Tuesday, November 4, 2014

A Publisher's Job is Never Done

I've been busy, but not so much with Rapture, the 3rd installment of Where are our Children.


I've taken care quite a bit of the publishing aspect of what I do including putting up the Deliverance and 411 up on Createspace as a trade paperback. I'll check back there to see if it ready for purchases when I'm done here. It took a minute. Since I went to the standard 6 by 9 look, there was a little learning curve I went through to get it done.


I'll say this about formatting for any of you who haven't done it before. Formatting is like a great video game meaning it is loads of fun while being frustrating as heck. When it goes well, it's wonderful but when you are struggling with it you want to toss your computer across the room. Between what I did last night and putting deliverance up as an e-book Sunday night, I must have spent 6 or 7 hours with the process. That doesn't include moving my stuff around from one distributor to another  this morning.


It is all well and good though. I learned a lot. And with the publishing schedule I'm putting together for the future the frequency that I do this won't cause these gaps in memory and repetition it takes to get it done.


Ah, yes I looked at my outline for Children and it just doesn't work as a trilogy. I wanted it to. I really did. Novels have a specific starting, middle, and ending that knowledgeable readers expect. You should also provide a sense of closure for each book no matter if it is trilogy or a series of novels. I couldn't pull that off with Children being presented that way. The publisher of me wanted to give it a try especially because of all the reasons I mentioned to you guys yesterday. In the entrainment world we are taught to think in three's. And it would have been nice to have 3 revenue streams up at Amazon than 1. Also, the sheer size of this book is going to scare some folks off no matter how much of a bargain the reader thinks the price is. But in the end, the writer said no. I can get away with the odd pacing in spots that these Episodes provide, because they are exactly that--episodes.


So Amazon readers can expect one big (and I mean big) Complete and uncut edition soon after the 9th and final episode Whirlwind appears on Smashwords. 


Anyway, I'm off to check on those files at Createspace. Someone...somewhere is buying a few copies of my work that is over there. I don't know where but thank you all the same.


Alright, off I go, a publisher's job is never done. (smile)