Stuff and Junk

Hey All.

First things first, apparently a bunch of people got notification letters*, so it's official that Createspace is closing.  Don't panic.  I seems like if you do nothing, Amazon will port all your books over for you eventually.  If you'd rather not trust them to do it right, you might want to start thinking about moving your titles over ASAP.

There was also something about being able to move all your titles at once, but I can't find that on Amazon.  I'll check CS.  And something about being able to just move your book without a whole bunch of set-up mess, which I thought I saw the last time I was in there, but last night I couldn't find it.

Okay, with that out of the way, I wanted to remind you all of the immortal words from Galaxy Quest: "Never give up.  Never surrender."  Yesterday morning, I was in crisis about my book.  Several of you gave me advice and pep talks and offers of assistance, all of which I appreciated.  Yesterday afternoon, I kicked my own ass and made myself do the work.  Once I got out of my own way, it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be.  After I got rolling, it took me about three hours to fix all the problems with that horrid scene.  And I stopped for the night feeling pretty good about what I'd done.  We'll see what today's editing session brings.

Yesterday, between crisis and resolution, I read.  Which makes me want to remind you all again, find a good proofreader (or an editor who proofreads, too).  The book I'm reading is edited pretty well for all the other things, but it has a problem where an incorrect word is in place of the correct one.  I can't think of any examples this morning.  Oh, yeah, STATING instead of STARTING.  They missed the R and no one caught it because it's still a word and no amount of spellchecking software will catch it.  Now, I know mistakes happen, and if that was the only one, I wouldn't bother mentioning it.  But it's one of many so far and I'm only halfway through.  It's harshing what would otherwise be an awesome read. 

Speaking of software, Elizabeth Spann Craig mentioned a program the other day that helps edit for you - ProWritingAid.  She's not recommending it in place of a good editor, but more along the lines of using it to catch crap before you send to an editor or what have you.  It's only $50 a year, which is pretty reasonable if it helps stop flaws from muddying up your work.  I don't have the $50 to throw around right now, but I'll be thinking about it in the future. 

In a pinch, slogging through Word's grammar-checker will work, too.  Oh, it throws out a lot of suggestions that don't make sense, but it also catches things.  Use whatever tool you can to make your book the best it can be, right?

And that's about it for me this morning.  Feel free to chime in.


*I have not gotten any letters from CS yet, but I expect them shortly.