Tuesday morning, my beta reader/grammar maven sent GNOME back with her comments and edits. This is the final FINAL edit of this story. It's slow going because I decided to verify my formatting at the same time.
When you take the step to self-pub, you have to do it all yourself (or pay someone). Now, don't let the thought of formatting your work overwhelm you. There are a few tricks of the trade, BUT it is very slow and tedious to check all your sentences to make certain you don't double space, have your quotation marks going the wrong direction, and place only one space AFTER every period, plus I didn't want too many paragraph returns between chapters since this can leave blank pages on e-readers.
I must say when my beta reader returned GNOME, she sent me an email along with the manuscript. The one sentence that stood out was, "I read half the book last night, and frankly, I didn't want to stop, but I was SO exhausted I knew I was starting to read for just pleasure and I wasn't catching edits, so I shut it down for the night."
THIS was why I decided to take the step to self-publish.
THIS was why I started writing middle grade.
I want to share my stories. I want to write stories that pull readers from their reality and immerse them into my fantasy. Editors and agents aren't looking for my type of story. That's my reality. It's too light and not dark end-of-the-world type of story.
Is self-pubbing for everyone? My response is still NO.
This year, I intend to publish ALL my finished Goblin's Apprentice stories. So far, that's three novels in the series and three short stories. I also intend to write three more short stories. Think about it. The stories are written, but need editing, blurbs and covers= time and $$$.
Which means none of them are ready to go up without some work!
At the end of GNOME, I will place a teaser of the next book in the series, The Fast and the FAERIEous, but that doesn't mean FAERIE is ready to publish. It needs edits-slicing and dicing-beta reads to catch the stupid mistakes (missing words, wrong tense, confusing sentences, etc).
*sigh* and the cycle begins again.
I do have one regret by self-publishing.
I don't have any books to sign. I won't get the chance to meet my readers at a book signing, but I'll take that trade off if I get kids to read my quirky stories. And readers are more than welcome to chat with me on Facebook, or email me a note.
Sorry, I went off on a tangent again.
--and now, I need to figure out how to market my stories . . .
No excuse, just tired.
Later, Peeps!
It's easy to change two spaces to one. Just do a "find" with two spaces, and a "replace all" with one space.
ReplyDeleteGood for you on your self-publishing! Later on -- or right now, if that's what you want -- you can always do print books, too. I know some indie writers who do both.
I do this, Edie, but then I remembered I have ? ! " to deal with, too!
ReplyDeleteI'm very anal, so I feel better going over the story line by line--Yes, I haven't even started for the day and I already have a headache.
I think print books are out of the question right now. Lack of $$, book sales, or a following sort of puts a crimp in my style. :-)
JMO: I believe there will be a time when we can get print of our e-books that are costwise/quality wise.
ReplyDeleteOne tip I learned when doing the final dumb mistake edits--go from back to front. (I still found 4 mistakes in Shadows before I released it!)
I'm sure you're exhausted, but it has got to feel so great!
Thanks, Meg--I'm just feeling a little burned-out right now. I need some reading (NOT my own stories!) and recouping time.
ReplyDeleteI have jury duty and a ski trip in my future--then I'll be anxious to get with the program again.
I STILL don't understand why the dark/paranormal stuff is popular. Isn't there enough darkness and violence in real life? I want to escape to a kinder, gentler world. And dating is hard enough without now having to worry whether the fellow is actually human. Geez, how much work does a single gal have to do???
ReplyDeleteI still have my started, but never finished Demon story, Jody. Even still it isn't dark enough to call 'dark paranormal'. I believe it will remain unfinished for the moment while I concentrate on other stuff.
ReplyDeleteI think it's awesome that you decided to self-pub. You're an excellent writer. It's not your fault everyone wants the dark stuff.
ReplyDeleteHave you see the preview for that Gnome cartoon? I thought about you when I saw it. Maybe you should market it as a cartoon or show. I could really see it taking off there. :) I'm proud of you no matter what though.
Glad to see you out and about, Ash!
ReplyDeleteNo, I haven't seen the Gnome cartoon yet. I wonder if they are doing a take-off from Gnomeo and Juliet.
I do have one regret by self-publishing.
ReplyDeleteI don't have any books to sign. I won't get the chance to meet my readers at a book signing
(My first attempt to use HTML in a comment, so if it goes wrong, just squint and picture that in italics.)
I'll make you a deal: I'll burn a copy of LLL to a CD, print out a color insert of the cover, and next time I see you, I'll ask you to sign it. Does that make up for the disappointment a bit?
Or, a better way to temper it, do you know how many authors do signings and get only one or two sales (usually store personnel) over two hours? I know there are lines for the big guys, but I've been to --and done -- a ton of signings where a couple of people, max, showed up, talked and actually bought. So you're probably not missing out on a lot.
It worked, Marilyn!
ReplyDeleteAnd LOL! Thanks for the reality check. :-)
Margaret, if you want to entertain the idea of having special versions of your self-pubbed stories to give as gifts to friends, - or to sell, I guess, why not? - here's what we can do:
ReplyDeleteYou can send me the story text. I can format it into a PDF file (anybody on any computer can open,read,print them). The book cover and any other art/info can be included. We can use fun fonts for chapter titles, page numbers, etc, and could even do the background to look like, say, parchment paper or, a holiday theme for your holiday short stories, or anything that might go with the 'tone' of the story.
You can hand write a message to a recipient and sign your name, and send me the written note. I can scan it and include it in the PDF. Ta Da! You've "signed" something electronically, and it's still personalized with whatever note you want to include.
Your lucky gift recipient can keep it as a digital read, or print it out themselves.
I can almost ALWAYS figure out a way to use (or abuse) technology to do what you want to do. So, feel free to run ideas, feasible or fanciful, by me!
Wow, Jods!I LOVE this . . . now to find some 'lucky recipients'!
ReplyDelete