Reflections

Its a beautiful autumn morning. It is cool outside, it is quiet, and I am reminded once again how I love this time of year. The sun seems to warm instead of overheat. The air is cool and clean. People come outside of their homes where they had been hiding behind air conditioners and cold drinks. You can hear children's playful laughter echo from the trees. It is peaceful. Only slightly less peaceful then the onset of winter. You can enjoy yourself outside. You feel like grilling steaks, backpacking through the woods, and talking with old friends.

It is this time of year, whether I like it or not, where I sit and reflect upon everything in my life: Where I have come from and where I am going. Autumn is such a wonderful staging point for these thoughts. I am sitting here enjoying all of this as I smoke a pipe of peach tobacco before breakfast.

I think about my work as well. There has been much that I have written, and yet have not had the guts to really try to publish. Going back over my work "Ending the Ephemeral" I can see how much my writing style has changed. Briefly, I have looked over some of my past works like "Ancient of Days" and can see the stark contrast in my writing. I have matured a lot since I wrote those.

So, now I feel a sense of nostalgia, and at the same time I feel like I have received something new. It has been fun editing "Ending the Ephemeral" so far. There have been some challenges in what I wanted to change, but for the most part, it has been fun.

I have rewritten the beginning for some clarity and background, and I have gone through the first twenty pages of my book and have edited them. It amazed me how much repetition I had put into the book. Of course, that was easy to cut out. Also, when I first wrote the book I was not sure of the entire story, and now that I know the story from beginning to end it is easier to direct the story and cut out some of the fat.

If I keep going at this rate I should be done with editing it in a month or so, my current work allowing, and by that time I hope to have one last editing run through before presenting it to the publishers. The only thing after that is to secure funds so that I can have a professional edit it and then get it published.

I am still speaking with a few artists about coverart, but I have not heard anything committal. If I do not hear from them before I decide to go to print I might have to work with the publisher's artists which means I will have less control over the coverart. We will see.

At any rate, my pipe is almost finished, and I am getting hungry.

A Follow Up Chat with CreateSpace

I had another conversation with my namesake at CreateSpace. He is a rather nice fellow, and I enjoy speaking with him. My first assessment of them as being pushy was merely a bi-product of assumption and my first impression of them. It seems as if they really want what is best for both parties involved.

I told him about my current situation and that I was looking to split the first book into two, and thereby, cutting down the word count. I made this decision because of the amount of investment on my part into the editorial process needed. Four hundred pages was going to cost me roughly three thousand dollars alone in editing.

He seemed to understand that I was truly interested in publishing my book right the first time, and that was going to take additional funds. I informed him that I was currently looking into other ways to bring home some income, and that it would probably closer to the beginning of next year before I would actually go forward with publishing the work. However, that does not mean I will be sitting here on my duff in the meantime.

I am investing in a hosting company and learning how to make a website so that I can start up my Self-Published Reviews business. I am also looking into business loans, grants, and other ways I can suppliment my income in order to get this published as soon as possible.

He was very understanding of this, and seemed impressed that I was this committed to my work.

I am still speaking with artists about commissioning them for coverart. I have not had too many respondants, but that makes things a little easier. I am looking for artists who can draw well, and do not mind having their art used as coverart for a book. There are some artists I am looking at right now who I am really impressed with.

For now, I am editing the book into two, starting up Self-Published Reviews, starting a new job, trying to get over a cold/flu/cyberjunk, getting ready to move, get married, and start a family. Oh, and they are coming to fix the floors next week instead of this one, and our A/C unit is almost dead after only a decade of use....so busy is an understatement.

Feel free to write me though! My current email is ColdHaven@bellsouth.net

Editing is a Labor of Love

Imagine that you just bore a child. You raised it. You watched it grow. It matured and became something you were proud of. Beloved by you, in reality to others, it is a fowl mouthed little brat who likes to get its way and steal other kids lunch money on the playground. Once you wake up to this fact you wish that you could go back and make changes so that their outcome would be better.

Editing is like that. Once an author wakes up to the fact that their beloved creation is a frankenfurter they are able to go back and make the necessary changes to make their work better. Sometimes we need help seeing the reality. Sometimes reality decides to intrude on our fantasy and we realize we need to make changes.

A good friend of mine was kind enough to help proof-read and make some editing changes to the book I am about to publish. This has led me to decide on some rather drastic edits. I am considering making the book smaller than it is which means I need to go through and cut out parts and tidy up other places. This means being a bit brutal with my own work.

So begins my labor of love. However, there is a benefit in this. Not only will I be able to do another edit, but I will be able to shorten the story to make it easier to publish. This creates the opportunity to make this into a series. I had already planned for it to be a trilogy, but by editing in a certain way, I could make it into a series. All of this is definitely exciting.

Also, I have been fighting chest congestion for the last week. It pains me that I am not able to move this along faster than I have, but there are a lot of changes happening in my life right now. One of those is a change of job.

Soon I hope to have a web page for Seppen Lake, and for my other site called 'Self Published Reviews'. Check out the link to that blog here: Self Published Reviews . I will be adding more content as time goes on. Baby steps, as they say, and so it goes.

Absence

I am sorry that I have been absent for the last several days. I have had some professional changes in the last week or so, and I am going about the processes of changing to a new job in Charlotte. It will still be a job in the healthcare community, and it will be working for the same network that I was before. During this time I have had to essentially put some things on hold, and unfortunately, one of those things is getting the book published.

Let me speak to you about what interaction I have had with Lulu.com. Whereas CreateSpace was kind, courteous, but tenacious - LuLu has been laxidasical, slow, but informative. CreateSpace called me almost immediately after I let them know that I wished to speak with them. LuLu, however, just recently got back to me about my questions...weeks after I asked for them.

It might be the difference between hot and cold, fast and slow, tenacious, and letting me collect my thoughts, but there is contrast there, and really I am not sure which approach is better. LuLu only talks to me through email, and if I want to talk to anyone there is a charge. However, if I want to talk to someone at CreateSpace I just have to inform them.

Whatever their marketing scheme, I am looking into both of these organizations, but I am also keeping an eye open for other publishing firms that might be more helpful from a monetary standpoint. From what I am finding out, no matter where I go, editing is going to be the most expensive thing. So much so, that I feel that these self publishing companies are mostly an outlet for editors to get money.

Nothing wrong with that, if you are an editor, but the price is a bit steep for most people. Hence, that is why I am endeavoring to find a secondary means of income to help me pay for this. All of that has temporarily put on hold for now until I can transition into this new job in Charlotte. I will update here of any changes that occur.

Thinking outside the Taco

When my mind wasn't on trying to find resources to get published, I was thinking about getting my book published, and that was probably the summary of today. I started a blog called Self-Published Reviews. This blog is the start of a business centered around helping other self-published authors get the spotlight they need for their work. I hope to have a domain name for it soon. This site will also feature my own work in the future.

This site will help provide the income I need in order to get my own work edited, marketed, and published.

I have focused the last several days on marketing solutions, and ways to get my work published. Some of my more candid friends suggested prostitution. Even though that would be good revenue, it is poor on ROI, and I am not as marketable as he would be in that area.

I will spend the next couple of days focused on editing my work and put some of this marketing business on the back burner.

Thank You to my friends

There are several of my friends helping me right now on getting my book published, and I wanted to say thank you. Your endeavors are very much appreicated. Nothing is too little. I appreciate everything everyone does. Every little bit forward is one step closer to getting this accomplished. That is just how I view things.
 
I feel, for the first time, motivated to get this done. I always felt so small, and that if I wanted this done that it was too big. Now I am beginning to see the level of support I have, and that there are ways that I can get my writings published. It is still going to be tough, and it is still going to take time and effort, but I actually feel like all of this is within my grasp now. All I have to do is reach out and take it.
 
So thank you, everyone. You know who you are.

Conversation with CreateSpace

Well the conversation was definitely enlightening, to say the least, and it helped me get an idea of what they are wanting. Mostly my money, and I understand that. They are a business afterall, and the guy on the phone was a salesman. He kept trying to push me into buying a package there on the phone. I didn't like that. I don't like pushy people. He was just doing his job, and I admit, doing it well.

Here is the down and dirty. If I keep the word count at around 175,000 and 410 pages then the editorial fee is going to be around 3,000 dollars. Thats quite a bit. I told the fellow that was above what I was looking to invest in, and that I might have to look elsewhere. CreateSpace does have some pretty attractive offers until you get down to the editing price.

That leaves me a couple of options. I can look for grants that might help me pay for these fees. A friend of mine, Ross, suggested that I look towards the English department at a local college to see if one of those grads there might do the editing for me for a lesser price and near the same quality. I could also try to see if I could reduce word count, and that means more self editing. Either way, this fellow is going to have to hold on for a bit.

I am not going to place my money in a basket that I can't get back out again. He tried to say that there was a 100 dollar discount for the rest of the month. Yeah a few days. Nice. Also he said that I could have a free Kindle ebook instead of paying 299 for it. There is no cost involved in taking a PDF file and making it an ebook. That is ridiculous and isn't any real kind of savings.

In the meantime I am going to hunt down solutions to my obstacles. I am currently speaking with an artist on commissioning artwork for the cover. We will see how that turns out.