After the blowing rain from yesterday, it seemed almost cozy out there this morning. Of course, I wore my fleece hood and parka. This morning I talked about working on Ravenwood and put out a call for proof readers. I’m looking for a few who can turn it around pretty quickly.
Yesterday’s Word Count: 0
Today’s Starting Count: 14,399
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Nathan,
I am happy to help with editing. I can commit to very fast turn around. I word quickly. If you want samples of my writing email and I will send you recent work.
I still say self-publishing Ravenwood is the right thing to do. Worst case scenario is that sales are slow and you learn a whole lot about self-publishing and are able to compare the experience to working with Ridan.
I’d be more than happy to read anything you ever need read. I make no great claim to my abilities with the English language, but I can spot a typo and would have it back to you within a day or two.
In regards to self publishing I just wanted to let you know that the last fifteen or so books I have read from Kindle have been self published books. Some have been really good. The biggest issue I have found is there is a large number of misspelled or just the wrong word and somewhat to my surprise a very large number of misplaced words. As in instead of “some what” it is “what some” mostly they appear in the first three or four word of the sentence I don’t know why. The other issue I have with a lot of self publish is it is like they are scared to put anything in the sample. I have gotten to the point that if the sample is to short to get my interest I just don’t read the book. I guess I should leave them a review that says I did not read the book because there was not enough in the sample the catch the interest of a fly but I don’t take the time.
The sample is an automatic 10% of the file.
If it’s short, then the book is short. A lot of people are pumping out 2000-3000 word short stories which makes the sample only about 3 sentences.
One thing that *I*’ve noticed is that people are really looking for typos in self-pub but seem more willing to give it a pass in mainstream. I counted over 25 misspelled words in the last Jim Butcher book I read, but nobody complained about it in the reviews.
The problem with typos is that you can’t prove there are none. You can only prove you haven’t found them all (by finding another one). They’re like bugs in programming code.
Case in point, there was a punctuation typo in the first paragraph of Quarter Share. It went through three edits on my machine, twelve passes back-and-forth to Ridan, and nobody spotted it until I downloaded a sample from the Kindle Store for a reading. The error is in the original file from Jan 12, 2007.
Go figure.
Shows what I know I thought the sample was something the author decided. In some cases it should be able to be a little more.
I don’t worry to much about typo’s. I have never read a book that I did not find at least one. I have written enough tech manuals to know how hard it is to get rid of them. It is only an issue when it is hard to understand the meaning due to incorrect sentence structurer. I rarely find that to be the case. They just sometimes disrupt my flow of reading and that wares on me if it happens a lot in one book.
Hi Nathan,
I just got off an 11hour flight, and wanted to say thanks for your podcasts and interviews! Those really helped with the boredom and dreariness of the flight. “Hidalgo” is hilarious! And with an audience it was even more fun. Perhaps I missed it, but apparently you aren’t going to publish it separately? I’m sure everyone would love it.
As I listened to you mention the length of captain’s share, it wondered if it would be a good one to spilt into two books?
You’re welcome.
The Hidalgo is published in JR Blackwell’s book. It’s done. There ‘ll only be one copy, but she gave me permission to read it for BaltiCon.
I’m fighting the “split the book” urge on Captain’s Share just because that’s a nightmare. In truth, most people will buy the ebook. That’s good enough, assuming we can get POD to put out something in paper.
If you are still looking for more eyes to sift through Ravenwood looking for typos I’d be more than happy to help. I just finished up reading a book last night and had been trying to decide what to read next. When I listened to your reading of Ravenwood at the Windham Library I thought, “I need to go back and listen to that again.”
Once again, thanks for sharing you tales with us.
I’m good on typo-patrol at the moment, Dan, but thanks for the offer.