Texas Ranch Wolf Pack: Serial or Series

Is The Texas Ranch Wolf Pack a Series or a Serial Story?

A series is a group of books that are related to each other by setting or characters. You can think of television for this idea. For instance, the old television show Andy Griffith is a set of stories based on the lives of different characters, or things that happened to them. You can watch one episode without knowing anything about Mayberry or the sheriff's family to understand what's going on.

A series is a group of books that follow a group of characters through sequential events. In a podcast I recently listened to, Anne-Marie Meyer identified The Lord of the Rings as a serial story. The story starts in The Fellowship of the Ring, continues in The Two Towers, and concludes in The Return of the Ring. The last two books could be read without reading The Fellowship of the Ring first, but they wouldn't make much sense. By the way, these books are free to read if you have a Kindle Unlimited membership. And you can read them on your computer, tablet, or even your telephone! All the Texas Ranch Wolf Pack books are enrolled in Kindle Unlimited, too!

After thinking about this for a very few minutes, the answer was obvious to me. The Texas Ranch Wolf Pack series is a serial story. What this means is that, though some of the books can be read stand-alone, the story makes more sense if you read in order from book one forward.

I didn't plan this. Actually, truth be told, I didn't plan the series at all. Book one tackled me and insisted it be written. The rest were written because the story wasn't complete. Wolf's Man is not the first book I've written, but it is the first published under my pen name, Lynn Nodima.

Reading Order for the Serial Series

For the best reading experience, the books should be read in this order:

1. Wolf's Man
2. Wolf's Claim
3. Wolf's Mission
4. Wolf's Huntsman
5. Wolf's Trust
6. Wolf's Reign
7. Wolf's Queen
8. Wolf's Enemy
9. Wolf's Rage
10. Wolf's Quest
11. Wolf's Guard -- Coming Soon!
12. Last in the series is TBD

Wolf's Destiny is a box set that includes the first six books in the set. At present, I plan to put out another box set containing the last six books in the set soon after book 12 is published.

Wolf's Man is the genesis story for the series. It tells how Nate meets Janelle and becomes embroiled in pack business. Each book that follows provides more information about Nate and Janelle while highlighting the lives of some of the pack.

Is it a Romance?

Yes and no. Is romance the major force in the stories? Not always. The struggle to build a kingdom for the were and keep them safe is the main story. But there is a strong romance in each book, and each book ends with a HEA (happy ever after) or HFN (happy for now).

The books are all written for story, much like the books of Andre Norton, Marrion Zimmer-Bradley, Anne McCaffrey, or Elizabeth Moon (some of my favorite authors). When the story includes romance, there is romance in the book. In my books, there is no profanity or sex on the page, so they are safe reads for teens and pre-teens, too. My goal is to write books I can comfortably hand to my grandkids if they want to read them.

What do Readers Say?

These are just a few of the many reviews my books have received. Most of these came from Wolf's Destiny, but since the box set is made up of the first six books, the reviews apply to those, as well.

"I am a big fan of this genre of the paranormal. Lynn is an excellent example of a creative writer who is adding depth to the legends. Like "Twilight" it adds new aspects and is a must-read for fans. Loved it!" ~Kindle Customer

"Can you give a series a 10?? I absolutely loved this series..." ~SpanishLady

"Wow! “Wolf’s Destiny” is an incredibly addictive, page-turning series!" ~Deb

"I love when an author takes a regular topic and changes it just enough to make it seem brand new. That is this series." ~Sandra

"This series was amazing. If you love anything supernatural you’ll absolutely love this series." ~J.

"Excellent storylines, well-developed characters, and plot lines; a very enjoyable read! Would recommend to anyone that enjoys shifters, romance, and action." ~Mary

"I loved this series from the start. Wonderful characters, excellent plotlines, this series has it all. I would live more in this Universe." ~Teresa Coffey

Please Note: Minor spelling and grammar edits have been made. You can see the original reviews by visiting the reviews on the Amazon book pages. The original meanings of the reviews have not been changed.

Thank you so much to all the readers who take the time to leave a review. Good or bad, all reviews are appreciated! I love hearing from my readers. Please comment below and let me know what you think.

Later,

Self-Publishing Formatting Helps: Indents

Formatting Your Manuscript for Self-Publishing

Word is a great tool. It is the tool of preference for me. I taught Word in a collegiate setting for more than ten years, so I am very familiar with the application.

Sometimes you have to know a few tricks to make Word do what you want it to do. Especially when you are formatting your document.

We all learned in keyboarding or typing class to use the Tab key to indent a new paragraph. The tab set can be set where ever you want it so that the document looks pretty good.

Unfortunately, when you upload the file to an ebook publisher, it can go wonky. Especially paragraph indents. I don't know the reason this happens, but I think it's because KDP set tabs differently. In one manuscript, I had indents going from normal to moving to the center mark of the page. It wasn't consistent and looked terrible.

I've since learned that this is an issue for other authors, too.

Here is my fix:

Don't use the Tab key.

Simple, huh?

Okay. Sorry for being snarky.

Setting Indents

You really don't want to use the Tab key, though. Instead, use the Paragraph dialog box. To get the Paragraph dialog box to open, click the Launch button at the bottom right corner of the Paragraph group on the Home tab (circled in red in the image).

I justify my books, so the alignment in all my documents is Justified.

Make sure you have Body Text selected for the Outline Level.

Next, set the Left and Right Indentions to 0.

Under Special, drop down the arrow and select First Line. In the By box, use the up and down arrows to select what you desire. I wouldn't go higher than 0.5". To me, that seems a bit too deep an indent. Especially in Kindle books. I use 0.3".

Using this setting makes all the indents the same. Paragraph indents are automatically when you hit the enter key after the last sentence in the previous paragraph.

In the Spacing section, make sure Before and After are set to 0 pt. If you don't do this, Word will add extra space between paragraphs.

For Line Spacing, use the drop-down arrow and select Multiple. I set my line spacing at 1.08, but you can play with it to see what you like.


Before you click OK, click the Line and Page Breaks tab at the top of the Paragraph dialog box.


While the Pagination selections are helpful at times, they cause awkward spacing in an e-book or a paperback book. For my fiction manuscripts, I make sure nothing here is checked, then click OK.

Other apps will have different settings, but for Word, these work.

Please leave a comment and let me know of any other Word problems you might have. I'll do my best to provide an answer for your issues.




Take care,

P.S. Check out my new Author Helps Page.

Creating DIY Book Ads

DIY Book Ads for Indie Authors

Create Your Own Ad

Are you an indie author? Need some visuals for your book ads, but can’t afford an artist or don’t have the photo manipulation software or skills to create it yourself?

This article will provide a way to create your own advertising with tools you may already have and tools available for free online. And because you are using the background image you choose, it isn't likely anyone else will have the exact same ad for their books.

Tools You Need

 The instructions in this article assume:

• You have Word 2013 or Word 2016 installed on your personal Windows computer.
• You have the cover art for your book.
• You have access to the Internet.

 That’s all you really need. Okay, let’s get started.

Download a Background Image

You will need a background image. Don’t try to find an image that exactly matches your book. What you’re looking for here is a mood or theme photo. For instance, my PNR series, The Texas Ranch Wolf Pack Series, uses a full moon on each cover. Many of the covers also have the image of a wolf.
As my example, I am going to use an image from publicdomainpictures.net, but you can select a photo from any free stock photo site. I’ll post a list of places to find free images at the bottom of the post.

After downloading the free image, I will open it in a Word document. Okay, if all you ever use Word for is to write documents, this is going to be fun. And enlightening!

Adjust the Image

Click on the photo to select it. Look at the right end of the menu tabs on the ribbon. See the highlighted Format tab? That’s the ribbon tab that contains all the important photo editing options.

To Darken the Image

The first thing I want to do with this image is darken it. The tools we need for this are on the Format tab, at the left side of the ribbon, in the Adjust group. Click the Corrections arrow. For this ad, I want the colors dark, so I selected the second image on the bottom to get the dark lighting I want. Okay, now I want a little more blue in the photo.

To Change the Color Tone 

In the Adjust group, click the Color arrow. Under the Color Tone heading, I will select the first image (4700 K). Now the color is right for this ad.

Create a 3D Cover Image

For the next step, I need to go online to get my cover photo in a 3D format. Derek Murphy graciously provided the 3D Cover Creator for authors to use. The link is https://diybookcovers.com/3Dmockups/.

 For this ad, I want an e-reader image, so I will select Single, then select the second image on the bottom row. Click Next.

On the next screen, I upload my Wolf’s Man cover, then click Next. On the next screen, scroll down below the images you uploaded, then click PNG or JPG. Since I need the image to have a transparent background, I select PNG.

The image is rendered as a 3D cover on an e-book.

(Derek Murphy created this wonderful tool and kindly shared it with the author community. BTW, Derek also helped me with the design for the cover. Many thanks, Derek!)

Next, I need to add this image to my first image. While I could copy and past the image on top of the other, there is a better way that will give me more control over this image.

Add a Shape to Hold the Book Image

Unselect the image you’ve been working with in Word. Click the Insert tab. In the Illustrations group, click the Shapes arrow and select the Rectangle shape. Click on top of the original image and drag and draw the rectangle shape.

Right-click the rectangle shape, and select Fill at the top of the shortcut menu, and then click Picture…

Navigate to find the 3D Cover image you created. (Mine is in my Downloads folder.)

Resize the image by pulling on the resizing handles at the corner of the image.

Format the Rectangle Shape

To remove the border around the Rectangle, with the shape holding your PNG file selected, click the Shape Outline arrow in the Shape Styles group, and select No Outline.

Move the book image until it is in the location you desire.

Add a Call-to-Action 

Add another Rectangle shape to hold the ad text. Add a Rectangle Rounded Corner shape to hold your call to action. Right-click the Rectangle Rounded Corner shape, click the Shape Fill button, then select the color you desire for the background of the call to action.

For my ad, I will select Dark Blue in the Standard Colors section. Right-click the Rectangle Rounded Corner shape again, and click Outline, then select No Outline.

Right-click the Rectangle Rounded Corner shape again, and click Add Text from the menu. Add the call to action text.

Change the font to the desired font (I’m using Lato Semibold for all text.) and change the size to fit the shape.

Add Your Advertising Text Right-click the remaining Rectangle shape. Click Add Text.

Type the text you want. Change the fonts, font colors, and font sizes of the text as desired. Now, I need to do something about the background of the text.

The following actions are the reason I used a Rectangle shape to add the text instead of inserting a Text Box. Click on the Rectangle shape holding your ad text. Click the Format tab.

To fade the edges, in the Shape Styles group, click the Shape Effect arrow. Hover the pointer above Soft Edges, and select Soft Edges Options at the bottom of the menu. With Soft Edges selected in the Format Shape dialog box, type 7 pt in the Size box. (Ultimately, I decided not to use this option.)

At the top of the Format Shape dialog box, beneath Shape Options, select the Fill & Line button (looks like a paint bucket).

 Click Fill. In the Transparency box, use the roller arrows to set the Transparency to the best percent. Set Transparency to 100%. If you need a little color behind. After removing the background color, I decide I don’t need color behind my text for it to show up. Alternatively, I could have clicked the No fill radial button and achieved the same effect.

Using the Snipping Tool

Next, I will use a tool that came with your Windows Operating System. Click the Start button at the bottom left corner of your screen. Scroll through the Apps List and click on Windows Accessories, then click Snipping Tool.

In the Snipping Tool window, click Mode and select Rectangular Snip. Use the crosshair pointer to draw a rectangle around the ad image. If you have too much empty space on your image, here is where you can crop it while making the image into a JPG photo.

FYI: The image will be saved at a low-resolution, which is great for using on the Internet. Unless the specs have changed recently, a computer monitor will only display about 72 pixels per inch, so a low resolution photo looks great and a blog post or online ad. Another plus is that it won't be a memory hog and slow down your blog post when it's loading.

The Snipping Tool window opens again showing the image you selected. If the image is what you want, click File, then Save As, and give your new ad a file name.

If the image is not what you want, click New, and try again.

And there you have it, folks. A DIY ad to use in your book advertising. It may not be as sharp as a professionally created ad, but it serves the purpose.

Have fun!

Places for Free Images 

These are just a few of the available sites for free images. Again, be sure you select an image that doesn’t have a recognizable human on it and doesn’t show product details. Even though they are available on these sites, and the site says they are free, you have to be careful about using them.

www.publicdomainpictures.net 
www.pixabay.com
www.unspalsh.com
www.pexels.com

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If you're interested in checking out the book in the advertisement, you can find it on Amazon.

Later,