Yes, I'm aware of the typo in the heading of this blog.
Doing these short stories for the anthology collection, "Off the Rails and Other Tales", I've found that not only is there never enough rewriting, but there never seems to be enough proofreading. I've used outside help for editing and proofreading and even after I've given the stories a good once over (something I rarely do in my blog. Sorry), they've found plenty of misspellings, grammar issues and typos to fix. When I get the stories back I give them a once over again and occasionally still find things we both missed. Twice!
So, when the book comes out, please realize, that we did put a lot of effort into making it read smoothly, or at least, as intended and any typos you may find snuck in under several passes of the radar.
One of the stories, "Front Window, An Alien Vengeance Short Story", is written in a format that throws a lot of people. It's very short and I thought an appropriate piece to experiment with a bit. I figure if you're going to self publish, you should do things a little differently. It's sort of like making independent movies. Part of the point of being independent is doing things a major company would be afraid to risk doing.
That last sentence didn't sound right. Where are my proofreaders?
Doing these short stories for the anthology collection, "Off the Rails and Other Tales", I've found that not only is there never enough rewriting, but there never seems to be enough proofreading. I've used outside help for editing and proofreading and even after I've given the stories a good once over (something I rarely do in my blog. Sorry), they've found plenty of misspellings, grammar issues and typos to fix. When I get the stories back I give them a once over again and occasionally still find things we both missed. Twice!
So, when the book comes out, please realize, that we did put a lot of effort into making it read smoothly, or at least, as intended and any typos you may find snuck in under several passes of the radar.
One of the stories, "Front Window, An Alien Vengeance Short Story", is written in a format that throws a lot of people. It's very short and I thought an appropriate piece to experiment with a bit. I figure if you're going to self publish, you should do things a little differently. It's sort of like making independent movies. Part of the point of being independent is doing things a major company would be afraid to risk doing.
That last sentence didn't sound right. Where are my proofreaders?
Awesome, Jason! I've read your excerpts and can't wait for the finished product. I've often considered self-publishing something similar (horror short stories and poetry). Which service do you plan to use?
ReplyDeleteThanks for checking it out.
ReplyDeleteI'm probably going to go with Createspace. Not because I've done extensive research into the competition, but because I've been doing DVDs through them for years and they've always been fair and usually pretty helpful when I've run into a problem. The process can be frustrating no matter who you run with, so good customer service is important for getting over the hurdles.
I'm sort of familiar with Lulu.com, too, because I bought a book from another friend and she used Lulu to publish it. But being able to put it on amazon I think would be advantageous. Doesn't amazon own Createspace?
DeleteAmazon may own them by now. I know they've been partnered for awhile. It's a good way to get on Kindle, not too much cost (if any) up front and with the book being under 130 pages I should be able to keep it well under $10 in large format paperback.
ReplyDelete