Post Book Blahs

Eva 2 went out to beta readers on Saturday. If you volunteered, check your email and spam folders because it may be there. A beta reader in the past didn't discover they'd been chosen until two days before it was due because of the book going to the spam folder.

I should have announced that on Saturday but my brain died. My husband said I looked like a zombie trying to clean on Sunday. One who kept losing motivation and getting distracted.

Today, I've been taking care of little admin tasks that have fallen to the wayside over the past few months. Things like figuring out what system I want to use to backup and save files. It was a big enough issue that I had a nightmare Friday night about the cats knocking a glass of water into the computer and killing it the day before I was totally done. Months of work down the drain. 

The crazy thing is we do have a backup. It runs at the same time everyday but I've tried to find documents in that thing and it isn't easy--which means I don't trust it. Also a lot can happen in 24 hours. Just ask my husband about the time I accidentally deleted a chapter and almost had a panic attack before we found it again.

Dropbox was what I was using before I blew past my limit and everything stopped syncing. Instead of switching to the paying model, my husband convinced me to give Google Drive a try. We'll see how that goes.

Most of this morning was spent with him trying to figure out then teach me how to use it. Evidently, what I was saying I wanted wasn't actually what I wanted. The time passed with him asking me why I was getting so mad and me moaning I just want to hit the save button and it be saved in two places. Which I guess meant I wanted the files mirrored vs backed up. 

It was all very technical and I wasn't understanding the differences in methods beyond one was way more complicated than the other. I can't do complicated. I will forget. At some point I will leave out a step and then have multiple files of the same name in different places and then be unable to tell which is the most up to date with all the typos corrected. 

 

We did get it sorted and I think it will work the way I need it to work, but we'll see. 

Now, I'm off to the rest of my tasks -- answering fan emails, reaching out to a cover designer, maybe writing the synopsis I don't want to write. Oh, and finishing the rest of the website I started way back in March. 

Ding Dong the Book is Done

 The book is done. This draft anyway. It ended up taking a week (really a month) longer than I expected and about fifteen thousand words more than I predicted but it tells a full story now.  At 134749 words, it's only likely to grow once beta readers and the editor get ahold of it.

Beta readers tend to ask me to add a lot more words when it comes to this series as opposed to other series. For instance, I ended up adding about 10,000 words if not more to The Wind's Call. If that were to happen, this would end up being in the top three longest books I've written. I think Pathfinder's Way and Wayfarer's Keep would beat this book but not by much.

As an indie writer, I have the flexibility to write books as long as I want. That is a good thing because I can't write a short book to save my life. What many don't understand is that even as an indie writer I still have limitations I have to take into account.

A big part of that is cost. Simply put, a super long book is more costly to produce all around. From editing--my editor charges by the word so a book that is 15,000-20,000 more words is going to cost a couple hundred dollars more to edit. That doesn't even factor in the time. It takes longer for beta readers, editors, and me to read through the book to catch all those little errors which can extend publishing time by quite a bit.

To be honest, neither of those things bother me much. I'd much prefer to tell a full and complete story with all the little details I find fascinating than try to squeeze it all into a shorter length. The biggest issue with a long book--in my mind at least--lies in the print production. The print version is going to be much more costly for the reader. You are the ones who will be paying the higher price if you decide on a print version.  In my opinion, my print books are a little higher in cost to begin so every time a book runs significantly over I feel a little worried.

All this to say, the book is written. It is coming. I plan to go through it one more time before releasing it to beta readers and sending on to the editors. A big part of that read through is figuring out the names for all of the characters--I maybe didn't take the time to do that on the last round..... 

Snippet

 As I work toward the ending that refuses to end, here is a small snippet for your Sunday.

Alright, alright, that’s enough. We are on an important mission. We don’t have time to satisfy your curiosity, Sebastian said.

The kyren youths wheeled and followed, undeterred. 

The gray’s snort sounded in Eva’s mind. You’ve gotten so self important since joining the warriors, Sebby.

Sebby?

Don’t call me that, Sebastian warned. Eva, forget you heard that.

Eva’s lips curled. “Sure thing, Sebby.”

Website Down

Edit: Website is back up. Thanks for those who let me know it was down :-)

The website is currently down. I'm working to get it back up. People can still access the blog but any links via the blog that were hosted on the site will not work. 

Sorry for the inconvenience. Hope to get it up soon.