Just a heads-up for the wannabe self-publishers – be aware of quality issues when using Amazon. I had a batch of early copies of MUITNY that were printed on the wrong paper stock – cream rather than white. I complained and, after some toing and froing, eventually received a full refund. Another small batch were not packed properly (note the lack of protection in the pic) and the books arrived with some crushed pages. Yet another batch had marks on the paper edges. Again, Amazon offered a piddling compensation until I ramped up my request for something better (message me if you need my strategy). So, dear readers, be aware of the need for vigilance with self-publishing. After all, you don’t want sub-standard copies going out to readers, which is why I take care to check each copy on arrival.
self-publishing
Revised Book Arrives
It was exciting to receive copies of my revised book today – via Australia this time which was much quicker and slightly cheaper than using the USA. In this revised copy, MUTINY has had an extensive re-edit and many corrections. The book is now one chapter longer and two pages shorter (sorry for the confusion). OK, time for another question – what is my favorite chapter? Do you mean the chapter with the deepest meaning, one with greatest drama, or one that provides the most closure. I spent most of my writing time on the first three chapters – specifically for pitching to literary agents; almost the same amount of time on the last few chapters, and a good amount of time on others. Some of the most satisfying chapters – in terms of writing – were Chapters 22, 27, 29, 37, 60, 65, 73, 81 and 88. Personal experiences and real events are also woven into these chapters – chapters I kept coming back to and re-writing until I was satisfied. I just hope you enjoy them along with the rest of the book.
Tweak Away with Self-Publishing
OK, here’s the BIG advantage of self-publishing and it’s often forgotten. I will illustrate from my last post – a Beta Reader discovered a few errors and I discovered a few more. These were fixed and a fully corrected manuscript was formatted and uploaded to Amazon. But, my wife shocked me just two days ago with the revelation that she had found a rather obvious error in Chapter 12:
“Bow up two degrees, Bus Driver. Bring her to one thousand.”
“One-zero-zero, skipper,” Bobby replied, his hands shaking.
Here’s the correction:
“Bow up two degrees, Bus Driver. Bring her to one thousand.”
“One-zero-zero-zero, skipper,” Bobby stammered, his hands shaking.
What to do? It was an easy correction to the (formatted) Word doc. With the quick correction and a fresh upload to my dashboard and the new script was in place. You will also note that I changed ‘replied’ to ‘stammered’ to give more drama. New readers would be none the wiser. Could I do this with a traditional publication? No, that would be far more difficult due to the higher number of books in the print run. It could take years to correct.
Done and Dusted
Another milestone in the publication of MUTINY – final edits all done and both paperback and kindle versions uploaded. It’s just a matter of waiting a few hours for the updates to appear online but, I must say, quite a relief to have this book polished and finished. Just to recap: Beta Reader find 3 errors –> author fixes errors and decides to check manuscript for others –> 10 days later the full edit is finished –> book formatting done using Rakib on Fiverr (can’t speak highly enough of his work) –> new versions uploaded onto Amazon. From errors being discovered to having revised manuscript uploaded was around two weeks. That’s all folks in the (busy) life of a self-published author. Now, back to my day job :-).
2nd Edition Nears Completion – The Final Polish
I have old brass strips across our external doors and I recently polished them to a gleaming golden glow. My recent final edit of UTINY has been much like that and it’s great to announce that the second edition of MUTINY is now complete and just waiting for the formatting to be done. Then the paperback-ready and Kindle versions will be updated on Amazon. I can happily say that this full edit was an encouraging exercise – I enjoyed reading through MUTINY again and the changes will hopefully make the book even better for my readers. Here’s what I concentrated on in the process: spelling and grammatical errors (a few); improved dialogue (several) and plot flow (a few). In some instances, I deleted unnecessary text, changed the character who was speaking to avoid confusion, etc. The end result is a tighter plot and one that is more readable. Well, let’s hope so! The new formatting will include drop caps too for a more professional look. The cover has no changes and the only other differences are: a copyright note that no Artificial Intelligence was used in the writing and any use of AI to generate machine learning is prohibited. The inside cover notes that this is the second version.
Another Day, Another Issue
My orders for 8 x 3 WISE MEN arrived last night – alas, with poor packaging damage to the books. After some negotiating, Amazon kindly offered a full refund, which was a nice outcome, but little comfort as I prepare for my book launch (of MUTINY) in two weeks’ time. The copies of 3 WISE MEN were for those interested in a package of both books. In addition, these copies of 3 WISE MEN are the revised version following the full edit completed last month. That leads me to an interesting challenge – how to distinguish the new copy from the old? The solution was to include a lovely addition of an e-Type Jaguar car on the back cover (see pic with this post) plus a note on the inside cover.
Out with the New, In with the Old
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have been revising my first book – the one I picked up by mistake. I’m pleased to say that revisions have been completed and I am much happier with the result. I really enjoyed a few chapters that I had skipped over before (more on this shortly in another post). This led to another consideration – should I also change the cover design to reflect the new version? And, I did, but it is subtle. In fact, I preferred the first book cover design and tweaked it in Photoshop for the new version. It’s clearer, cleaner and has more impact. It also includes one of my lead ‘characters’ – an e-type Jag. I hope you enjoy the changes too. The time taken for these revisions was about 3-5 days at a leisurely pace. FYI, the reformatting of text for Kindle and paperback cost about $US60. Being able to do these changes on the fly is a huge advantage for self-publishing. But, I warn you, choose your formatting expert wisely.
Dealing with Rejection
I had to laugh this morning. After sending off my query to a literary agent on March 12, I finally got a response – over three months late. The reply was along the lines of a standard ‘reject’ – “Unfortunately, we are unable to offer you representation. This is a very subjective business, and another agency or publisher may well disagree. We wish you all the best in finding a suitable home for your work.” I rarely respond to such emails but, in this case, sent a link to my published book to show that it had indeed found a home. This experience got me wondering – if it takes an agency, or publisher, over three months to respond to a genuine and serious (and previously published) author, who knows how long it would take them to actually review and publish the novel? My advice is to avoid anyone or any business that displays such indifference or arrogance towards its customers. I had a similar experience with my first book – 3 WISE MEN. A store offered to hold a few copies and said they would read it and promote it to their customers. After a few months, I got a call asking me to come and collect the books. When I came into the store, the said, “Sorry, but we could not sell any.” I replied that the book has received great reviews, to which they replied, “Oh, we would like to have another look at it.” So, they had not read it and I was not going to give them the joy of doing so. I felt humiliated and furious. I picked up my shop copies and was pleased to shake the literary dust from my feet and left. I will never again allow this shop to stock my book even if it becomes a best seller.
The Cover…Finally
It has taken a little while, but my cover is finally compliant with the requirements of Amazon, so we are ready to order copies for the book launch.
MUTINY is Printed!
Yes, dear blog readers, you saw it here first. The advance copies of my new book have arrived. Just a small adjustment to do on the spine and it is ready to order in bulk for the book launch. I love the glossy cover, the colors and images, and the size too – perfect.
MUTINY is a loosely fictionalized autobiography – but you will have to guess which character I am basing myself on. And there are many snippets from my life story too. In other words, every time you see the disclaimer that, “This work is entirely fictional,” you can assume that some of it is not!
I just hope my readers love it and are left with a smile on their faces when they finish reading.
Factoid: One of the advance copies I ordered was printed on yellowed paper – fortunately, Amazon gave me a ‘promotional credit.’ The cool thing is – this yellowed copy goes well with the yellow submarine on the back cover!
Here is the link to my books in both paperback and kindle.