Where Things Are

Just a little update.

Things progress merrily along. I'm working on converting the manuscript into a .pdf file that I can upload to Createspace and turn into a book. I'm doing this while I'm learning on the job, but I am learning. A lot of what I've learned is how to use Word 2007 in ways I never had before. Such as learning how to start page numbers at a given page on a manuscript, or how to make a title page, or how to make headers, etc. I'm currently waiting to see if I can get some information on a couple of fonts from the man who designed my cover before going forward with headers.

But as it stands, I will hopefully be able to upload a .pdf to Createspace in the next few days. This time I will be trying to publish the physical book first, then I will immediately move to the ebook. There are two reasons for that. One, if I already have a physical book being sold on Amazon.com, then Amazon DTP will automatically try to link the ebook to it when they publish that. Second, I'm going to have to learn some new things to publish this ebook the way I want it, or maybe even have to pay to have it formatted for me, so I just wasn't ready to put out the ebook yet. I want it to have a clickable Table of Contents, and I currently don't know how to do that. It may be over my head.

So that's where things stand for now. Things are getting done.

Booya!!! They're Done!!

This morning I finished the rough draft of "Legacy of Flies", the eighth and final ghost story needed for my Shades anthology. It weighs in at 12, 631 words, a novelette like most of the other stories in the collection. These eight stories should result in a decent sized book that has about seventy thousand words once finished. (edit; a quick word count obtained by adding the different manuscripts reveals a count of 69,457. That could change as time goes on.) I still need to write an introduction, but that's only a few paragraphs and doesn't really count. The point is I now have all eight ghost stories I needed to make this anthology what I wanted it to be.

The stories are... (in no particular order)

Storm Chase,
A Memory of Me,
Death and White Satin,
An Echo of Blood and Mirrors,
Legacy of Flies,
A Singularity of Purpose,
Dance of the Ancients,
and
A Long, Cold Forever of a Night.

All exist in different stages of refinement, but all are written. Yet a lot of work remains.

Now begins the editing. I intend to go through the tales, story by story, and edit each one with a highly critical eye. I will need to review the stories for flow, and also figure out the order in which they should appear in the anthology. I pretty much want "A Long, Cold Forever of a Night" to be the last one, but other than that the order is open to whatever works best.

Then, once I have the introduction written and the stories edited, arranged in order, and all put together in one manuscript, I'll need to decide how I will format it for publication. Do I attempt to format it for the kindle myself? I've done a couple of single short stories, but this would be a much bigger project and I also want a couple of bells and whistles like a clickable table of contents...things that are currently beyond my skills. I will also have to decide if I want to go through Createspace and make a physical copy of the book. I would kind of like one of those...which means I'll have a lot more to learn.

So that's where things are now. An important milestone has been reached, but I still have a long way to go.

But the adventure is in the journey :)