Recall the last time you had grapes. Sweet ones. Recall the taste of the little pouch as it burst open on your tongue to unleash all its sugary flavors.
I just had some this morning and remembered how much fun that tiny fruit is. And the fact that the joys of discovering packets of knowledge on one’s journey to perfecting her manuscript are no less delicious - is what I realized lately.
I was advised to not rush into publishing. I was told to read, proofread and proofread my already proofread mss again. Sole rationale behind this approach is to weed out as many errors as possible. But I stumbled upon something in my quest to perfect my novel that I hadn’t accounted for. It showed me bits of the ropes that real publishers and editors have to climb to achieve that one flawless, attention grabbing manuscript that they’d like to sell.
I always thought self-publishing a novel was as easy as uploading a Word or PDF file on the ebook website and click OK. There are sites that do just that such as www.lulu.com, which by the way I would highly recommend as a great stepping stone.
At the time when I was just starting out and dreamt of overnight success even before the launch of the masterpiece, the feel of an instant book in hand felt confident. For one thing, Lulu was free. Then, it came to my rescue when I was running out of time and had to have a book form of my work. An agent/publisher would take weeks to decide whether she wanted to even look at it or not. It also pampered the basic craving to see my name in print and once that beast was fed, I was able to move onto more serious
things.
Like learning to truly format and edit my work.
I must say I was never wise enough to go through so much trouble but my editor wouldn’t let me rush myself. She urged me to take my time. And finally when she pushed a 300-page formatting style guide at me, I thought I’d never survive it!
But I did.
I befriended Mr. Pilcrow - amazing fellow! And for the first time I saw the guts of my writing. I learnt what the tiny arrows in forgotten corners of the toolbars meant. I was able to add new paragraph styles, make a TOC with hyperlinks that actually worked and simply got to know Word better.
And now my prequel to Aoife and Demon, Origin of the Realm, is part of www.smashwords.com Premium Catalogue.
Although you may read it for free on http://www.wattpad.com/story/1599376-origin-of-the-realm but if you would like to own it, then do download for $0.99 from https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/237288
I am happy today :) and I will be happier when it hits www.Amazon.com in a few days. Stay tuned to know when exactly!
I just had some this morning and remembered how much fun that tiny fruit is. And the fact that the joys of discovering packets of knowledge on one’s journey to perfecting her manuscript are no less delicious - is what I realized lately.
I was advised to not rush into publishing. I was told to read, proofread and proofread my already proofread mss again. Sole rationale behind this approach is to weed out as many errors as possible. But I stumbled upon something in my quest to perfect my novel that I hadn’t accounted for. It showed me bits of the ropes that real publishers and editors have to climb to achieve that one flawless, attention grabbing manuscript that they’d like to sell.
I always thought self-publishing a novel was as easy as uploading a Word or PDF file on the ebook website and click OK. There are sites that do just that such as www.lulu.com, which by the way I would highly recommend as a great stepping stone.
At the time when I was just starting out and dreamt of overnight success even before the launch of the masterpiece, the feel of an instant book in hand felt confident. For one thing, Lulu was free. Then, it came to my rescue when I was running out of time and had to have a book form of my work. An agent/publisher would take weeks to decide whether she wanted to even look at it or not. It also pampered the basic craving to see my name in print and once that beast was fed, I was able to move onto more serious
things.
Like learning to truly format and edit my work.
I must say I was never wise enough to go through so much trouble but my editor wouldn’t let me rush myself. She urged me to take my time. And finally when she pushed a 300-page formatting style guide at me, I thought I’d never survive it!
But I did.
I befriended Mr. Pilcrow - amazing fellow! And for the first time I saw the guts of my writing. I learnt what the tiny arrows in forgotten corners of the toolbars meant. I was able to add new paragraph styles, make a TOC with hyperlinks that actually worked and simply got to know Word better.
And now my prequel to Aoife and Demon, Origin of the Realm, is part of www.smashwords.com Premium Catalogue.
Although you may read it for free on http://www.wattpad.com/story/1599376-origin-of-the-realm but if you would like to own it, then do download for $0.99 from https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/237288
I am happy today :) and I will be happier when it hits www.Amazon.com in a few days. Stay tuned to know when exactly!
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