Goals and progress toward them

Working on edits for HELLO AGAIN, a contemporary romance my agent refused even to look at ("nobody wants a novel that touches on off-screen domestic abuse!"). Got to chapter 4 today, which is more productive on the project than I've been in a couple of weeks. Edits are going well. I have a pro editor lined up, but no cover designer yet. I've got a cover concept in mind, though. My goal is to take it onto (? Smashwords ? Amazon -- depends on whose formatting constraints I figure out first) by 9/1.

Deb Kinnard said:

a contemporary romance my agent refused even to look at ("nobody wants a novel that touches on off-screen domestic abuse!").

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has your agent ever seen a lifetime movie?

Well, Ruth is now in paperback from createspace. I'm a bit nervous about it actually. Not really sure why. I mean, it's not like I'm expecting to make money off of it. Smashwords is one thing (to me)... createspace (where you can actually hold it) is another.

On a related note, I started book number 2 today. Was going great. Didn't save enough times and lost a huge hunk (well about 500 words) plus a huge arc I didn't see coming. Maybe that's why I lost it... maybe it wasn't meant to be...

My novel manuscript is with an editor now, so I'm putting that project on hold for the moment. I have two current goals.

- Complete my political non-fiction book, The Candy Store Generation. I think it lacks 1,000 to 2,000 words, though I'm not sure. I'm currently reading the manuscript to see where it's lacking. I expect to complete the reading by next Tuesday, type those edits by Thursday, and hope to finish the text by next weekend (June 9-10).

- Go back to my historical/political non-fiction book, Documenting America, and modify it to serve as a home-schooling text, an honors course of sorts. I hope to have that done and published in early July.

Good idea for a thread.

I'm taking a novel that didn't quite fit genre, and I'm using it as my first foray into self-publishing. I'm learning formatting and covers, so I've backed up the launch date 'cause I'm...a slow learner. I hope to put it out by June 15th.

I really don't want to hit send and have the date made public but here goes. I'll report back once she's loaded up.

As for me: I haven't done much revising of my novel this week. Mostly just going through edits that some beta readers gave for my short story and preparing it for self-pub later this month.
But tonight I read an excerpt of my short story at my church as a fundraiser for an Orphanage in Arusha, Tanzania.
There were short skits, a few musicians and singer songwriters - it was great!
But afterward, I had about seven kids from the youth group surround me telling me how much they liked my story and couldn't wait for it to come out. I honestly didn't think they were even paying attention! It was hands down the best compliment I have ever received.

Did the interior formatting of Crimson Dream. Wasn't too bad, just a bit of figuring things out and then some donkey work. Satisfying seeing it look more like a real book. Ebooks are great and all, but looking forward to holding it in my hands.

Now, back to the reworking of Mythweaver based on the content editor's advice. This will be hard, I left it on the backburner for a week, hoping for inspiration to hit. #Stillwaiting.

i think i may actually be finished editing. if i'm not, i'm very very close.

right now i've moved on to formatting. first step, run through and remove all of my tab indents. boring work.

robertbevan said:

i think i may actually be finished editing. if i'm not, i'm very very close.

right now i've moved on to formatting. first step, run through and remove all of my tab indents. boring work.

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I hope you are not doing this by hand and are instead using search and replace.

stranger said:

I hope you are not doing this by hand and are instead using search and replace.

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wish you had made this comment nine hours ago.

robertbevan said:

wish you had made this comment nine hours ago.

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Pity, at least you'll know for next time.

Other search and replace tricks I've recently learned:

If you want to format Word so it'll look good in a text file for forums, do a search and replace carriage returns with two carriage returns. (Rather than doing it by hand.)

You are often advised to copy a word file into Notepad to get rid of all formatting for creating an ebook. You then need to add back in italics. Use the search to find the italics rather than finding them by hand. (In openoffice, you click more options, then attributes, then font posture.)

stranger said:

Pity, at least you'll know for next time.

Other search and replace tricks I've recently learned:

If you want to format Word so it'll look good in a text file for forums, do a search and replace carriage returns with two carriage returns. (Rather than doing it by hand.)

You are often advised to copy a word file into Notepad to get rid of all formatting for creating an ebook. You then need to add back in italics. Use the search to find the italics rather than finding them by hand. (In openoffice, you click more options, then attributes, then font posture.)

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thanks for the tips. i've also learned to keep my fingers away from the tab key.

Over Memorial Day I put up an out of contract SFR novella on Kindle only(Prime). Did the free days, then went to $2.99. It has sold far more than I expected--as in 'pay the mortgage' good!

It was the first of a series, originally I was going to hit the larger e-pubs with submission of book 2 but have changed course. Have editor and cover artist lined up for a July 6 Kindle release. So need to finish edits etc this month.

Gak. I forgot all about this thread. Well, I'm doing humongous promoting and marketing for Planet Janitor, and the e-books seem to selling steadily, moving from their own momentum/exposure. This took a lot of blood, sweat and tears, endless hours visiting and contributing to SF websites and such, then putting up small samples just about everywhere. The most amazing thing is letters from parents who said their children really enjoyed the book. Gads, it's a damn good thing I took out the erotic scenes and toned it down for a general audience. My publisher was RIGHT in suggesting this.

My werewolf thriller is just a tad late in coming out, but I think it should pop in the next week or three. If not, I'll contact the publisher and find out what's up. I still need to approve the final cover art.

My blog is really making me happy. I pulled five subscribers in just the past three days--and that's because I changed the link address to showcase a really interesting topic, and not the old one, which was very boring and sparse. Man, do we live and learn from the dumbest mistakes and oversights!

I've made about 23 submissions to advance paying YA markets, being very careful to avoid my agent's list--she's grateful for the proactive help and also the publisher tips I'm sending her. As the result of one of my tips, an agent partner just pulled a $7,000 advance and contract. My agent sent me a wonderful thank you letter for the head's up and info.

My non-fiction content writing is suffering terribly. I'm not even making enough to pay my internet bill. I hope to put in some more applications. Examiner, Textbroker and another outfit have been total busts. I'm ready to go through the torturous process of applying to About.Com. and I here it's a doozy.

That is all...
tri

so last night i had a couple beers and decided to kick my baby bird out of the nest. formatting properly to smashwords was challenging enough without having to use a korean version of microsoft word, but i managed. it's time for me to start my own thread now.

merrihiatt said:

My current goal is to get out of the hospital, where I've been since last Friday night. Had to call 911 because of chest pain, confusion/loss of memory/foggy head. Turned out to be a very low sodium level which took several days to correct. Feeling great now! Hopefully being discharged tomorrow. I need to catch up with. everyone!

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in loving memory of cactuswendy, put some salt on your popcorn.


i'm glad you're feeling better. now get back to work.

merrihiatt said:

My current goal is to get out of the hospital, where I've been since last Friday night. Had to call 911 because of chest pain, confusion/loss of memory/foggy head. Turned out to be a very low sodium level which took several days to correct. Feeling great now! Hopefully being discharged tomorrow. I need to catch up with. everyone!

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Oh no! That's kinda scary. I didn't know you could do that (not that I'd ever really be low on sodium... sigh). I'll definitely pray for a speedy recovery.

Ah Merri, that must have been terrifying. I'm glad it wasn't more serious and you're feeling better.

Nightmelody said:

Over Memorial Day I put up an out of contract SFR novella on Kindle only(Prime). Did the free days, then went to $2.99. It has sold far more than I expected--as in 'pay the mortgage' good!

It was the first of a series, originally I was going to hit the larger e-pubs with submission of book 2 but have changed course. Have editor and cover artist lined up for a July 6 Kindle release. So need to finish edits etc this month.

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Wow, that's awesome

Merrri, I only just got back online and I've seen your worrying news. I do hope you're ok, and that you weren't too stressed by the experience.

It's very good to have you back. Take care of yourself.

Progress has been slow while our four year old grandson has been visiting us for the last ten days, but that's the type of lack of progress I'm pleased with. The wife drives him home today, and will be gone for 2 1/2 weeks. I'll have a quiet house, so will have no excuse during that time.

Meanwhile, I'm using my hour of quiet time at my desk before I begin my day of office work to edit my non-fiction w-i-p, The Candy Store Generation. Today I edited chapter 9, and made what I feel are excellent additions to it and caught all the typos (fingers crossed on that one). The puts me a week or two away from finishing it.

Poor Merri! Gosh. Do take care of yourself. Hope they gave you some direction at the hospital to prevent that from happening again.

Nightmelody - Congrats to you on your book doing so well. That's the kind of thing I hear that is inspiring.

Norman, a week or two away figures in just right with your quiet house time. Hope to see you back here with loads of progress.

Waaaay to much going on with me this last week to get any editing done. By 9 I'm exhausted. My daughter's prom and her 1 yr olds bday party on the same day, finishing the attic, landscaping, helping our one scout get his Eagle project done on time etc etc. My 2 days off were spent trying to head off another major hoopla in our village over some tombstones found in a gully from a cemetery that was disinterred in 1912 to put up the library. So my days off were taken up with job duties. (I'm asst. county historian) Ugh, no time to edit. Hope my next report is more productive!

Keep up the good work everyone.

Merri--I just exhaled and wiped the sweat off my brow. Now you make a full recovery, you hear?

tri