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Kindle : How To Email Documents to Yourself for Reading on Kindle

20 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by patrickmartinthewriter in Self Publishing

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Fiction, kindle, Martin J Frankson, Noir, writing


One of the many wonderful features of Kindle is that you email your humble documents to yourself for reading on Kindle.

“How do you that?” I hear your whisper

Well, I have pieced together the following and it’s a definitive guide:

First of all, log into your Amazon account and choose Your Account from the top right

 

 

1. Save the document as a pdf file to your computer’s hard drive.
2.  Email the document as an attachment to your special email provided by Amazon.  In the subject line of the email type the word “Convert”.  This is the magic word that lets the document “reflow” or resize text once it hits your Kindle.  Send the document.
3.  In under a minute (in my experience) you will receive an email from Amazon telling you that your converted document has arrived and is available for download.  Download the .azw file to your hard drive.  Pay attention to where you save it.  I have a folder named “My Kindle Docs” to which I save converted documents.
4.  Connect your Kindle to your computer via the usb cable.  When you first connect the Kindle it acts like a removable drive.  Open this Kindle folder.  Drag the .azw file you received in the email to the documents folder on your Kindle.  Viola!  You can now read the document and resize the text size as needed.

Kindle : How to Read Your Own Documents on Kindle

13 Wednesday Jul 2011

Posted by patrickmartinthewriter in Self Publishing

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kindle, Martin J Frankson


 

By hook and by crook, I finally got this to work. If you follow the steps below, you should be able to make this work for you too. Its basically on the principle of emailing a PDF to your Kindle email account that was provided to you when you registered your Kindle’s settings on page 2 under Device Email.

I will use the reference myemail@kindle.com

You will find your Kindle Email address on page 2 of your Kindle’s Device Settings

1/ Convert your document into a PDF

2/ Log onto Amazon and then choose Your Account on the top right

3/Scroll down until you see Digital Content on the left hand side

4/ Click on Manage Your Kindle

5/ Click on Personal Document Settings

6/ Now you have to tell Kindle which email addresses are approved senders. You cannot send email to your Kindle from any old email address. Well, you can but Kindle likes to know if it’s legitimate. Click on Add a New Approved Email Address and just type in the name of your email address you are mostly likely to email from. You can add as many as you like but you must click Add A New Approved Email Address each time

7/ From one of your approved email accounts, send an email with your PDF attachment, with the word CONVERT in the Subject line and send it to mymail@free.kindle.com

That’s right. It looks different from the email mentioned in your Kindle device settings. The snag is that if you email to the settings email, you could be charged $2.50. By sending it to the free.kindle.com email address, you can do this for free. Why Amazon does this, who knows

8/ Now assuming your Kindle is on wifi or 3g, just wait a few seconds and hey presto, your document now appears on the Home screen and is ready for reading

Nothing’s simple, is it? Let me know how this goes for you. It worked for me but I had formatting issues i.e. page breaks were ignored but it’s only my document.

 

Unread Stories – My First Venture into Kindle Self-Publishing

12 Tuesday Jul 2011

Posted by patrickmartinthewriter in My Collections

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Amazon, kindle, Martin J Frankson, Unread Stories


I have published a short story for sale on Kindle, Unread Stories  which is a hardboiled, noir mystery set in Chicago.  It’s for sale for the basement price of 99pence/cents and I do hope you enjoy it.

Harrogate Crime Literature Festival : Radio 4 Broadcast from August 2nd 2010

06 Wednesday Jul 2011

Posted by patrickmartinthewriter in Review

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Crime, Harrogate, Harrogate Crime Lit Fest, Martin J Frankson, review, Theakstons


A massive thank you to my dear friend and fellow crime writer, Mary Hutchinson off  http://thetangledwriter.blogspot.com fame  for providing me with this wonderful link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t6s8y

The Harrogate Crime Writing/Literature festival 2010 was given the privilage of a Frontrow special which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on August 2nd 2010.

For everyone who is attending this year’s festival at the end of July, this will serve as a useful and interesting taster, especially the 7 minute segment on last years Dragon’s Pen event where a number of unpublished crime writers had the opportunity to pitch their novel to a panel of literary agents, within 2 minutes flat.

So, sit back, put up your feet and drop your weapons and enjoy this little nugget of broadcasting.

To my readership outside the UK, this link mightn’t work for you as it can only be listened to within UK borders.

My First Literary Rejection

01 Friday Jul 2011

Posted by patrickmartinthewriter in All Things Writing

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art, blog, Fiction, Martin J Frankson, Noir, Pmartinwriter, publishing, writing


Well, it’s a landmark that almost all writers experience; the rejection letter. Firstly, it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. I shan’t mention the agency in fear of prejusticing future dealings but they did reply very positively:

“you are undoubtedly a very talented writer and there’s much to enjoy in the chapters. Although I really enjoyed your work, my reaction wasn’t strong enough to represent it”

The agent continues…

“The main concern to me was I got a bit thrown by the structure and jumps in narratives. In the commercial market, it’s really important that the characters don’t overshadow the story”

In short, there were only 3 chapters to judge my entire novel on. Within those 3 chapters, I had two POVs. I feel perhaps that this gave the impression that my novel was too experimental and jerky.

I know it’s not like that but I didn’t give this impresssion. This is how the industry works and there’s no point in complaining about. As a writer, I have to fully understand the industry insofar as knowing exactly who I am sending my manuscript too.

I did my research in that I sent my submission to an agent with many great crime writers on their roster but I should have known that perhaps the mood and tone of my work didn’t fit with the mood and tone of the writing that agency represented.

We all know not to send our crime and noir masterpieces to Mills and Boon but it’s not quite enough to just send your work to any old agent of crime fiction.

Read widely in your genre. Get to know whose writing style closely resembles yours. In doing so, you’ll be able to target your submissions that little bit more smartly.

The agent who rejected me did so because she knows what works in her camp. At the end of they day, she can’t spend time or money on writing which will may not fit into her agency’s brand which in turn may not sit well with the other stable mates.

As I said, work with with the industry and work it to your advantage. There is an agency and publisher out there for you but you have to kiss many frogs!

Good luck and happy hunting

The Ten Commandments of Detective Fiction

21 Tuesday Jun 2011

Posted by patrickmartinthewriter in All Things Writing

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Fiction, Frankson, Martin J Frankson, Noir, writing


I came across interesting if not antiquated literary relic. Here is Fr. Ronald Knox’s famous Ten Commandment list for Detective Novelists (copyright © 1929 Ronald Knox and Pope Somebody):

  1. The criminal must be someone mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to follow.
  2. All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.
  3. Not more than one secret room or passage is allowable.
  4. No hitherto undiscovered poisons may be used, nor any appliance which will need a long scientific explanation at the end.
  5. No Chinaman must figure in the story.
  6. No accident must ever help the detective, nor must he ever have an unaccountable intuition which proves to be right.
  7. The detective must not himself commit the crime.
  8. The detective must not light on any clues which are not instantly produced for the inspection of the reader.
  9. The stupid friend of the detective, the Watson, must not conceal any thoughts which pass through his mind; his intelligence must be slightly, but very slightly, below that of the average reader.
  10. Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them.

You will note, of course, that every one of these commandments has been violated at one time or another in a classic mystery novel.

PS: Here is the oath, composed by G. K. Chesterton, of membership in the famous British Detection Club: “Do you promise that your detectives shall well and truly detect the crimes presented to them using those wits which it may please you to bestow upon them and not placing reliance on nor making use of Divine Revelation, Feminine Intuition, Mumbo Jumbo, Jiggery-Pokery, Coincidence, or Act of God?”

Marc Almond and Jeremy Reed at Wilton’s Music Hall, London : March 12th 2011

01 Wednesday Jun 2011

Posted by patrickmartinthewriter in My Favourite Poets, Review

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Jeremy Reed, Marc Almond, Martin J Frankson, review, Wilton's Music Hall


We snaked our way in the dark and dim, winding and wet laneways and alleys from Tower Hill tube station, up past St Katherine’s Dock and down the infamous Cable Street and then down Grace’s Alley to reach our destination. The streets were desolate except for a couple of guys who shouted across the road

‘Are you from round here’?

Well I wasn’t but I wished I was so I said something like ‘No but can I help?’

“Do you know where Wilton’s is?”

I smiled and replied ‘Marc Almond?”

Icebreaker or what!

That warm feeling of finding fellow traveller rushed back to all of us and the four of us all walked together to Wilton’s, floating on our verbal exchanges of mutual fandom and admiration for, who is, Britain’s and even arguably, the world’s greatest living torch singer.

We reached Wilton’s Music Hall. Have you ever seen the movie the Queen of the Damned, the movie that a hybrid of the Anne Rice novels The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned itself? Remember the vampire bar, the Admiral’s Arms that was set in a very lonely derelict corner of the decaying docklands? Well, that’s exactly the setting and mood of Wilton’s Music Hall (http://www.wiltons.org.uk). It really is in the arse of nowhere but like all gems, best found and never forgotten when found in the junkyard and not the jewellers. The music hall is on the site of a Victorian sailor’s pub and the interior put me in mind of a derelict church – with a bar.
Supporting Marc Almond was the wonderful poet Jeremy Reed (http://www.jeremyreed.co.uk) who performed with his trip-hop accompaniment/partner The Ginger Light. I had never seen or heard such an imaginative manner of the performance and portrayal of poetry – and I have been to quite a few poetry evenings let me tell you but for some reason, I can’t actually remember any of them. This is something I doubt I’d ever say about Jeremy Reed however. Born in Jersey and formerly an acolyte and under the patronage of Francis Bacon no less than, he has been described as the David Bowie of the poetry world. A former winner of the Somerset Maugham Prize for Poetry, he has written over 40 books of poetry and literary criticism. He cut a dash on stage, black beret, and red scarf and every so often would scatter silver glitter over his head like confetti. The music would not have been out of place in a Future Sound of London CD. It was atmospheric and sending and was set to the wonderful Soho poem Nifty Jim.

A treasure of a cultural find and Jeremy Reed is certainly a seam of culture I will be mining and seeking out for a long time to come.

And then the main act, Marc Almond himself. The audience, a veritable mixture of Gutterhearts and Cellmates (a true fan-gang never dies, we merely lie in wait for the next gig), trendies, Goths, untrendies and ultrafashionable peacocks gave Mr Almond a rapturous reception. The set was an acoustic affair, piano, guitar, harp (played by the wonderful Baby D, ex Anthony and the Johnsons ) of Marc’s solo work plus a few well chosen covers too. Very few if any of the songs on the set list would be that well known but only to aficionados but aficionados we all were. No Tainted Love in sight but we didn’t mind. I won’t bore you with song titles of songs that you may not know. Sometimes the fourth wall was broken by Marc coming down from the stage and performing up and down the aisles. He did say that he felt overwhelmed by the acute reverence he was getting from the audience hence the assuaging of heavy vibes by being physically present in the midst of said worshippers.

God, if you are reading my blog, take note. It worked wonders for Marc Almond.

What really electrified the audience was Marc’s acappellas of self penned Soho songs that sounded almost like folk songs. In fact, I did think they were folk songs but the lyrics belied that illusion. Lyrics of ‘Billy Fury’ and ‘Jukeboxes’ are not the stuff of Fairport Convention. I later found out that these were written and recorded only recently and are only available on CD as part of Jeremy Reed’s poetry anthology Piccadilly Bongo. Songs such as Eros and Eye, Soho so Long brought shivers to many a timber in the audience’s spines.

The evening ended with a standing ovation and an encore of the seminal Marc Bolan classic Hot Love which went down like a firestorm.

An amazing, enigmatic, beautiful, imagination-firing evening of delight and discovery. The whole evening lasted over 3 hours and I wanted every second to flow like frozen treacle. I was sorry that it ended but the art, in combination with the venue was a potent fusion ; an alloy of art itself.

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