Wednesday 3 July 2013

Get on with it!

As with all things that come to an end there has to be something new. That is the case with finishing this project. I now had a manuscript. That was the end of something, a finished piece of work, something that took a few years to get right. When I say get right, it'll never be right, it's abandonded. Every time I read a sentence I know it could be written 10 different ways but now when I read other, and immensely more successful authors, I can improve on their prose too. It is a matter of conceit mixed with pride what a writer writes; to work on a sentence for an age, to hone it to perfection, then the week after you re-read and trash it.

I decided after much deliberation to send the manuscript to all the publishers I so admired and waited until one by one the rejection letters arrived. The best one was Penguin Ireland and it was then that I decided, after 6 months to go the independent route.... THE DREADED PATH TO SELF-PUBLICATION.....

LULU allowed free publication on a print on demand (POD) basis. This allowed me the freedom to test the market and to go online and sell e-books. A whole new world opened up to me and the more I read about it all the more intrigued I became. It is a steep learning curve, one that allows you to see every angle. Artwork for the cover, layout, chapter settings, editing, copyright issues, branding. I'm beginning to bore myself...
Then one has to learn how to format and to e-pub. It was a nightmare. What I forwarded to the printers didn't look anything like the layout I expected. The amazing artwork that John Farrelly and Alan Perry had worked on morphed into an elongated blog...but I perservered, I climbed that mountain, I swam that shark-infested sea.
Truth be told I typed for hours until I got what I wanted. When I say hours I should shout weeks.

Now I had an online copy of my book I clicked print. Print on demand is amazing, the book is only produced when demanded. I know that sounds obvious but to be able to print one book at a time is a REVOLUTION.
I printed my first copy and several more until I was happy with the final product.

Now what

???

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