In today’s Journal
* First, a moment
* Public Service Announcement of the Day
* Topic: An Important Post for Writers
* For yet another
* I think everyone out there knows
* The numbers
First, a moment to remember those who lost their lives in a selfish, shameful, cowardly act perpetrated by a few “unspeakable bastards” (as one columnist put it) 18 years ago today. I will personally never forget that day
Neither will I ever forget the brave men who lost their lives needlessly in Benghazi on the same date 11 years later.
Nor will I personally ever forgive those in our own federal government who abandoned those men for political gain. Shame on them. Shame on them.
Public Service Announcement of the Day
See “A Charitable Reminder” at https://kriswrites.com/2019/09/10/a-charitable-reminder/.
While we’re at it, let’s advocate stopping ALL violence (not only “gender-based”) against women and ALL children (not only “girls”) worldwide. Just sayin’.
I wasn’t planning to post a Journal entry today, but the following topic was too important to skip.
Topic: An Important Post for Writers
First, see Dean’s “Dumbest New Myth In Writing” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/dumbest-new-myth-in-writing/.
After you’ve read it, here’s my take, step by step:
Step one: I agree. Duh.
Step two: If you have a good grounding in the rules of grammar and syntax and if you have a good first reader, you can skip the copyeditor. Cost: Free.
Note: If you DO need a copyeditor, yes, about 1/2 cent per word. So going with Dean’s example, $250.
Step three: Vellum is only for Apple (Mac) operating systems. (If you don’t have a Mac and you want to use Vellum, see How To Use Vellum On A PC.)
Also, it isn’t difficult to format a Word doc so it will look good in ebook. To learn how, you can download a PDF copy of my free Essentials of Digital Publishing. Cost: Free.
Note: I don’t do paper books, but I suspect Amazon Kindle Print offers extensive guidance. Cost: free.
Step four: Purchase Serif PagePlus X9 and use it to design your covers. You buy the program outright (not a subscription). Cost: $20.
Note: Affinity Publisher is also available now. You can read about it at the same link.
Step five: I agree with Dean, but I have to add that there are also royalty-free FREE art sites. Unsplash.com is my favorite. There’s also Pixabay and others. Cost: Free.
Step six: Upload the formatted version to D2D, Amazon et al. Cost: Free.
So if you skip Vellum, the total investment to self-publish forever (without copyediting) is Serif PagePlus X9 for only $20.
With copyediting, you’ll have an additional per-book investment of .5 to 1 cent per word. I suspect most readers of this blog do not need a copyeditor.
***
For yet another idea on publicity and licensing, see “Swell Swag” at https://killzoneblog.com/2019/09/swell-swag.html. I have to wonder whether John Gilstrap licensed his main character to the challenge coin company. (This is something I’m thinking about doing with Charles Claymore Task.) (grin)
I think everyone out there knows it takes me, on average, around 20 days to turn out a 50,000-word novel. So unless it makes a difference to anyone out there, I’m going to discontinue the daily accounting of my fiction on a per-title basis, at least for now.
As an incentive, I’ll continue to include my fiction and non-fiction numbers, monthly and annual totals, etc. The current novel is fine. Not stuck or “blocked” or any of that. I’m just not writing fiction at the moment.
Talk with you again before too long.
The Numbers
Fiction words today…………………… 0
Nonfiction words today…………… 580
Total fiction words for the month……… 0
Total fiction words for the year………… 374653
Total nonfiction words for the month… 5800
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 252510
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 627163
Calendar Year 2019 Novels to Date…………………… 7
Calendar Year 2019 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2019 Short Stories to Date… 2
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 43
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 195
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31