children? This book is available from amazon.

What are you reading now?

I'm reading The Land of Green Ginger by Winifred Holtby. Did you know that there is a street in Hull actually called The Land of Green Ginger, something to do with Hull being a port  where ginger was unloaded and sold or processed there. The book is set near Hull and follows the life of Joanna who finds herself married to a man, who because of the war, she doesn't know well, who's ill and struggling with  harsh conditions on a small farm. It's good so far, like South Riding, in that it's well written and a bit unusual.
                                                                                                         Suzi

Favourite reads

'Course all people who try to write are readers first. That got me thinking about my absolute favourite coming of age reads of all time. Here's some, what about yours,
              - Bilgewater by Jane Gardam
              - I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
              - TheGreengage Summer by Rumer Godden
and The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice. What are yours?
                                      Suzi

How to find ebook covers

I don't know about you but I'm useless at trying to design things on computer, I just want to get out pens and paper and sketch . I can come up with OK things that way but when I tried to design an ebook cover on Paint my  teenage daughter had hysterics but flounced off when I asked her for help, she was doing her nails, she had an essay...

Struggling, I did a google search and came up with the idea of asking for one to be designed by fiverr, for $5  which I reckoned would be worth losing if the design was awful. But guess what - it was great. Done in 3 days. The service was professional, I had to give them specific info about the book, age range, colours etc and my ideas . As it's a book for 8-12 yr olds, I asked for something simple, bright and just with my name and the title on it. And this is what I got, see above, not bad for £3, in fact amazing.I'd  definitely recommend fiverr!

Next I'm going to try and get my book formatted by someone from fiverr, as I've seen that this is also a service they offer. I'll let you know how it goes,
                                                                              Suzi

Welcome to writerpsych

Hi welcome to writerpsych. I'm Suzi Cresswell, an educational psychologist and a writer. I'm interested in all things to do with books, writing and psychology. I've written four children's books all published by eprint. Now I'm about to self publish a book on KDP. It should be easy but at the moment I'm having problems editing my work.  Hard isn't it? I always miss something. Thought I'd cracked it when I spotted 'willies' instead of 'wellies' ( thank God I saw it, can you imagine?) and two suddenlys in consecutive sentences. Back to the drawing board again. I'll let you know how I'm doing, Suzi.