If you were paying attention, you would remember that I have mentioned I am going to turn this blog into a new book. If you weren't paying attention then this is all new, which is just fine as well.
There are dozens of books out there which give instructions and rules to help you become a better writer. They are largely written by language scholars who really do know what they are talking about. The problem with the ones I have read, is that by the end I'm really not sure what they are talking about and how it's going to help me. The fact that reading academia is not my strongest suit, doesn't help.
I'll be the first to admit, I am not one of those writing experts. I have one thing going for me though. I love to write. Well two things. I love to write and I've turned that passion into an avid pastime, if not a career. I've done this is by listening to and asking those who know, networking with other writers and writing groups, and of course that old favourite, trial and error.
So now I've convinced you that my project may have some merit, let me just go through the steps of this undertaking in the hope that it will help you with your goals.
A couple of years ago I started writing the blog you are currently reading. Simply put, I wrote the posts to both explain how I write and the procedures I used to finally get my books out there.
Then I had a brilliant idea. Why not make these posts into a kind of how to book? A guide for would be writers, to help encourage them to pursue their passion and then walk them through the processes I've used.
I will make not make promises or pretense. This is merely my way of doing things, with the help of some very helpful people. There are many roads you can take, this just happens to be the one I landed on. I am not a writing teacher, but then again many coaches have not gone to Uni for coaching courses. It's their experience and knowledge of the game that makes them competent in their career.
This isn't a commercial, that will come later, but I do hope once this book is available, you will recommend it to those who aspire to be writers, but are unsure of themselves and have no idea in which direction to go. You see how i avoided using a preposition at the end of the sentence? That must be worth something.
The nice thing about making this blog into a book was that most of the content was already done. All the posts are in there. From there I needed to put them into a solid order, and give a brief intro for each. Following that, I needed to remove those cute little images I had put in. If you choose to put images in your work, you will need to do the same. Google images are not free domain. There are companies that specialize in that at minimal cost. One example is Deposit Photos. That way you have no worries about people claiming you are using their pictures without permission.
Unless you are a publishing savant you are going to need a good formatter. This person will help take all the information you send, and turn it into something professional looking, something you will be proud to put your name on.
They will also take those photos you have selected and put them in the places you suggest.
One of the first suggestions was to let go of the cutesy colours and fonts, and size changes to make it look more professional. Something that looks a little less like "Diary Of A Wimpy Kid." This required a pretty massive refurbishing, although it wasn't overly difficult.
And that's where i am at now. As I have advised over and over, several edits are needed before you submit this masterpiece. That will include sending it to your formatter a few times and following their advice without question, until you are both satisfied this is what you had in mind.
Over the next few weeks I will do the last edits, submit it until it is right and then go through the publishing process, which is a piece of cake compared to the rest.
Hope this helps you get an idea of what getting your ready for prime time and published entails. It's not nearly as daunting as you think. Five words: one step at a time.
More bulletins as events warrant.
Happy writing.
