Choose The Correct Font For Your Published Masterpiece. Otherwise, It Sucks!

Yes, I'm late with my blog this week, and that's because I've been "backside up-head down" trying to correct those wretched typos which creep into our writing, and destroy reader credibility. On top of that I chose the wrong font in which to publish! It's amazing how something as simple as font choice can affect the overall look of a book.

Here I was thrilled to finally be holding a physical of my novel, Bloodgifted, only to realise the font I'd chosen - Century Gothic - (despite it's name) is not suited to a work of fiction. Looks great if used to describe the mating habits of vampire bats with accompanying images, but not - I repeat - for a novel.
Who would have thought?!
To illustrate my point, here's an example of Century Gothic in action using a segment from my desperately-trying-to-get-released-novel.

             Aunt Judy and I walked out the back entrance of the house and down the narrow brick-paved pathway that led to a low stonewall separating the house from the Council owned park on the other side. Opening the wooden back gate, she led me out and onto the quiet path that ran alongside the gently coursing Cook’s River. A gentle breeze sighed through the upper branches of the weeping willows that lined the sloping bank, bringing the sweet scent of a summer evening to lazily drift around us. 

She stopped, released my arm and turned to face me. ‘Laura dear…’ she looked at me pensively, ‘…I knew this time would come, but still it’s hard to know where to begin, especially as –’ she paused, her face flushed, and her hands, which lightly gripped my elbows, shook slightly, ‘– you’ll have difficulty believing it. But nevertheless, all I’m about to tell you is the truth. Never doubt it.’

Well, “curiouser and curiouser,” as Alice in Wonderland remarked. As a child it had always been my favourite story – that of an ordinary girl who suddenly finds herself in a strange and perplexing world.   

You can clearly see it doesn't work. The spacing was also wrong. 

Now, here's the same example using Garamond 3, 1.5 spacing - 

Aunt Judy and I walked out the back entrance of the house and down the narrow brick-paved pathway that led to a low stonewall separating the house from the Council owned park on the other side. Opening the wooden back gate, she led me out and onto the quiet path that ran alongside the gently coursing Cook’s River. A gentle breeze sighed through the upper branches of the weeping willows that lined the sloping bank, bringing the sweet scent of a summer evening to lazily drift around us.

She stopped, released my arm and turned to face me. ‘Laura dear…’ she looked at me pensively, ‘…I knew this time would come, but still it’s hard to know where to begin, especially as –’ she paused, her face flushed, and her hands, which lightly gripped my elbows, shook slightly, ‘– you’ll have difficulty believing it. But nevertheless, all I’m about to tell you is the truth. Never doubt it.’

Well, “curiouser and curiouser,” as Alice in Wonderland remarked. As a child it had always been my favourite story – that of an ordinary girl who suddenly finds herself in a strange and perplexing world.

Much better! I only wish I'd it known earlier and saved myself all this time and hassle. But, as the old adage says, experience is the best teacher.
I also decided to change the paper colour, from white to cream, as it's much kinder to the eyes.

There we have it. Live and learn! Now, I must wait another ten days for the CreateSpace people (who've been fantastic through all this) to complete my corrections and send me another physical copy of my book. And, hopefully, this time I can finally press that "Approve" button and my book will be available on Amazon three weeks after that.

Will I hear the Halleluia chorus when that happens? I bloody well hope so!

Support For Indie Authors is Growing.

Since making the momentous decision to become an indie author, I've become more aware of the number of writers who are choosing to take this road to publication. It's not that we've never been offered a publishing contract - many of us have - it's that we simply don't want it!
Traditional publishing is on the reject pile, and the old stigma once associated with self-publishing is fast disappearing as professionally written and produced books are beginning to equal the number of traditionally published ones.
And what is more exciting, is that respected organisations, such as the RWA (Romance Writers of Australia), the ARRA (Australian Romance Readers Association) and Dark Side DownUnder, are now actively supporting indie authors. Why? Because they realise readers don't care how an author is published, as long as the story grips their imagination! And if it does, than they keep coming back for more and eventually develop into a loyal fan following.

Lately, I've been impressed by the number of indie author interviews and book reviews on both these well known sites, and as far as I'm concerned, they're now my source for finding some great reads. I tend to trust the veracity of reader reviews from organisations such as the AWA and the ARRA more so than the ones on Amazon. Why? Because they tend to weed out the trolls.
Only recently I've seen one such nasty troll attack a fellow author's work, out of - what I consider - pure spite; a sick-minded individual who enjoyed tearing down another writer in order to enhance their own twisted identity. And, unfortunately, there's a lot of them out there.

What do readers look for?

1. A great cover -  That old adage, "Never judge a book by its cover" was never more wrong, for it's precisely that which initially attracts a reader.

2. A great story - If an author is in love with their story, chances are, so will their readers. Better still, if it's part of a series.

3. Well written - A professionally written - and edited - book will attract and maintain a loyal fan base. Some readers may overlook bad writing, poor grammar, endless typos and a plethora of adverbs, but the majority won't.

So, to all the indie authors out there I say, keep writing and entertaining us with great books.
As for me, I'll be joining the ranks very soon - now that all the final proofs have been completed.
My debut book, Bloodgifted, Book 1 of The Dantonville Legacy, is due for release at the end of July on Amazon.

Trials of a Newbie Author, Pt 2 - CreateSpace Policy Changes

Sometimes, there are days when you feel like staying in bed with a good book - either reading one or writing your own and hoping the world would go away. Unfortunately, it never does.
I've just spent the last four days proofreading (again), editing (again) and polishing my manuscript, till I can't bear to look at it any more! I've reached the conclusion that there is such a thing as over-editing.

Well, I'm done, and so are all the corrections, and now that it's finally ready to go back to CS, I find they've made changes to their Corrections Sheet. Or rather, there is no longer any Corrections Sheet.
While I was busy redoing my eighty-seven typos, CS had introduced a new policy allowing an unlimited number of corrections to be made directly onto the "native" manuscript, which is then resubmitted.

I think it's brilliant! I disliked the old system, as it only allowed for fifty corrections, and any more after that had to be paid for. I went through several of those wretched sheets as my typo skills are legendary!

Part of the new policy also includes CS sending customers a physical proof of their soon-to-be-printed book to check for errors in cover design and interior formatting. But, what if there are errors? Mine's sure to have them - I know, I counted. There are eighty-seven!
As per their instructions, I completed all my revisions on the "native" manuscript, and now I'm waiting for my copy to appear on my doorstep. If there are no problems with the cover, all I then need do is resubmit my script, wait ten days for the online proofs to arrive, check over them and hit the "submit" button.
Maybe, just maybe, my debut novel will be released in paperback form by the end of July, and the ebook, four weeks after that.

Yep, publishing is a slow process, but what's the old adage about slow and steady winning the race?
I believe in creating as near perfect a product as possible; for not only is it a sign of respect for myself, but for my readers. After all, they'll be paying for it.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. Please, feel free to share.

Trials of a Newbie Author

Writing a book is comparatively easy compared to all the work that comes after. If someone had told me that three years ago, I would have said they were nuts! But, it's all true.
You've got a great story; it's down on paper - or on the hard drive - and you can't wait to inflict share it with the rest of the world. Now, comes the editing part and the - seemingly - endless string of corrections. I'm convinced I have dyslexic fingers! Then again, from a total of 119,000 words, having only 87 typos isn't too bad, I suppose.
Since I turned down the services of a traditional publisher in favour of indie publishing, I went to CreateSpace to format my manuscript into a paperback, and do the kindle conversion for me. I know the facility is there for me to do it all myself, but my knowing my techno-skills - or lack of - I thought it safest - less hair pulling and screaming all round - to let the professionals do it instead.
CS only allows 50 free corrections, and since I've got slightly more than that (I hang my head in shame) and it'll take approximately 4 weeks (and extra bucks, but it's still less than if I was to send them a spanking, brand new manuscript ) for these to go through.

The editing, correcting, re-structuring and polishing my manuscript took longer than actually writing it in the first place. And that's good, as it means my debut novel, Bloodgifted, will not be released until it's ready, and can proudly take its place alongside the best of traditionally published books - although these days it's sometimes hard to tell. The lines between traditionally published and indie published books is blurring. I've seen just as many badly written and edited books with the former as with the latter.

So, how far have I come? Hopefully, in the next two months, Bloodgifted, Book 1 in The Dantonville Legacy, will be released, and the next in the series, Bloodpledge, will be out in 2014.

I'd love to hear from other newbie writers. What has been your writing experience? And if you had the choice, which would you rather choose - traditional or indie?