And Everyone Smiled: The Woes of Self-Publishing

He smiled. She smiled. They smiled. Someone smiled. So-and-so smiled. Such-and-such smiled. And they all smiled at each other.

Yeah. Well, I got a proof copy of my novel, Secondhand Shoes. The book is beautiful  in person. The pic below doesn’t do it justice. It was surreal to hold and stare at it. Tears filled my eyes, and I got all mushy over it. So did Sweetman. But…

…on the back, some words were kicked out of the blurb. Some of the sentences make no sense without them. But it does look beautiful. But then…

…you open to the very first page and it’s totally off center. It also needs to go up a little higher. And the more I go through the book the more alignment issues I see. But this didn’t show up on the Create Space Page Viewer thingie. It all looked perfect. And it’s so not perfect so much so one can’t even see the left hand page numbers.

And all my poo-words were converted to pooh. That’s not the pooh I wanted. He’s in another story. Holy Schmoly!

But these aren’t the only problems. My hyper-sensitive-editor has now gone on red alert. I’ve got two pages of smiles. Smile. Smile. Smile. While editing via my computer screen or an 8x10 paper copy of my MS, it wasn’t apparent. Everything looked word-symmetrical. It all looks really different being in a book. It’s more condensed.

SO do I go in and delete a lot of those smiles? ***shrugs*** Am I being too sensitive? Too much of a perfectionist? OMG!

Shouldn’t I be my own worst critic before some one else out there buys the book and butchers my story? My writing?

Anyway, if you’re self publishing, make sure you pay to get your PROOF copy before agreeing to unleash your great American novel onto the word-eaters out  there.

So I’m hoping before I get Glowstick back later, I will have gone through the entire book at least.

Hugs and chocolate,

Shelly

Happy Thanksgiving!

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. And to say I appreciate everyone who follow this blog. Enjoy your families and the food.

Hugs and pumpkin pies!

Shelly

UPDATE: Why Can’t This Be Easy

Thought I’d give an update status on what’s going on with Secondhand Shoes. The ebook formatter is having a bit of struggle. The Chinese have taken over my WIP again in some places. So the formatter is doing his best to battle out the foreigners.

The format for the paperback…well, I thought this past Sunday it would be finished. I went to download it to Create Space and it came back with problems. One, the margins were a little off, and two, Create Space’s system didn’t recognize the em-dashes in my document. Oy vey!

Also, I’m going to move my blog break up for this blog starting now. My daughter and Glowstick need me again.

The picture above was taken back in May/June of this year when my grandson came to live with me while my daughter battled her drug addiction. He’s since returned to my daughter. But now we have a new problem. A cancer scare! I keep telling myself she’s too young but she hasn’t taken care of herself either. Her doctor seems to believe that it is more than likely the C-word. Her pap came back abnormal. According to her doctor, her cervix doesn’t look any better. And her STD screening came back clean. So on November 15th she’s been scheduled for a biopsy. I’ll know more by the end of November. So Glowstick will be back and forth to her to me for now. She also has some other things going on in her life. Thankfully, its not drugs this time.

As for current WIPs, Combat Boots-Lila’s next battle in life- is still an ongoing project filling up a poster board. Dear Mommy has now been entitled White Trash and Pill Heads. I changed the title because while my critters liked the MC’s voice-a baby- it didn’t work for them. But I have to say it didn’t work for me either when I sat down and read it straight through.

In conclusion to this post, I’m hoping to be back to normal after the first of the year. I will also do my best to keep all my followers updated, even if its sporadic over the next couple of months.

Happy Holidays to all!

Hugs and chocolate,

Shelly