Frank Sergeant

Copyright © 2012, 2013 Frank Sergeant

all rights reserved

This book is far too short to be called a short story, never mind a novella or novel.

However, it is just the right length to serve as an example of how to format a manuscript that can be turned into an eBook, automatically, with the Nepo Press formatting service.

Please read Stormy Night in that light rather than for its literary merit.

This service is absolutely free for books under a certain size (such as short stories or for trying out a few chapters of a full novel). It turns your manuscript into an eBook as an EPUB file, a mobi file, and an HTML file so it can be read on just about any computer or eReader and published to Smashwords, Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Barnes & Noble.

This is not a real novel. Its purpose is to serve as an example of how to turn a manuscript written in a word processor or text editor into an eBook (a mobi file for the Kindle or an EPUB file for nearly everything else).

It was a dark and stormy night.

All the windows were closed and the shutters were tight. Bobby and Judy had been drinking and they were tight too. They had not been drinking very much so, even though they were tight too, they were not too tight.

This is the third paragraph of the exciting first chapter.

This is the conclusion of the first chapter. Although it was exciting at first, it is beginning to drag.

“Hand me that bottle,” said Bobby.

The occupants continued to drink. The storm picked up. The lightning crashed. The thunder sparked. Bobby got nervous. Judy shrieked and jumped into Bobby’s arms, catching him off balance. They tumbled onto the floor, spilling their drinks.

Suddenly the lights went off. What was that knocking sound? A burglar? A monster? A woodpecker that likes to work at night?

“Bobby, you’d better go check on that,” said Judy.

“Hell, no, I’m not going out there!” said Bobby.

Wimp! thought Judy, but she said, “Okay, okay, I’ll go out there myself. I always have to do everything myself.”

~

As an aside, note that we just had a “scene break” and that it was marked with a tilde. If you’ll look at the appendix, you will see how this effect was achieved. You are not limited to using a tilde. For example, we are about to have another scene break, this time marking it with three asterisks, then we will get back to the mystery novel.

This is the second paragraph within the aside “scene”. Note that it is indented yet the first paragraph of the scene was not indented. This is the usual convention in fiction: first paragraphs are not indented, following paragraphs are.

* * *

Judy got her shotgun and put on her rain hat and stumbled drunkenly (they had continued to drink) outdoors. She fell off the steps and the gun went off. Fortunately, no one was hurt. She picked herself up and wandered into the dark. I should have brought a flashlight.

~

Bobby heard the gun go off and began to worry about Judy. He almost went out to look for her. Instead he called out, “Judy, Judy, are you all right?” There was no answer. Now Bobby was really worried.

Judy (poor Judy) eventually fell into a puddle of water. Fortunately, she fell onto her back, otherwise, she would have drowned.

Bobby (poor Bobby), even though almost sick with worry, eventually fell into a deep puddle of sleep.

The next morning, the hungover but sober pair drove into town for breakfast and lived happily ever after.

Frank Sergeant

Among other things, the author provides programming and technical support services to Nepo Press. His experience turning manuscripts into eBooks led to the Nepo Press formatting system (the Mobi and EPUB Machine) which makes publishing your own eBooks easy. It allows anyone to format books for all sorts of eReaders at the click of a web browser button.

He enjoys receiving email from readers at frank@nepotism.net.

This appendix contains the manuscript that produced the eBook above. It is formatted with very short lines to make it easier to view on an eReader.

This is how it would look in a text editor (i.e., multiple lines within a paragraph).

In a word processor, you would typically run the lines of a paragraph together.

Thus, something that could be written in two lines (but in the same paragraph) in a text editor, like this

<image> "frank.jpg"
  "Frank Sergeant"

would look more like the following in a word processor:

<image> "frank.jpg" "Frank Sergeant"

The Manuscript

<title>  "Stormy Night"

<author> Sergeant, Frank

<publisher> Nepo Press

<cover> stormy.jpg

<align> center

*     "Stormy Night"  ""

***

***

      Frank Sergeant

# Copyright page

*

***

Copyright <copy> 2012, 2013 Frank
Sergeant

all rights reserved

Published by Nepo Press
(http://nepotism.net)

***

<align> left

* <contents>

* Acknowledgments

Formatted by Nepo Press's Mobi and
EPUB Machine
(http://nepotism.net/formatting).



The background image for the cover
is the painting *The Storm* (La
Tempête) by French artist Pierre
Auguste Côt
<url https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
File:The_Storm.jpg>.


<start>

* Preface

This book is far too short to be
called a short story, never mind a
novella or novel.

However, it is just the right
length to serve as an example of
how to format a manuscript that can
be turned into an eBook,
automatically, with the Nepo Press
formatting service.

Please read *Stormy Night* in that
light rather than for its literary
merit.

This service is absolutely free for
books under a certain size (such as
short stories or for trying out a
few chapters of a full novel).  It
turns your manuscript into an eBook
as an EPUB file, a mobi file, and
an HTML file so it can be read on
just about any computer or eReader
and published to Smashwords,
Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Barnes &
Noble.

For more details, please see
http://nepotism.net/formatting.

* Introduction

This is not a real novel.  Its
purpose is to serve as an example
of how to turn a manuscript written
in a word processor or text editor
into an eBook (a mobi file for the
Kindle or an EPUB file for nearly
everything else).

It attempts to offer a mildly
amusing, but very short "novel" for
the purpose of showing you how to
format your own book.  To see how
any particular feature was
produced, see the marked up
manuscript in the <link "Appendix"
"appendix">.

It might be convenient to open two
copies of this eBook, perhaps one
on a Kindle or NOOK or iPad and the
other in a Kindle or NOOK App on
your computer.  That way you could
follow along in the appendix on one
while reading the body of the book
in the other.

The appendix shows how a manuscript
would look in a text editor (but
with very short lines to make it
easier to read on an eReader). Your
manuscript can be written in either
a word processor or in a text
editor.

Visible markup is the key to its
simplicity.

Generally, when writing in a word
processor, the author is advised to
be *very careful* to use *styles*
for **everything**!

Authors are usually given advice
such as

<quote>

   Don't directly format italics,
   bold, centering, larger fonts
   for chapter headings and
   subheadings.  Instead, apply the
   appropriate style.

   Do not indent paragraphs by
   pressing the TAB key.  Do not
   indent paragraphs by pressing
   the space bar 5 times.  Use the
   appropriate paragraph style
   instead.

   If you (like every other author
   in the world) have *already*
   written large portions of your
   novel without using styles
   exclusively, you must go through
   your entire manuscript and
   *remove* all of that hand
   formatting and apply the proper
   styles instead.

</quote>


However, with the *Mobi and EPUB
Machine* system
(http://nepotism.net/formatting),
you do not have to worry about any
of that.

All you need to do is add some
simple *additional* markup.  This
book and the notes and examples at
Nepo Press explain everything in
simple terms.

Enough of the introduction.  Let's
get on with the example novel.

* Chapter One <break>
  Haunted House

It was a dark and stormy night.

All the windows were closed and the
shutters were tight.  Bobby and
Judy had been drinking and they were
tight too.  They had not been
drinking very much so, even though
they were tight too, they were not
too tight.

This is the third paragraph of the
exciting first chapter.

This is the conclusion of the first
chapter.  Although it was exciting
at first, it is beginning to drag.


* Chapter Two <break>
  The Visitor

"Hand me that bottle," said Bobby.

The occupants continued to drink.
The storm picked up.  The lightning
crashed.  The thunder sparked.
Bobby got nervous.  Judy shrieked
and jumped into Bobby's arms,
catching him off balance.  They
tumbled onto the floor, spilling
their drinks.

Suddenly the lights went off.  What
was that knocking sound?  A
burglar?  A monster?  A woodpecker
that likes to work at night?

"Bobby, you'd better go check on
that," said Judy.

"Hell, no, I'm not going out
there!" said Bobby.

*Wimp!* thought Judy, but she said,
"Okay, okay, I'll go out there
myself.  I always have to do
everything myself."

<scene> ~

As an aside, note that we just had
a "scene break" and that it was
marked with a tilde.  If you'll
look at the appendix, you will see
how this effect was achieved.  You
are not limited to using a tilde.
For example, we are about to have
another scene break, this time
marking it with three asterisks,
then we will get back to the
mystery novel.

This is the second paragraph within
the aside "scene".  Note that it is
indented yet the first paragraph of
the scene was *not* indented.  This
is the usual convention in fiction:
first paragraphs are not indented,
following paragraphs are.

<scene> * * *

Judy got her shotgun and put on her
rain hat and stumbled drunkenly
(they had continued to drink)
outdoors.  She fell off the steps
and the gun went off.  Fortunately,
no one was hurt.  She picked
herself up and wandered into the
dark.  *I should have brought a
flashlight*.

<scene> ~

Bobby heard the gun go off and
began to worry about Judy.  He
almost went out to look for her.
Instead he called out, "Judy, Judy,
are you all right?"  There was no
answer.  Now Bobby was really
worried.

* Epilogue

Judy (poor Judy) eventually fell
into a puddle of water.
Fortunately, she fell onto her
back, otherwise, she would have
drowned.

Bobby (poor Bobby), even though
almost sick with worry, eventually
fell into a deep puddle of sleep.

The next morning, the hungover but
sober pair drove into town for
breakfast and lived happily ever
after.


# This is a comment.
# It will not appear in
# the formatted book.

* About the Author

<image> "frank.jpg" "Frank Sergeant"

Among other things, the author
provides programming and technical
support services to Nepo Press.
His experience turning manuscripts
into eBooks led to the Nepo Press
formatting system (the Mobi and
EPUB Machine) which makes
publishing your own eBooks easy.
It allows anyone to format books
for all sorts of eReaders at the
click of a web browser button.

He enjoys receiving email from
readers at frank@nepotism.net.

The author's web site is at
http://nepotism.net.

See a list of all Nepo Press books
at
http://www.nepotism.net/blog/
categories/nepo-press-books/,
including *Quick and Dirty eBook
Covers*
(http://www.nepotism.net/blog/
2013/10/01/quick-and-dirty/).

If you need an eBook cover *now*,
this is your book.  It steps you
through making a very simple book
cover using the free GIMP (GNU
Image Manipulation Program),
available for Windows, Mac, and
Linux.

This is a short, focused book
designed to teach you as *little as
possible* about GIMP---just enough
to create a basic eBook cover.
This will not be a $300 cover or
even a $150 cover, but it will be a
damn good 99 cent cover.

Since you can update your cover
image whenever you like on Amazon,
Apple, Barnes & Noble, and
elsewhere, this book lets you
create a usable cover *immediately*
then replace it later as your time,
skills, and finances allow.

For more information, please visit
http://nepotism.net and send an
email to frank@nepotism.net to be
added to the Nepo Press mailing
list.  Our mailings are infrequent
and short, typically pointing to
the website when a new issue of
*Stormy Mobi* (our newsletter) is
available.


<align> center

*** The End