Thursday, August 9, 2012

Yikes! Will I Get My Book Launched?

Hello Friends! Some of you know I'm planning to launch my chapter book, CURSE OF THE DOUBLE DIGITS (for ages 7 to 10), on October 10th. That happens to be the birthday of my main character, Becky. She's turning double digits on the tenth day of the tenth month and expects it to be magical, but of course that's not the case...

Being the tech idiot that I am, I'm having a hard time getting the paperback version ready to publish through CreateSpace. Can't afford to pay someone. :( Besides, I need to learn all this stuff.

See, I started this book ten years ago. (It spent years in a drawer off and on.) Back then it didn't cause problems to indent a new paragraph by hitting the tab. But now it wreaks havoc in Word, and parts of the manuscript that were indented that way have to be deleted and fixed. Took an entire day to figure this out, thanks to the help of some wonderful writer peeps. There are other glitches, too, but who wants to hear about those? Not me!

Even if I wasn't having problems with the margins and paragraphing, getting the text justified without large gaps between words requires revising sentences so they fit better. It's way more time consuming than I expected. Those are just a few issues, not to mention dealing with widows and orphans. Scream!

I expected to run into problems adding the illustrations, but as it turns out, it's working fine! Woo hoo! It's so nice when things go smoothly, isn't it?

Still need to get the cover done. The cover illustration is ready. Now I'm waiting for the cover designer to work her magic. She's backlogged for six weeks, but she threw together a temporary cover so I can add it to the CreateSpace template and order the first book proof and check it over.

Not bad for a temporary cover thrown together in a few minutes! 
I sent her the cover illustration (by Alanna Heck) and she took it from there.
I'm excited to see what she'll do for the final cover. I like how she added "10"
behind the title. Just need to add the illustrator's name and delete "The" in the title.

I'm not one of those people who waits till the last minute to get things done, but moving and babysitting full time set me back. Ah, life and those darn monkey wrenches! Sheesh! Plans never turn out the way we plan, do they?

Once the paperback version is set to go, I need to get the eBook version ready. That means revising all the sentences to match the changes I made in the paperback version. Very time consuming. And very tricky to accomplish during the week when I'm babysitting. While Punkin naps, I need to work fast.

So I won't be blogging much until I get a handle on things. Right now I'm overwhelmed and trying to keep the meltdowns to a minimum. This writing process is a wild ride, that's for sure.

I'll be back as soon as possible. I have lots of cool posts planned. And I will catch up with all of you then. I hope your summer is sizzling with fun and sun and good times.

Hope to see you soon!


20 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

It will all come together!
Are you planning a blog tour? Book early.

Ruth Schiffmann said...

Wow, Lynn, I didn't realize you were launching a book. The experience sounds intense. Wishing you all the best with it!!

LynNerdKelley said...

Thanks, Alex. No, not planning a big tour. I'm just not organized enough to put one together. One of my friends has offered to do an interview, so I'm going to take her up on it. And a couple other peeps will probably let me do a guest post.

Right now I can't even wrap my mind around putting a blog tour together. I don't know how you whippersnappers keep up with it all! LOL!

LynNerdKelley said...

Hi Ruth! Aw, you're so sweet. I still didn't get to visit your blog from your last comment. Am catching up with my commenters today! Heading right over there!

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

O.o... Reading this made my head explode. Good luck. I can see why you made the face in that picture. Publishing sounds really hard.

LynNerdKelley said...

Michael - It's hard if you're a tech idiot like me! Piece of cake for others! Thanks for stopping by.

D.G. Hudson said...

Good luck with the work. I know what 'widows and orphans' you are referring to; I had to do setup for online info at a previous job.

Think how much more savvy you will be after you accomplish this.

Christina Farley said...

What an exciting time for you! I can only imagine how busy you must be!

Golden Eagle said...

Good luck with your book launch!

DMS said...

Your book sounds like lots of fun and I know the idea will appeal to kids. Sorry to hear things are a bit of a struggle. Formatting can be such a pain. I am glad the illustrations worked out okay. Wishing you much success! Can't wait to see the final cover, too!

~Jess

Anonymous said...

Fantastic! Girl you are almost there. Just keep on running....

Kelley Lynn said...

Oh man! How exciting!!! Good luck!

Coleen Patrick said...

Super exciting Lynn! Looking forward to it :) Sending you good vibes to help you thru the process!

Anonymous said...

Looks, great Lynn! Wishing you a smooth run until launch day - it sounds super stressful, but I'm certain you'll get there. And then you can breathe again :)

Anonymous said...

Good luck, Lynn. I'll be praying for you. I enjoy hearing about your process - monkey wrenches and all. I have faith it will all come together in the end. Fingers crossed. Maybe we can grab lunch to celebrate when it is all finished. There used to be a place out your way that I enjoyed stopping in with my mom years ago. I wonder if it's still there. Hmmm.

Anonymous said...

Good luck, Lynn. I'll be praying for you. I enjoy hearing about your process - monkey wrenches and all. I have faith it will all come together in the end. Fingers crossed. Maybe we can grab lunch to celebrate when it is all finished. There used to be a place out your way that I enjoyed stopping in with my mom years ago. I wonder if it's still there. Hmmm.

cleemckenzie said...

So here's some hot cocoa, an extra helping of whipped cream and a hug. I so understand where you are at this moment.

Great cover! That is wonderful.

You'll do this and all will be well.

Jennette Marie Powell said...

Just now getting caught up on blog reading - hopefully you've worked out your issues by now! If you still need help, shoot me an email. I worked in graphic design for over 10 years, so this is stuff I'm pretty used to.

Melissa Bowersock said...

Hey, Lynn, I just nominated you for the Liebster Blog Award! Go to my page: mjb-wordlovers.blogspot.com for the rules and to grab the award image for your blog.

Nas said...

How exciting that you're launching a book! Yay!