P.H. Solomon's Blog, page 322

This is the third part of a series about self-publishing a short e-book as a completely DIY project. Part 1 introduced why you should consider trying to self-publish on your own at least once. Part 2 dealt with some of the tools you will need to gather at some point to accomplish the project.

The Dreaded Format

It has become almost axiomatic among writers to advise other writers to hire out their formatting. I generally agree for full-length projects but I don’t think it’s worth the cost for short ones. Many authors believe that e-book formatting is just too difficult to do and would take away from their writing time and other tasks. But there are reasons to consider trying it at least once – cost and experience.

What Exactly is Formatting

Many writers don’t realize that their work is already formatted when they complete it. However, the formatting may have been set-up incorrectly. There may need to be styles applied at various points in the book. Also, there may be hidden characters that appear incorrectly in e-book format.

I’m Finished. What Next?

Let’s say that you’ve finished your e-book. Formatting is probably the next thing you need to do. The manuscript needs to be corrected for uploading to a vendor.

If the project is developed in Scrivener you can use this software to compile the manuscript into an ebook. However, it may be best to simply compile the book into a Word document for two reasons.

1. You may still need to format the e-book – more on that in a moment.

2. Uploading your book to Kindle and Smashwords requires a Word document unless you already have a clean e-book file that is appropriate to the vendor.

Grab Your Sandpaper and Start Formatting

Formatting is like sanding your manuscript’s rough edges away but it is not editing – think typesetting. You will need to consult with something like the Smashwords Style Guide by Mark Coker (as mentioned in part 2 of this series). I’ve used this guide and highly recommend it as a straightforward, simple guide – with screenshots included – to help anyone through formatting.

To hit the high notes, you need to make sure all erroneous formatting is removed from the book. It’s best when writing a book not to use manual indent but rely on the auto-indent in your word processor. The quide gets deeper by detailing such tasks as adding internal links and the use of styles. Again, follow these directions well and you can easily add the these elements as necessary.

Formatting is an important tool to completing the project. It is a powerful tool but it is not too complex to accomplish on your own, especially for a shorter project. By handling this task on your own you gain valuable insight on the process.

When addressing your longer projects you may have developed the skill and confidence to do it on your own. But even if you hire out the task of formatting you will have developed more understanding to work with your formatter as well as develop your projects more cleanly.

Bonus Tip: Once you’ve finished formatting you can view your e-book using Adobe Digital Editions to verify that it looks right. This software will allow you to make this “test-run” before you officially publish the e-book.

Available at Amazon, Smashwords and All Major E-Book Vendors!

Have you ever tried to format any or your writing in preparation for an e-book? If you’ve formatted before, what tips can you share? If you haven’t formatted previously, what keeps you from trying? Please share your thoughts and ideas in the comments section. I’d also love to connect with you over social media so check my Contact page for that information. See the News page for announcements and remember to sign-up to receive news and posts by email. I’ve added a new sign-up tab on my FaceBook page to simplify the process. New followers can download The Black Bag via free coupon today! Also, the cover of my book, The Bow of Destiny, was revealed on 11/10/14 so take a look.

Thanks for reading.

P. H. Solomon

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Filed under: Cover Reveal, Editing, Fiction, Indie Publishing, Self-publishing, Social Media, Tech Tips, The Black Bag, The Bow of Destiny, Tips, Twitter, Writing Tagged: Amazon, Editing, Facebook, Formatting, Indie Publishing, Kindle, Marketing, P. H. Solomon, Planning, Smashwords, The Black Bag, The Bow of Destiny, writing

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This is an ongoing series about managing writing-related projects. In this edition I want to get deeper into analyzing time. The original post is here, part 2 is here,  part 3 is here, part 4 here, part 5 here and part 6 here.

For a while I’ve been trying to work a schedule with my various projects but kept running into trouble executing the plan. I needed to blog, write short stories and complete my book revision however, my progress was minimal on the book even though I needed to emphasize it. During that time I’ve completed a short story and ramped up my blogging. But I just couldn’t gain any traction with the book revision.

The other day, the reason came to me out of the blue. I had a mole in my schedule. I wrote about finding the mole in your work several months ago so I considered my problem from that concept.

I concluded that I had been approaching my work in reverse and this had my perspective backwards. I kept putting blogging and short fiction ahead of my need to finish the revision. As a result I kept thinking these were in the way of completing the revision. This notion was completely wrong.

The book revision has been my mole all along.

It sounds strange, I know, but completion of my book has been the mole in my schedule that has kept things from moving more smoothly. How could this be? Simple, since I believed the other projects had more immediate priority they were eating up time for editing the book. Still not clear? In considering my shorter projects to be the impediment, I was doing nothing with the book. When I viewed the problem as the opposite – the book is the problem, that is, the mole undermining my schedule I understood my problem.

This doesn’t mean the that book doesn’t need to be addressed at all. It means that the book revision needed first priority. In other words, I needed to work on it before I addressed any other project during the day. It also meant that I needed to set a specific goal for how much to edit, complete that specific goal and move onto other project goals. In this way, I addressed the obstacle to progress – incorrect perspective. Of course I can always edit more than my goal after I achieve my other goals but mainly as additional work. By taking on the editing goal early with a limitation I eliminated the obstacle.

As I’ve mentioned in other parts to this series, it is important to be flexible and re-examine your schedule. I would say, “Look for the moles.” Look at the pieces differently and you may see a way to become more effective. In my case, I have been much more effective by reversing my understanding and, thus, my schedule.

Available at Amazon, Smashwords and All Major E-Book Vendors!

Have you planned your projects only to run into obstacles? Have you been able to identify your “mole”? Please share your thoughts and ideas in the comments section. I’d also love to connect with you over social media so check my contact page for that information. See the News page for announcements and remember to sign-up to receive news and posts by email. I’ve added a new sign-up tab on my FaceBook page to simplify the process. New followers can download The Black Bag via free coupon today! Also, the cover of my book, The Bow of Destiny, was revealed yesterday so take a look.

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Filed under: Blogging, Editing, Indie Publishing, Planning, Self-publishing, Social Media, The Black Bag, The Bow of Destiny, Tips, Twitter, Writing Tagged: blogging, Coverart, creativity, Editing, Facebook, Indie Publishing, mole, P. H. Solomon, Planning, Self-publishing, Short Stories, Social Media, The Black Bag, The Bow of Destiny, Tips, writing

Photo from the book trailer for The Bow of Destiny

Today is a wonderful milestone day for The Bow of Destiny. This epic fantasy series was in my creative thoughts as long ago as my early college days in the mid-80’s. I wrote the original manuscript in the ‘90’s and was offered a contract by a small press at the time. The contract was not right for me so I passed and, since it was a time of change and grief for my wife when her mother died, I laid the manuscript aside for several years.

I kept coming back to the work intending to re-write it and get it published but the project never bore much fruit. About four years ago, I began to take writing seriously again when I found that I had a number of ideas for books and stories lurking in my mind. Since I had so much written for this manuscript I began re-writing it around a busy schedule and a death in my own family. Even though there were a number of distractions – as all of us have – I knew the time was right to publish this series with the recent explosion of self-publishing.

Earlier in the year, I came across a piece of artwork by Chris Rawlins entitled “Robin of Loxley” that caught my attention in his gallery. It fit the motif of my book so strikingly I knew I needed to work with Chris. The result is this cover. Here’s Chris’s bio:

“I have lent my brush to a huge diversity of subject matter and styles. Portrayal of humans, horses, animals, and landscapes, using contemporary and modern techniques have earned admiration, acclaim and a large following. I am passionate about strong compositions, realism, detail, accuracy, dramatic lighting and strong compositions. 

My artworks have been used for numerous book covers, albums and magazines, as well as entire books growing a wide audience of authoritative scholars who respect integrity, as well as faithful patrons and enthusiasts who love the action-packed and emotional style. 

I have a passion for history and art so to bring history to life through my artworks is a dream come true. My approach is to try and put yourself / the viewer there to bring a true-to-life realism that the books of my childhood lacked. Detail of research for any painting is key if you are attempting a realistic representation. I research many of my artworks in detail and travel abroad to battlefield locations, museums and military archives.”

Last week, I provided a sneak peek over my email list and received a very postive reaction to the cover which was more than encouraging. Currently, I am completing a revision of the book while I wait on my editor to begin looking at it first structurally and then in more detail. After these upcoming rounds of editing I anticipate the book being ready for publication at which point I should be able to set a target release date.

While the book is away with the editor I plan to finish the rough draft of the second book entitled, An Arrow Against the Wind, and develop the prequel series, “What is Needed”, into a novella to offer for free as a run-up promotion to the release of The Bow of Destiny. Since I know more about what I’m doing developing book for self-publication I hope to have An Arrow Against the Wind ready later in 2015.

Without further delay, here’s the cover for The Bow of Destiny. Look for changes to my social media accounts that incorporate this as a banner. I will also pin it on my Pinterest account so you can check it out in detail there.

Available at Amazon, Smashwords and All Major E-Book Vendors!

Thanks for stopping by to view the cover and share this milestone with me. I also appreciate Rave Reviews Book Club by Nonnie Jules for their support and recently including me as a VIP member. I look forward to working with them on a Spotlight Blog Tour for the book when the time comes and, of course, their warm, encouraging support. Please share your thoughts in the comments section. A big thanks for Dennis Cardiff for featuring my announcement on RebelMouse. I’d also love to connect with you over social media so check my contact page for that information. See the News page for announcements and remember to sign-up to receive news and posts by email. I’ve added a new sign-up tab on my FaceBook page to simplify the process. New followers can download The Black Bag via free coupon today!

Thanks for reading!

PHS

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Archer’s Aim photo licensed via iStockphoto.com

Cover art for The Bow of Destiny licensed from Chris Rawlins on commission

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Filed under: Blog Tour, Cover Reveal, Creativity, Editing, Fiction, Indie Publishing, Marketing, Rave Review Book Club, Self-publishing, Social Media, The Black Bag, The Bow of Destiny, Twitter, What is Needed, Writing Tagged: Announcement, Coverart, Facebook, Indie Publishing, Launch, Marketing, P. H. Solomon, Pinterest, Rave Reviews Book Club, Self-publishing, Social Media, The Black Bag, The Bow of Destiny, Twitter, What is Needed, writing

PHS:

Revision tips re-blogged on Archer’s Aim

Originally posted on jacksmithwriter:

You can handle novel revision in many different ways—probably too numerous to mention.  One method: You can rework pages one at a time, trying to get everything right before going on.  A second: You can take the novel section by section, attempting to get everything right.

Or how about this third method?   Once you have a fairly complete draft, just commit yourself to twenty-page sessions of revision. 

Unless you hit real snags, you can do this in about two hours.

Here’s the kinds of things to look for/work for:

-Characters that seem rather flat.  What can you do to spice them up a bit?  Maybe some interesting description?   Maybe an interesting remark in a scene?  (If this changes the nature of the scene too much, this will of course require more time and effort.)

-Plot details.  Did…

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I’ve done my share of minor DIY projects at home over the years. Some were larger than others but all required tools. Screwdrivers, hammers, drills and saws are common to most building projects.

Like home projects, an ebook project needs tools to be completed. You’ll need a cover, various software for development and formatting instructions. Here are some tools that can help you get started in your DIY self-publishing project though this is certainly not an exhaustive list.

1. A word-processing editor. You could use Microsoft Word to develop your text nicely. I still use it for editing and shorter projects at times as well as journaling. But I’m increasingly finding that Scrivener is infinitely more useful for developing writing projects of various lengths. I’ve written a few posts regarding this software an its value to writers but I find its organizational tool, the binder, highly effective – you can read my blog about it here as well as my first blog here.

2. A formatting guide. Once you have a manuscript ready you will need to verify that it is formatted for e-book usage. Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, has written the very helpful e-book, Smashwords Style Guide, which he offers for free. This book details how to format an e-book. I have to admit that I was apprehensive about this task but with the help of Mark’s book I was able to complete this task well.

3. You will need cover art. I will discuss this in more detail in another post but there are numerous locations to inexpensively obtain a photo worthy of a cover. I’ve written a previous post which lists several of the many sites available (be aware of licensing and copyright). Also, you should be ready to do a little cover art editing using several tools I’ll discuss in detail in another post as well. I haven’t written about these yet but I will soon but the include Gimp, PowerPoint and Online Photoshop. Gimp is free as is the use of free Online Photoshop. PowerPoint comes with Microsoft Office though. However, don’t absolutely need Powerpoint.

So there are all the basic tools and jobs you will need to completely finish a minor DIY e-book self-publication. You don’t have to get all these yet but be aware that I will be referring to much of this in future posts in this series. Otherwise, all you need is moxie and some virtual elbow-grease to see your book in publication for little cost. As a bonus, here’s the link to my post on why I specifically chose to publish my short story, The Black Bag, as an e-book. Part one of this series appeared on Tuesday and I also have a post on my lessons learned as well as a post of my list of photo sites

Available at Amazon, Smashwords and All Major E-Book Vendors!

Do you have a short manuscript you would like to self-publish? Do you want to learn and know what to expect when you pay for services on longer writing projects? Have you ever self-published an e-book on your own? If so, what tips can you share. I’d love to hear from you so you are welcome to share in the comments section.I’d also love to connect with you over social media so check my contact page for that information. See the News page for announcements and remember to sign-up to receive news and posts by email. I’ve added a new sign-up tab on my FaceBook page to simplify the process. New followers can download The Black Bag via free coupon today!

Thanks for reading!

PHS

 

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Filed under: Archer's Aim Digest, Blogging, Indie Publishing, Self-publishing, Social Media, Tips, Writing Tagged: Coverart, Facebook, Indie Publishing, P. H. Solomon, Scrivener, Self-publishing, Smashwords, Social Media, The Black Bag, Tips, writing

PHS:

These are interesting insights regarding what sells books – love the graph. Re-blogging on Archer’s Aim

Originally posted on Nicholas C. Rossis:

Tara Sparling recently wrote a couple of blog posts about  self-publishing; namely, What makes people buy self-published books, and What Puts Readers Off Self-Published Books. I loved them both, and confess to a tiny bit of envy at her excellent material.  However, being the gracious author and blogger that I am, I will share Tara’s findings with you and urge you to visit her blog, which is filled with interesting posts, beautifully written.

Tara interviewed readers and writers regarding what makes them buy a self-published book, thus giving us invaluable insight into how to better market and promote ourselves.

Heavenly graph by Tara Sparling

cover, blurb and sample: I will not go into the known cliché, since we DO judge a book by its cover. From my day job as web developer / web promoter, I know for example that certain colours work better than others (blues, oranges) and that people like seeing faces in ads…

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It all whizzed past me so fast I’m not sure what happened. I coughed in the smoke which also got in my eyes. The blaze of light got in my eyes. What was that? O yeah, that was the week!

I can’t believe it’s Thursday already! I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. I have one more post tomorrow but I wanted to take time today and fill everyone in on some progress related to a few recent posts as well as re-cap the week so far.

Last week, I announced I was starting a email digest for this blog. That effort was launched yesterday with list members receiving a sneak peek at my cover.

The sneak peek on the digest leads me to another topic – the upcoming cover reveal. The Bow of Destiny cover will be revealed to the public on Monday, 11/10. The reaction so far from my digest list has been very positive. Check back on Monday and see it for yourself!

Monday’s post, “You Blog With What?”, received lots of views on Tuesday in some sort of delayed reaction. At any rate, check it out and see if its as useful to you as others found it to be.

Tuesday’s post which also received plenty of associated attention is here. I will continue writing about complete DIY self-publication ideas in the near future.

Yesterday was a guest post from Daniel Adorno entitled, “3 Ways Authors can Get Exposure for Their Recently-published Books“. This post was also well-received so check out Daniel’s thoughts on the subject.

Once you’ve finished Daniel’s post you can read my guest blog on his site entitled, 8 Tips to Grow an Email List.

Available at Amazon, Smashwords and All Major E-Book Vendors!

Since I’ve got a blog hosted somewhere else today that’s all I have. I’m looking forward to sharing the cover on Monday but come back tomorrow for another post I’ve prepared too. I’d love to hear from you so won’t you leave a question, idea or strategy in the comment section? I’d also love to connect with you over social media so check my contact page for that information. See the News page for announcements and remember to sign-up to receive news and posts by email. I’ve added a new sign-up tab on my FaceBook page to simplify the process. New followers can download The Black Bag via free coupon today!

Thanks for reading!

PHS

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Filed under: Archer's Aim Digest, Blogging, Cover Reveal, Daniel Adorno, Fiction, Guest Blog, Indie Publishing, Marketing, Planning, Self-publishing, The Black Bag, The Bow of Destiny, Writing Tagged: Announcement, Coverart, Facebook, Indie Publishing, Launch, Marketing, P. H. Solomon, Planning, Scrivener, Self-publishing, Short Stories, Social Media, The Black Bag, The Bow of Destiny, writing

Today’s post comes from fellow epic fantasy writer, Daniel Adorno. He is the author of The Blade Heir which was released just a few months ago. Take it away, Daniel!

So you’ve spent months, maybe years, writing and editing your book so you can self-publish. The moment finally arrives when you decide to hit that Publish button and send your masterpiece off into the world, but once you’ve done that, you first thought might be similar to mine: “Now what?”

You’ve done an amazing thing by completing a novel and the accomplishment should never be understated, but as you’ll hear many veteran authors tell you, completing the book is only the first step in a really long journey. After the book is published, you’ve got to market and promote it otherwise nobody except your family and friends will ever know it’s out there swimming in the overcrowded sea of self-published works. There are no shortage of methods and strategies online for you to follow in promoting your book, but I want to focus on three simple ways you can get the word out about your book and maximize exposure.

Create a Goodreads giveaway or event

Goodreads is the social media equivalent of Facebook for readers. It’s the place to be if you’re an author because the discussion is always centered around books. You can easily connect your Facebook account to Goodreads and create a user profile from their homepage. Once you’ve done that, join their Author Program and get access to an author profile on the site. The author profile allows readers to connect with you and add your book to the site. It also gives you the option of creating a blog or syncing an existing blog to your profile, so readers can see the latest posts on your website. The best thing about Goodreads though is that you can create giveaways or events that readers can see.

Creating a giveaway involves offering up one or more physical copies of your book to readers who sign up. You add your book, set the length of time the giveaway is good for, and then Goodreads advertises it (for free!) on their Giveaways page. The benefit of giving away copies of your book is that readers will usually add it to their reading lists and this activity will be shown on their feeds for all their friends to see, so it exposes your book to a larger audience. Alternatively, the winners of the giveaway might review your book which will also increases visibility, but don’t ever expect this since it is entirely optional.

If you only have an ebook copy of your book to giveaway, don’t despair, you can still offer it to readers through an event. Creating an event is as simple as creating a giveaway. I would recommend you always create events for author signings, blog tours, etc. But you can also use the events feature to give away a free ebook. Invite everyone on your friends list who likes the genre you write in and set it up for a week or less. You can randomly choose a winners from your RSVP list and send them copies of the ebook. Whether you create a Goodreads giveaway or event, both options will significantly boost your book’s presence on the site and garner readers’ attentions. Refer to this video for more in-depth details on how to maximize engagement on Goodreads.

Host a Twitter party

Twitter is a bustling social media marketplace and one of the easiest places to create valuable connections that benefit authors. If you’ve never hosted a Twitter party before, I would recommend you at least attend a few parties before you tackle hosting. The concept is simple: you invite guests to Twitter to tweet about your book or its genre and give away prizes to attendees. Create invitations for the party at least a week in advance; use a program like Photoshop or GIMP to make a compelling graphic that can be posted on social media sites like Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. You’ll also need to create a unique hashtag that your partygoers can use in their tweets. For example, at my debut novel’s party I used #BladeHeirparty. Having a hashtag will allow everyone to keep track of the discussion on Twitter and it will get the attention of your guests’ followers.

During the party, try to have discussion questions written out so when there’s a lull in the conversation you can spur more tweeting with a thoughtful question or comment. Don’t try to control the tweeting too much though. The tweets will come quick and there will be lots of side discussions going on, which is a good sign that people are enjoying the party! Try to have a set time for the party to start and end (usually an hour or two will suffice) and before its over, give out prizes to a few guests. Prizes can include a free copy of your book, a gift card, or something promotional like a signed poster of your book’s cover art. There’s no expectation to have an extravagant prize like a trip to Maui, just provide prizes relevant to your book and worth coming to your party. For more info on Twitter party strategies, read this insightful article.

Bundle your ebook with BitLit

One of the growing trends in the music and movie industries is the act of bundling. You rarely see a new movie released on DVD that isn’t bundled with a Blu-Ray disc and a digital copy for all kinds of devices. Similarly, more music albums on physical media are being bundled with vinyl records or iTunes download codes. So why not do the same with books? One company called BitLit is doing just that by allowing readers who own physical copies of a book to download the ebook version for free or at a reduced cost. Amazon provides a similar service under the MatchBook program, but if readers buy a paperback copy of your book at an independent bookstore or directly from your website, MatchBook is useless to them. This is where BitLit comes in with their wonderful app, whereby a reader can take a picture of the book’s copyright page and receive a link to download the ebook.

Why is this beneficial for an author?

Because it’s a simple way to promote your books and provide value to readers. Imagine being at an author signing selling paperbacks and encountering attendees who admit they read exclusively on their Kindle, Nook, or iPad and don’t buy physical books anymore. You can easily persuade them to purchase a paperback by informing them of BitLit and how they can get a free ebook by owning the physical copy. I think both BitLit and MatchBook provide unseen potential for authors to give readers more options and sell more books. If you want more info on BitLit and how to participate, check out this informative post on Pubslush.

Incorporating these three simple strategies after releasing your book into the world can move your new book from an obscure position in a crowded online marketplace to a visible blip on readers’ radars.

——–

Daniel Adorno is an indie author who loves to write fantasy and sci-fi stories. He enjoys sharing writing tips and publishing advice to writers on his blog. His debut novel, The Blade Heir, is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.

Thanks for providing today’s blog, Daniel. You can also find him on his blog and his contact information here.

What are your ideas for marketing your books? What venues have worked or not in gaining your book exposure? I’d love to hear from you so won’t you leave a question, idea or strategy in the comment section? I’d also love to connect with you over social media so check my contact page for that information. See the News page for announcements and remember to sign-up to receive news and posts by email. I’ve added a new sign-up tab on my FaceBook page to simplify the process. New followers can download The Black Bag via free coupon today!

Thanks for reading!

PHS

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Filed under: Daniel Adorno, Fiction, Guest Blog, Indie Publishing, Marketing, Planning, Self-publishing, Social Media, Tips, Twitter, Writing Tagged: Daniel Adorno, Facebook, Indie Publishing, Marketing, Planning, Self-publishing, The Blade Heir, Tips, Twitter, writing

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Self-publishing is DIY by definition, however, there are different levels of this when presenting a book to the world. There are those people who write and then pay for the editing, the cover and formatting in order to release it into the wide world. Then there those writers who do most if not all of the work themselves.

Before I go further, let me address the issue of editing. Unless your work is short you should get another set of eyes on your manuscript regardless – even if you pay for it. I know I am with my upcoming epic fantasy novel, The Bow of Destiny. Novels and full-length non-fiction are just too large to get into solid condition for readers without some professional help. For shorter works, some input from fellow writers may help you get the project in good shape. Usually, you can’t pay for someone to edit a short story or other short books so it becomes DIY unless you know someone willing to take a look at the grammar.

What are the benefits to publishing as a DIY project? Here are my 4 reasons to give it a try – at least on a shorter project:

1. It’s inexpensive – you can publish a short book without spending lots of money on a cover, formatting and editing

2. You learn something from the experience – I know with my own efforts with The Black Bag I learned how to make a simple cover that was usable on Amazon and Smashwords. Also, I learned that formatting is not that scary with a short writing project.

3. You learn what to expect – by the time I uploaded The Black Bag I had gained a great deal of insight on actually publishing. When I am ready with my next book, I will have an idea of what I am doing and how it links with promotion.

4. Some exposure – you may not gain tons of readers from a short project but you do gain some exposure which helps in building your writer platform.

Available at Amazon, Smashwords and All Major E-Book Vendors!

These are some of my reasons for attempting a complete DIY self-published project. In future posts for this series, I’ll discuss my experience with the various aspects of my effort as well as share the tools that helped me. Have your tried this for yourself? Is formatting a scary subject for you? If you have experiences and ideas of your own please share them in the comments section. I’d also love to connect with you over social media so check my contact page for that information. See the News page for announcements and remember to sign-up to receive news and posts by email. I’ve added a new sign-up tab on my FaceBook page to simplify the process. New followers can download The Black Bag via free coupon today!

Thanks for reading!

PHS

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Filed under: Blogging, Creativity, Editing, Fiction, Indie Publishing, Marketing, Planning, Self-publishing, Social Media, The Black Bag, The Bow of Destiny, Tips, Twitter, Uncategorized, Writing Tagged: blogging, Coverart, creativity, Editing, Facebook, Formatting, Indie Publishing, Launch, Marketing, P. H. Solomon, Planning, Self-publishing, Social Media, The Black Bag, The Bow of Destiny, Twitter, writing

PHS:

Editing makes me crazy too! Re-blogging on Archer’s Aim!

Originally posted on Belinda Williams:

It’s time to shed some light on a severe disorder that is rarely discussed in writing circles. Usually because the poor sufferers don’t recognize the signs themselves.

The signs of editing psychosis: is this you?


Able to go for long periods of time without moving from your computer. Hours may slip past unnoticed.
You stare intensely at your computer screen at the same passage of text or even a single word. To outsiders, you appear to be achieving absolutely nothing.
Commas annoy you. Repeated words annoy you. In fact, you start to obsess about tiny things on the page. Repeat the point above.
You have issues recalling important details about your life. You may forget appointments. You may neglect to cook dinner. Or your husband. Or your children.
Other work may suffer. (Pete, if you’re reading this, the editing is almost done and I’ll get you that quote tomorrow…)
You also…

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