Hey Folks,
Oops. Well, I didn’t get this out yesterday. Not used to the new time yet, I guess. So I wrote most of what’s below yesterday, but I’ll count it today.
A request — if anyone knows of any writer’s blogs (or group blogs, like Kill Zone, or organizational blogs) where professionals hand out anything of value to other writers (regardless of genre), please let me know. You can comment below or email me privately at harveystanbrough.com.
Kill Zone still has a few authors who post valid posts now and then, but it seems to be devolving. Of course, we have Dean and Kris, but I’d like to add others to my list of regulars to pass along to you.
Tomorrow I’ll pass along a few posts from Mark Rubinstein.
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From yesterday
Wow. In the midst of working on another copyedit, I received another manuscript — one I copyedited a month or so ago. The author had gone over the whole thing again and wanted it eformatted, for which she’d already paid me.
When I copyedit a manuscript, I’m happy to also do the eformatting for a small additional fee (only $25) since I’m in the manuscript anyway.
Only despite the wonder of Draft2Digital, whose praises I constantly sing, this author wants the manuscript formatted for upload to Smashwords.
That’s fine, of course.
The problem is, Smashwords requires an interactive table of contents. Which isn’t a problem at all if there are no chapter heads (chapter heads really are silly in fiction, don’t you think?) or if the chapter heads are simple numerals: 1, 2, 3, etc.
When the chapter heads are simple numerals, Smashwords automatically creates the interactive TOC. (D2D automatically creates the interactive TOC no matter how you title the chapters.)
But because these chapter heads are written out (Chapter One, Chapter Two, etc.) I have to manually create the interactive TOC. If you’ve read my Essentials of Digital Publishing, you know what a time-consuming, labor-intensive task that is.
Plus it’s been so long since I did one that this morning I had to go back and re-read that section in TEDP. Which made me very glad I wrote it in the first place. Because nobody else out there teaches anyone how to do this stuff.
Anyway, I’ve decided I’ll still offer eformatting with paid copyedits, BUT NOT for Smashwords unless there are no chapter heads or unless they are sequentially numbered with only numerals.
So that and the current copyedit are going to be my day today. On the good side, even with this major interruption I should be finished with the copyedit tomorrow or possibly the next day.
By the way, to get your own FREE copy of The Essentials of Digital Publishing, click http://harveystanbrough.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/DPubV2X.pdf.
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Okay, so yesterday I finished a formatting job and did a bit on the current copyedit. Today I’ll finish the copyedit and send it back to its poppa.
A write emailed me yesterday to commiserate with me being in a “slump.” I appreciate that, but I’m not in a slump. I’m in a time when I’m not writing fiction, but I don’t lack for ideas, a desire to learn, etc.
Most of all, I don’t currently lack for things to do. (grin) But I’m slowly clearing the decks so I can get back to writing without any outside pressure.
And I’m posting this a little early so I won’t forget again.
See you soon.
Of Interest
See Sue Coletta’s “Can Creativity Pass Through Generations via DNA?” https://killzoneblog.com/2018/07/can-creativity-pass-through-generations-via-dna.html. I added a few ideas on this one.
See “The Passive Guy Comes To The Master Business Class” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/the-passive-guy-comes-to-the-master-business-class/.
From Dean, “Kris’s Web Site Is Down… So since she normally posts a free story on her web site on Monday, she put it on her Patreon page instead. You can find that at https://www.patreon.com/kristinekathrynrusch/posts. (Scroll down a little when you get there.)
Finally, for fun see “Reminder: Writing requires more than inspiration” at https://meggardiner.wordpress.com/2018/06/02/reminder-writing-requires-more-than-inspiration/. It sounds amazing, but once I started reading I was chuckling in two directions.
Fiction Words: XXXX
Nonfiction Words: 680 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 680
Writing of
Day 1…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXX
Total fiction words for the month……… 2946
Total fiction words for the year………… 237162
Total nonfiction words for the month… 10060
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 89236
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 326148
Calendar Year 2018 Novels to Date………………………… 5
Calenday Year 2018 Novellas to Date…………………… 2
Calendar Year 2018 Short Stories to Date……… 11
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 31
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 6
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………………… 193