Diary of all blog posts – Page 18 – Read First Chapter.com

Keeping track of your book files as you move towards publication

ONE DRAFT MANUSCRIPT DOCUMENT IS EASY!

When writing your book, especially if you are writing in a management system like Scrivener, it's easy enough to keep track of your manuscript.

However, once you compile the manuscript and pass it onto a beta reader, or an advance copy reader, or even an editor, suddenly, there are now 'multiple copies' of the same manuscript.

PRE-MARKETING DOCUMENTS AND GRAPHICS:

Then once your manuscript leaves, you should shift over into marketing mode. You will start creating graphics to use in marketing your book, or you will be working on the ebook cover or even the paperback cover.

You'll have original royalty free pictures, and then you'll have various copies of those oncoe you remove a background or two -- you get the picture.

Pretty soon, you have 25 files, some graphics, some blurb files, etc.

Below is a list of the documents you may accumulate just starting after you pass your manuscript on:

royalty free graphics (for cover)
templates from kdp (for cover)
descriptions (written by you)
blurbs for different websites (written by you)
graphics or documents by Fiverr
newsletter graphics
ebook sale graphics
ebook release notices
ebook promotions at bookfunnel

This is just a sampling of how many documents you will begin to accumulate.

The only document that is precious and that needs to be tracked like a hawk is your "present final manuscript".

WHAT IS A PRESENT FINAL MANUSCRIPT?

A present final manuscript is just that. It's the last true final manuscript as of today. You will make changes after you hear back from advance readers and you may make other changes after you hear back from your editor.

My biggest tip is to use a date on final manuscripts. So if you are fearful of throwing out previous final manuscripts -- as most writers are -- you can be sure that a new final with a later date is a more recent final.

GIVE THE FINAL MANUSCRIPT ITS OWN FOLDER

I also put the actual final manuscript that I upload to KDP in it's own folder called FINAL MANUSCRIPT UPLOADED TO KDP. Then I also date the final manuscript inside that folder.

This is an added safeguard so you don't wind up making new changes to an already older manuscript. Trust me, I'm speaking from experience unfortunately.

USE A CONSISTENT FILE NAMING CONVENTION:

I'll share below my naming conventions with a few explanations below:

Most of the above files are self-explanatory with the exception of two or three. The reference to Bookfunnel and SiteOrigin are two websites that I use as a self-published author to market my books. I give away free copies of my new book the six to 8 weeks before publication. I often have a giveaway in them for taking the time to fill out a questionnaire about how they enjoyed it. So that's a different "final manuscript".

The other file that may need some explanation is "TOBEDeleted". I am paranoid about deleting anything before publication. So the old final manuscripts or anything else that I know I don't want or need, I put into the TOBEDeleted file. Once my book is safely published, I then delete everything at that time.

Self-Publishing – Creating a Book Cover – Two Routes

EVERY MANUSCRIPT NEEDS A COVER:

At some point your manuscript will get closer to publication. At that time, you will need to start thinking about dressing it up for publication. The book cover. You can find any number of places, including KDP itself where you can create your own cover for free. Not recommended, but it's possible.

If you are writing a non-fiction book, you can probably get away with using the KDP cover creator as the non-fiction books are more 'content related' than fiction.

Every new author begins to have visions of scenes they want etched onto the front of their book while writing it. I personally did the same thing. The book cover doesn't have to reflect any scenes from the book. The book cover is more sales pitch than any type of a summary or hint at what the book is about.

SO WHAT SHOULD DETERMINE THE BOOK COVER?

Answer: Genre and mood. Genre or theme. That's what should guide your choice in a book cover. The best practice for a newbie self-publisher is this: Find your genre and then see if there is a sub-genre where your book fits. Above you will see some of the subgenres under romance and some under mystery, thrillers. Finding your exact niche is what you want to target before you set your heart on any design.

What does this mean? Let me explain for the ultra newbies. It means that romance is a large genre by itself. However, Amazon has created all kinds of subgenres under romance like billionaire romances, cowboy romances, small town romances, etc. With all the analytics in the world, Amazon knows that people tend to like the same types of books, and by having these subgenres, it's now easy for people to find exactly what they want. As a new self-publisher, you need to make this work for you.

REAL WORLD EXAMPLE OF CHOOSING THE WRONG GENRE:

I wrote a vampire series that was really best suited as a paranormal romance. I never heard of paranormal romance. I didn't even know they had a paranormal romance genre. I was operating on the antique system where all vampire books were in the horror section. WRONG!

Not knowing all this, I originally designed a cover for "gothic vampire". Big mistake. I'll go into that experience a little more as I explain how to work with fiverr and still maintain control over your design. My point here is that I found out too late how important these sub-genres were. I had already paid for a fantasy gothic cover. Then when I went to change it, the fiverr designer who charged only $50 a cover now wanted $250 a cover. I had four books in my series! More on that in another blog post.

The way this became a problem for me was that my book covered looked like a high fantasy horror, but there wasn't enough blood in my story for that genre. My vampire series is more of a paranormal romance, a modern family drama. So it just was on the wrong shelf, so to speak. The cover was the main problem. It said gothic and it wasn't projecting the right "genre" or the right mood.

I have since fixed it, but it was an expensive lesson I learned the hard way. Anyway, I think you get the drift that knowing what book shelf, so to speak, you are designing for is very important.

TO SUM UP: Find your genre first and see if you also belong in a sub genre. Then search out this sub-genre best seller list on Amazon and look at all the covers there. Pick two of your favorites. They will be your inspiration covers.

NOW WHAT? HOW DO I GO FROM FINDING A BOOK COVER I LIKE TO CREATING MY OWN?

The answer to this question is determined by your budget. In the world of self-publishing, there are dozens of companies and freelancers that serve the self-publishing community. They do everything from ghost writing, editing, book covers, marketing, social media and more. You can spend a small or even a large fortune on these services -- and you may be in a position to do that. If you are, good for you. If I had all the money in the world and had it all to do over again, I would get a publishing coach who could hold my hand and direct me on the path the entire way. I would make sure this consultant was an editor first and consultant secondly. This is probably the least stressful way to self-publish.

One Word of Caution: Be careful as you choose services to help you as there are good companies and some shady companies.

However, if you are publishing on a shoestring, then you've come to the right place. Keep reading as there are two different routes you can take, each will be determined by how much of a shoestring you are operating on.

TWO ROUTES TO THE SAME SELF-PUBLISHING END:

If I had to make one recommendation to new self-publishers, I would tell them to spend their money on a good line-editor and learn to do the other services yourself. It is possible to find an excellent freelance editor for four to five hundred dollars. If this is the main expense of publishing a book, that's still considered a reasonable budget.

Don't worry if you are a single mom or supporting a family and you don't have a spare four hundred. If there are kids in your house, I can only imagine how fast they can eat money! I operated on less than $400 in the beginning. I've got you covered below.

THE FREE ROUTE TO A GREAT BOOK COVER:

With Gimp (free graphic design program) and www.pixabay.com, you can teach yourself how to create a great cover. It's not necessary for authors to learn every single tool in the Gimp program to produce a great cover. You merely need to learn how to remove a background, blend pictures together and a few other easy-enough techniques.

I'm producing a Gimp for Authors Series to teach only enough to make a cover. This reduces the learning curve drastically. Look for my Gimp for Author videos on YouTube.

THE LOW COST ROUTE TO A GREAT EBOOK COVER:

Now another paid but affordable route to making your own book cover is to work alongside someone at Fiverr.com. There are lots of people who will create a nice book cover for $25 or $50. This may be worth it for some of you who are busy and don't have the time to learn Gimp. It always comes down to money vs. time.

Join www.fiverr.com. Search for book cover design. Each graphic designer will have a portfolio of some kind. They all also have a rating based on past jobs. Fiverr is the go-between. You pay this person through the website. Fiverr protects both people in the deal. They make sure you pay when the work is delivered and they make sure the person who has offered to do the work has done it as agreed. So it's very safe.

MONEY SAVING TIPS FOR USING FIVERR

If you can, reduce what you need to have done down to a single task. For example: If you ask them to create an entire book cover, they will own and control the entire design. You will have no idea what they did to create it, how many components they used, what font they chose, etc. If you want to tweak it down the road, it's impossible to do on your own.

However, if you learn enough graphic design in Gimp to create the components used in your cover, know EXACTLY what font you want, then you can only pay for one or two tasks: Can you remove the boring sky from this picture and add this nice one? Can you turn this picture of guy into a silhouette and put him on a transparent background for me? That is much cheaper work than: Can you make me an original book cover?

As long as you can arrange your graphic components onto an eBook template in Gimp (beginner level task), then you can control your expenses and keep them very, very low.

LET ME SHOW YOU HOW:

Below is a video where I jump into Amazon.com and show you how to find the subcategories. It's not that easy anymore! This will help you, as a self-publishing author, find your niche category. That's Point A. From there, it's easy to find a template book cover from one of the many you will see. With that template, you are less than 10 Gimp techniques away from creating your own cover.

Peek Behind the Novel – Writing the First Draft – Layer 4

LAYER 4 - WRITING THE FIRST DRAFT

Use the Scene outlines to write the individual scenes.
Split Scrivener Binder into Four Parts representing the Four Part Structure.
I copy each scene outline into one document under the Part it belongs in.
I set up all of my scene documents in the proper sections. I don't worry if certain parts are 'heavy'. The clues are recorded but the rest of the drama of the story is not.

THE MIND IS ALWAYS WORKING:

This process will give you a bird's eye view of the scenes.
I usually decide to move a scene or two closer to the mid-section of the story. Because it's only an outline, it's easy-peasy.
By seeing the scenes with the timings and a one to three word prompt, I start to see the story from above.

I DON'T FORGET MY LANDMARKS - PART 1

The Hook (Which we haven't talked about yet)
The crime scene or the acknowledgement of the mystery
The Inciting Incident - When the detectives start off to solve the crime.
By the end of Part 1, I want there to be at least 2 suspects or even 3.
By the end of Part 1, more than one person looks guilty.

LANDMARKS OF PART 2:

Interviews begin - they point to different people
Clues begin to trickle in - they may seem to clear one or another
One of two secrets are exposed in Part 2.
The end of Part 2 is the midway point. There could be a big surprise or shock

LANDMARKS OF PART 3:

More interviews
More clues
Even the rise of another suspect, an unusual suspect.
This rise of an unusual suspect can twist the story into another direction.
This midway point could also be a Dark Night of the Soul where it may seem that the culprit may get away with it or it won't be solved or solved in time.

LANDMARKS OF PART 4:

The first part of this section will be a big reveal.
The crime will be solved between the start of Part 4 up to 2/3 of the part.
There needs to be time to wrap up the crime and show how it affects everyone involved.
The last part of the story is for the 'wrap up' where you tie up all the loose ends.

ABOUT WRITING THE WRAP UP:

Reveal the guilty party and solve the mystery.
Reveal why the red herring couldn't be guilty.
Do a quick review of the whole crime to confirm for the readers
Show a 'new normal' for the main characters, showing their character arcs completing.
In a series, you need to drop a clue that this crime is finished but their story continues.

TIPS ON WRITING A FIRST DRAFT:

Write forward only. Don't look back.
Don't worry about spelling, grammar, verb tense, too many over-used words.
The goal of the first draft is to get it down on paper and make sure you put everything into the story from your scene outlines.
Think of it as 'blurting out the story'.

I'LL BE BUSY OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS WRITING:

I've reached Layer 4 in my present novel. This layer takes time to get it all down on paper.
By not worrying about prose or grammar, I'm free to just be creative about the story and whatever dialogue pops into my head.
The first draft will be just that -- a first draft.
Rest assured that the first draft is important, but by the time I get all the way to Layer 8, it will be polished and not look anything like it looks in the first draft.

I HOPE THIS SPURS SHARING

I hope my revelations of my writing techniques will prompt other authors to reveal their process.
I love to learn new techniques and when I was brand new, learning from experienced authors was so very helpful.
Be sure to sign up at ReadFirstChapter.com to get on my mailing list. I send book promotions once a week and notices of new books and notices of when my books go "free" on Amazon.

Here is the YouTube video that goes along with this blog post. I have the timestamps below in case you want to watch a certain part over or just skip to the relevant part.

00:01 - How I set up Scrivener into the Four Part Story Structure 01:15 - This process gives you a bird's eye view of the entire story
02:00 - Showing in Scrivener how I set up the Binder, the documents, the Title and Synopsis sections and how I can use the Outline view to see a bird's eye view of the entire manuscript as it comes together.
03:00 - Tracking case time and personal time in order to weave in the subplots
03:36 - How I use the screen outlines, moving the scene outline into the Notes section to keep it safe
04:25 - The Corkboard vs. Outline View 06:10 - Keeping the writing landmarks of Part 1 in mind: The hook, inciting incident, etc.
07:15 - Landmarks of Part 2, how the evidence trickles in - middle of the book
08:20 - Landmarks of Part 3 - Names the suspects and a dark night of the soul.
09:20 - First half of Part 4 - The big reveal and the wrap up of the mystery. 11:03 - Tying up all loose ends and the subplots. Showing the new normal. Ending the character arcs for this story.
12:00 - Writing series and letting the reader know the crime has been solved but their personal lives continue.
12:37 - Five tips to Beginner Writers 13:30 - The story crafter vs. the story author.

Writing a Novel in Layers:

First - A Little About the Chronology of a Crime

Writing a Novel - Layer 1
Writing a Novel - Layer 2
Writing a Novel - Layer 3
Writing a Novel - Layer 4
Writing a Novel - Layer 5
Writing a Novel - Layer 6
Writing a Novel - Layer 7
Writing a Novel - Layer 8

Gimp for Authors – Basic Tips I Wish I knew When I Started

Gimp is a free graphics program and it's fairly easy to use. But a lot of the program is not self-explanatory. So you can get lost really easily. A graphics designer needs to know how the entire program works. For authors, writers and other self-publishers, you only need to know a few of the tools to do pretty much everything you need to do.

The purpose of this blog post and video below is to give an overview of what authors will need to know about Gimp in order to be able to make social media posts, ad banners and book covers.

OPEN A NEW DOCUMENT VS. OPEN AS A LAYER:

Once you download the software, you will open the program and your first move will be to 'create a new image'. Click on FILE > NEW IMAGE. This will open a new dialogue box. Fill in the dimensions of how big or small you want the image to be.

PPI - This controls how big the image is. If you are creating something for a printer, or a paperback cover, you need to fill in 300ppi. If you are creating a social media image, fill in 72ppi. Printers need BIG pictures and the internet likes smaller pictures because they are easier to pull up from the servers.

HOW THE LAYERS PANEL WORKS:

All images are created in layers. The layers are built up one over the other. This is another reason why transparency is important -- which I'll cover below -- because you don't want to cover up the image or work below the layer you are on.

If you don't see your layer's panel open with the default settings, click on Windows > Dockable Dialogue Boxes and Layers will be one of the first choices in the long list of choices. You can get to it by using the shortcut key Control L.

CHANGING COLORS FOR TEXT:

The graphic to the left is a closeup of the tools panel. Each tool is represented by an icon. Below the tools is a graphic representation of your foreground color (the color on top) and the background color (the color in the back).

When you open a blank layer, it will default to your chosen background color.

The text tool uses the foreground color. So if you want to create a layer of black text, click on the text tool, click where you want to type on your image, and the text will render in black.

However, if you want to change the color of your text, before you click on the text tool, click on the black foreground color icon, and a color box will open. Choose another color and then click okay. Then click on the text box and your text will render in that color.

TIPS ON USING THE TEXT TOOL:

The text took can be tricky for a beginner because you can't as easily use the shortcut keys. For example, if you change your text size and then click on M for the move tool, it only adds an 'm' next to the text size. This can drive a new user mad! So be aware of this, that the shortcut keys can be a bit tricky when using the text tool.

It's best to click out of the text box and then click on the move tool icon. I wish I had known this when I first started using Gimp!

USING THE ALIGNMENT TOOL:

In order to align everything in the center on your image, you will need to use the alignment tool. There are two steps in using the alignment tool. Most tools are as easy as just clicking once on them. However, when using the alignment tool, click the tool to make it active. Double click to bring up the tool box. Then choose to associate this to the background layer. Once it has been assigned, then you click inside the image to the area you want to align. Four very tiny dots will surround the object you are about to align. These tiny dots are easy for a beginner to overlook. Once you see these tiny dots, then you click on the 'center' or 'left-align', etc. inside the tool itself.

When you see the video below, you will see it in action and it will become clearer.

SAVE VS. SAVE AS VS. EXPORT AS:

There are three ways to save documents. I'll post below the three ways and when you want to use that particular save:

Save or Save as - This saves the image as a .xcf document. These documents are only recognized by the Gimp program itself. You may want to save a social media image you made as a .xcf document. This way, when you open it, you open the document and all the layers you created. You can easily reuse these files to make future social media images.
Export as - In order to use the images on the web or even send to a printer, they will need to be saved in the proper format. So you will save as a .jpg or .png for the web. If you have a job that a professional printer will use, you will most likely have to use a pdf.

SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS ON SAVING FOR GIMP BEGINNERS:

It's important to know that .jpg images do not allow transparency. They will default to having a white background. .png images do allow transparency backgrounds. This means that if you have a round logo with no background, you need to save it as a pgn file. Otherwise, it will throw in a white background if you save it as a jpg.

Now, there is a little glitch in Gimp for saving PDF files, especially when saving book covers. The work around is to save the book cover as a xcf document for safekeeping. Then save it as a jpg file. Open the jpg file and then save that as a pdf.

If you just save the xcf file as a pdf, it starts throwing thing into different places. It took me hours and hours to figure this out, so I'm passing on this tip to other beginners! Save as a jpg, then open the jpg and save that one layer document as a pdf.

HOW THE TRANSPARENCY WORKS:

In the project below, the Banner for Bookfunnel, you won't really need to now about the transparency layers. But I offer this as a beginner tip.

If you choose to make an image and choose the transparency layer from the getgo, then each layer above your first layer will also be a transparency layer.

However, if you just open the document and try to add something that needs a transparency, it will cause a lot of frustration because the transparency won't work. If you do this, open with a white or black background, then go over to the layers panel, right click on the layer and select "add alpha channel". When you do this, nothing will happen, no noise is heard. It feels like nothing happened. But it did.

If you then click over into the image and then click your delete button ono your computer, the background color will disappear and in its place will be the grey and white checkerboard, as seen above, which represents the transparency.

For your convenience, I have posted the time stamps for the how to video that follows in case you want to watch a short clip more than once.

Video Timestamps:

00:01 - How to properly size a graphic
01:19 - How to open a picture vs. how to open a picture as a layer
02:00 - How to resize an image with the scale tool
03:15 - The layer's panel - How to find it - how it works
04:00 - How to change text color with the eye dropper
04:33 - How to use the text tool, a text box, and create a headline (T)
05:02 - How to resize the text size and make two text lines
06:02 - How to use the alignment tool (Q)
07:00 - How to move the text box (M)
07:21 - How to save the graphic as a XCF document (Gimp document)
07:58 - How to export the graphic as jpg/png graphic for internet
08:30 - How to save your project as a Template and reuse it
09:36 - How to turn a black background layer into a transparency layer

Author’s Resources – HTML and CSS Cheat Sheets

WHERE CAN I FIND THESE CHEAT SHEETS?

WHY WOULD AN AUTHOR OR WRITER NEED THESE WEBSITE CODING SHEETS?

If you're an writer or fiction author and you either have or plan to have a website, it's only a matter of time before you will need to know at least a little about HTML which controls the structure of a website or CSS which controls the style of a website.

This website, overapi.com, has AMAZING Cheat Sheets for these languages as well as many others!

Just look at how much work went into theses!

Above is only the HTML Cheat Sheet. This is only a screen shot. The sheet goes all the way down the page. The only coding you will need are at the top. I remember wanting to change a background color, or change the size of a headline, or add more or less margin or padding space and these came in so handy.

You will only need one to three sections on each of the cheat sheets to have everything at your fingertips.

This resource came in so handy when I put up my first website. I hope it will come in handy to new writers and authors who 'need to tweak' just like i did.

Self-Publishing Tip – Cover sizes

I chose to write this blog post for new authors who struggle, like I did, when it comes to getting things together right before self-publishing your own books. I managed to flip upside down when it came time to uploading and publishing.

One reason I went upside down was because I was nervous about doing something I wasn't familiar with. The second reason was that I had done so much research that I was overwhelmed with information and I had the information in different places. Sheer confusion.

WHAT DO YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED TO UPLOAD AN EBOOK COVER AND A PAPERBACK COVER ON KDP.AMAZON.COM?

The ebook cover needs to be 2560px (height) x 1600 px (width). The instructions say the ebook only has to be 76 dpi, but I always make sure mine are 300dpi. It's just more high quality. Amazon has a way of compressing them and they always look good online, so I would suggest you do the same.

It's all about the size.

76dpi, 150dpi and 300dpi - What's the difference?

The difference is size in dots per inch. Without getting too technical, which isn't necessary, 76dpi is the most common size to use online, on websites, anywhere that you want your pictures to load fast.

150dpi is a bigger size, and that is seen sometimes online. But that would usually be used for someone publishing actual artwork or photography.

300dpi is what a printer would need to print a color copy of anything.

72 dpi is referred to as "low resolution" and 300dpi is considered high resolution.

IMPORTANT LINKS TO KEEP HANDY:

Amazon offers a Cover Creator, but the covers are template based and it's best to learn how to use Gimp or some other free graphics program in order to make a cover. They aren't hard to do. Stay tuned for videos on how to easily make a cover.

The information about formatting in general begins at this link.

The paperback calculator is at this link.

Thank You – Coloring Pages – Assumption of Mary

Thanks so much for signing up for the download of the Assumption of Mary coloring book page! Click on the image below to bring up a 8.5″ x 11″ PDF. Simply print out or save onto your computer hard drive!

Coloring-Assumption-Mary-web

Click here to download PDF

Sign up for Downloads – Coloring Pages – The Assumption of Mary

Click the picture above or here and you will go to Google Drive to download the Coloring Page.

Writers Diary – Pantser vs. Plotter

CHOOSE A PATHWAY:

I was lucky when I started as I knew, without a doubt, that I was a plotter. I don't write a letter without a short list of points I want to cover. But this can be a choice that can help you not get lost in the overwhelming number of things you need to keep in mind for any novel.

I won't go into too much detail as there are hundreds of youtube videos about being a pantser and being a plotter by more experienced people than me. But in one sentence, a pantser is someone who sits down and begins writing 'by the seat of their pants' without an outline or a template of any kind. Steven Kind is a pantser. Being a plotter means that you start with a template, and then an outline, and then begin writing the novel itself.

There are natural-born pantsers like Steven King, and if you are one of those, that should be your pathway. However, my suggestion to a newbie writer, especially if you don't know if you are a pantser or plotter, is to try to at least have a template and at least three-act play structure to keep you on track.

#WRITERS TOOL - MYSTERY TEMPLATE

There are probably hundreds of templates out there for you to choose from. If you search "writing template" at images.google.com, you will find hundreds of them. I incorporated several of them into my own custom Mystery Template. You can click here to download the template to have a look at it or use it.

This is the template I wound up using after at least a year of struggling with the other confusing templates. In time, I began to use a template that was divided into four acts, so to speak, but I'll talk about that one next.

Adding a Contact form with Recaptcha

I started to get some spam through my website and it was all similar. They were filling out the form for an advanced copy of one of my books, and then it had a weird message in another language. It was most likely a bot, so the time has arrived for me to attach a recaptcha to my forms.

I had done this several years ago, but as usual, everything "updated" and my old instructions were useless. So it took me about four hours to figure out how to add a recapture to a Contract 7 form and this blog post is an instructional on how to do it.

FIRST THINGS FIRST: WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

recaptcha-picture-board — Recaptcha Picture Board

You need to add two plugins to your wordpress website. Contact form 7 and Really Simple Capture. As part of the Really Simple Capture, this should upload a temporary folder to your server entitled wpcf7_captcha and another one called wpcf7_uploads. Photos of all of these are on the picture board above.
You will need to register your website with google to use a recaptcha, so go to www.google.com/recaptcha and fill out the form to register your website. More on this below in the actual instructions. As part of this process you will get a Site Key and a Secret Key. You will need to copy and paste these somewhere safe so you can retrieve them later. You will also get a google recaptcha admin page link and you may want to record this too in case you want to watch and see what kind of bots it blocked from your site. But that isn't crucial to get it to work.
Now, somewhere along the line, I wound up being redirected to a website called Softaculous.com for and had to pay to 'join' to use the captcha, but I am not sure if that is absolutely necessary. It cost $24.00 for the year and I decided that I send enough emails and get enough traffic that a $24 service fee was more than reasonable, so I purchased it. This may have happened to me because I was engulfed in a lot of confusion going from plugin to plugin and back to google captcha, so all I can say is good luck!.

HOW TO INSTALL THE RECAPTURE AND LINK IT ALL TOGETHER:

First, inside the back end of your wordpress website, click on the Loginizer Security and you will get a drop down list. On the Dashboard page, you will need to enter the Loginizer License number and click 'update'.
Then click on the Loginizer reCAPTCHA settings. This is where you will add your Google keys, both of them.
Then click on Contact on the left hand wordpress menu and you will get a pop out menu. Choose integration. When it opens, click on the second box that says reCAPTCHA and this will add your google keys automatically and that will hook up the Really Simple Captcha to the Contact form 7.

HOW TO USE THE CONTACT FORM 7 WITH THE reCAPTCHA:

Here is where it got tricky and where I wound up going in circles for awhile. The instructions are written for web developers and they assume you know a lot of things about hooking things up, which I don't know and you probably don't either.

So here are the instructions for fifth graders:

Once you have all the plugs ins installed, all your user keys inserted and integrated the form under Contact, then it should work without a hitch as long as you put the right short codes in.

The short code is this: [captchac captcha-170] [captchar captcha-170 4/4] This code will work without a problem.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

If you want to read more about how it works, I had to visit all of these pages as I pieced together how it worked.

Contact Form 7 Recaptcha:
https://contactform7.com/captcha/
https://www.google.com/recaptcha/about/
https://www.google.com/recaptcha/admin/site/464233367
https://developers.google.com/recaptcha/docs/versions
https://loginizer.com/docs/getting-started/upgrading-from-the-free-version-to-pro/

The following 'different' codes seem to change the css or other things, so if you want to experiment with them, here they are:

[captchac captcha-170]
[captchar captcha-170 4/4]
[captchac captcha-778 size:s fg:#ffffff bg:#000000]
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[captchac captcha-118 size:l fg:#00ff00 bg:#ffffff]
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