I Am a Published Novelist !! (page 4)

jgnat

Wow! congratulations! I can imagine a lot of blood, sweat, tears went in to that book. I hope your book signings go well. I hear that promotion is nearly as much work as writing, so I am thrilled to hear you are working to give your book exposure.

Thunder Rider

Way cool Jim!
Congratulations. Can't wait to read it. I need a break from my own stuff.

Thunder ==}>>>>>>>>>>>>

RedhorseWoman

Congratulations, Jim!! Great news.

patio34

Applause and congratulations on your achievement!

SanFranciscoJim

jgnat wrote:

I hear that promotion is nearly as much work as writing, so I am thrilled to hear you are working to give your book exposure.

Writing the actual book was the easy part, believe it or not. For anyone out there thinking of writing "the great American novel", let me tell you, it's a lot more work than just typing your thoughts onto a page and submitting it to the publisher.

After the book is written, then comes the edit. You can pay a professional editor to edit the book, or you can do it yourself. In either case, the editing takes much longer than the actual writing. In my case, it took four times as long.

And, you're right -- the promotion is an energy-drainer, too. Publishers often don't do a whole lot of promotion themselves. That is left up to the author, or the author's agent. Since I don't have an agent, I have to do it myself. This is why word of mouth is so important to me and the success of my book. Although I have a wide circle of correspondents myself, one never knows who they know, and word of my book could end up in the hands of the "right" person who will publicize it in ways I can't begin to think of.

The most important thing for me is, even though there's a lot of work involved..... I enjoy it !

Frannie Banannie

I'll travel just about anywhere for a book signing. If you or anyone else knows of a bookstore that might be interested in my making an appearance, please put them in touch with me. I'm not working right now, so my schedule is wide open!

We have Barnes & Noble and Waldenbooks, etc. here...GO for it, Jim!

Frannie B

SYN

Hi Jim,

Here's a handy tip which I personally found useful: try reading out your work to yourself (preferably in private!). I do this a lot, and although my roommates think I've gone a bit spare, it's a great way to find repetitions and odd-sounding sentences that you wouldn't notice if you were reading through the work normally.

Right now I'm busy toying with an idea I had recently for a text editor that will allow you to edit text normally, but each paragraph will be coloured in a range of colours from white to gray to black. The lighter the text, the more times it has been edited. I know some paragraphs need a lot of touch-ups after you write them, and this way if you add something new you could see it straight-away, as it would stand out dramatically from the rest of the already-edited text. And as you edit a paragraph, it will very slowly fade out and become whiter, eventually being almost illegable.

What do you writers on the board think of this idea? Depending on how much of something like Word's functionality I put into it, a tool like this could be quite easy to write...provided I only support plain-text, or possibly Rich Text.

bisous

Congratulations! I am pretty dang sure I saw a copy on a new release rack in the airport (SF)???? Am I hallucinating???

so cool for you, ROCK ON from an amateur writer!

SanFranciscoJim

Congratulations! I am pretty dang sure I saw a copy on a new release rack in the airport (SF)???? Am I hallucinating???

I honestly don't know! The book was just released over the weekend, so the chances of it already being on the shelves at any bookstore seem pretty slim. However, since it is already listed in the Ingram catalog that bookstores order from, it is a possibility. It would be great if it is up there with the new releases already!

SanFranciscoJim

Hi Jim,
Here's a handy tip which I personally found useful: try reading out your work to yourself (preferably in private!). I do this a lot, and although my roommates think I've gone a bit spare, it's a great way to find repetitions and odd-sounding sentences that you wouldn't notice if you were reading through the work normally.
Right now I'm busy toying with an idea I had recently for a text editor that will allow you to edit text normally, but each paragraph will be coloured in a range of colours from white to gray to black. The lighter the text, the more times it has been edited. I know some paragraphs need a lot of touch-ups after you write them, and this way if you add something new you could see it straight-away, as it would stand out dramatically from the rest of the already-edited text. And as you edit a paragraph, it will very slowly fade out and become whiter, eventually being almost illegable.
What do you writers on the board think of this idea? Depending on how much of something like Word's functionality I put into it, a tool like this could be quite easy to write...provided I only support plain-text, or possibly Rich Text.

Hi Syn,

That text editor sounds like a very interesting (and helpful) idea.

As regards reading my writing aloud while in work, well.....I am already accused of spending too much time in front of the computer talking to myself.

Actually, I have a brother who is also a writer (as yet unpublished, but working on it). We've been sending manuscripts back and forth for critiquing while in work, and that has proven to be a very effective means of catching myself on repetition and syntax. My brother is my worst critic.

I Am a Published Novelist !!

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