New Book! Proofs, Promotions and 'Going a Bit Weird...'
So, I have a new book out!
This is very exciting for several reasons - 1) well...I have a new book out and it feels very grown up to be saying 'new' - as though I am a 'real' author who is constantly just vomiting books out and 2) I cannot WAIT to stop promoting, proofing, editing and actually Write Something New!
Let's get the promotion part out of the way. The internet gave me a handy tip on this subject. It said "One thing to avoid when promoting your books: over-promoting." This reminds me a little of a sign I once saw in a forest in Japan headed "what to do if you see a bear" and the first instruction was 1) Try not to see a bear...
Let's not over promote. I hate doing it anyway. The new book is out. I hope you like it. Please read. The link is here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0F1NGCSN2
(Oh - and reviews are lovely even if you hated it, as long as you can be bothered to tell me why!)
That's that over with. Onto proofing. I happen to have a fantastic proof reader, who I used to work with, so she has the excellent advantage of also being a friend. She is very good at gently taking the mick out of me for over-using certain words. 'Fizz', 'rotten' and 'gaze' were the main culprits this time - I'll let your minds boggle trying to put those together. Look out for them - there should be a LOT less than there were…
She has also taught me a few quite surprising facts:
Surprising Fact One: 'woffling' - as in a hamster woffling its nose - is not a word. I have been describing animal nose antics this way for YEARS. No one has ever told me that before. Mad...
Surprising Fact Two: There is an order for adjectives. You shouldn't say, "tall, white spherical", you have to say "tall, spherical white" because shape comes before colour! Who knew? Well, my proof reader did. I did not.
The exchange between us is always fun. She tries to hold me to the strict policies of Real Life Grammar, and I plead that I need to remain inaccurate because 'it just sounds right that way'. Sometimes I get away with that (my proof reader has soul), and sometimes not. Then she teases me about my overuse of words. You'd think, as an author, I would have a wide and limitless vocabulary. Nah. I have a handful of favourites and I put them EVERYWHERE. Read enough of my stuff and you'll see...
(I think I’m safe with that last sentence. I’m not sure it counts as 'promotion' if you're challenging people to find your flaws...)
Having celebrated my lovely proof reader, and the fact that I’ve managed to get the darn thing out of the door, I am now desperate to leap into the next one. I don’t know if other authors feel this (I am willing to accept maybe I’m odd!), but when I haven’t been actually creating something new, just doing the more efficient, businesslike tasks that accompany the attempt to get a book out, I start to go…well a bit weird!
I daydream more than is really healthy (and certainly more than is conducive to getting things done). I find myself simultaneously bored and exhausted. I scratch around for something to do – life seems mundane, and yet at the same time I’m having 16 kittens (not really, though that would be lovely) about whether I corrected that extra comma on page 245 before I uploaded and whether I’m going to have time to update my website and/or figure out what the hell an SMPT is…
I feel as though I’m a lot LESS grounded when I’ve been grounded in doing sensible real life tasks, than when I’ve been flying away with the fairies at my laptop, spinning completely imaginary figures into completely imaginary worlds.
Maybe we all need a bit of fantasy to keep us on track, so we carry on diligently putting one foot in front of the other in real life…
I asked the cat. She had no strong opinion on the mater, but she DID put her claw into my leg, which I think translated as ‘stop pontificating then and just get on with it…’
This is very exciting for several reasons - 1) well...I have a new book out and it feels very grown up to be saying 'new' - as though I am a 'real' author who is constantly just vomiting books out and 2) I cannot WAIT to stop promoting, proofing, editing and actually Write Something New!
Let's get the promotion part out of the way. The internet gave me a handy tip on this subject. It said "One thing to avoid when promoting your books: over-promoting." This reminds me a little of a sign I once saw in a forest in Japan headed "what to do if you see a bear" and the first instruction was 1) Try not to see a bear...
Let's not over promote. I hate doing it anyway. The new book is out. I hope you like it. Please read. The link is here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0F1NGCSN2
(Oh - and reviews are lovely even if you hated it, as long as you can be bothered to tell me why!)
That's that over with. Onto proofing. I happen to have a fantastic proof reader, who I used to work with, so she has the excellent advantage of also being a friend. She is very good at gently taking the mick out of me for over-using certain words. 'Fizz', 'rotten' and 'gaze' were the main culprits this time - I'll let your minds boggle trying to put those together. Look out for them - there should be a LOT less than there were…
She has also taught me a few quite surprising facts:
Surprising Fact One: 'woffling' - as in a hamster woffling its nose - is not a word. I have been describing animal nose antics this way for YEARS. No one has ever told me that before. Mad...
Surprising Fact Two: There is an order for adjectives. You shouldn't say, "tall, white spherical", you have to say "tall, spherical white" because shape comes before colour! Who knew? Well, my proof reader did. I did not.
The exchange between us is always fun. She tries to hold me to the strict policies of Real Life Grammar, and I plead that I need to remain inaccurate because 'it just sounds right that way'. Sometimes I get away with that (my proof reader has soul), and sometimes not. Then she teases me about my overuse of words. You'd think, as an author, I would have a wide and limitless vocabulary. Nah. I have a handful of favourites and I put them EVERYWHERE. Read enough of my stuff and you'll see...
(I think I’m safe with that last sentence. I’m not sure it counts as 'promotion' if you're challenging people to find your flaws...)
Having celebrated my lovely proof reader, and the fact that I’ve managed to get the darn thing out of the door, I am now desperate to leap into the next one. I don’t know if other authors feel this (I am willing to accept maybe I’m odd!), but when I haven’t been actually creating something new, just doing the more efficient, businesslike tasks that accompany the attempt to get a book out, I start to go…well a bit weird!
I daydream more than is really healthy (and certainly more than is conducive to getting things done). I find myself simultaneously bored and exhausted. I scratch around for something to do – life seems mundane, and yet at the same time I’m having 16 kittens (not really, though that would be lovely) about whether I corrected that extra comma on page 245 before I uploaded and whether I’m going to have time to update my website and/or figure out what the hell an SMPT is…
I feel as though I’m a lot LESS grounded when I’ve been grounded in doing sensible real life tasks, than when I’ve been flying away with the fairies at my laptop, spinning completely imaginary figures into completely imaginary worlds.
Maybe we all need a bit of fantasy to keep us on track, so we carry on diligently putting one foot in front of the other in real life…
I asked the cat. She had no strong opinion on the mater, but she DID put her claw into my leg, which I think translated as ‘stop pontificating then and just get on with it…’
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