I haven’t written anything this week yet since I’m going back to my Thursday, Friday, Saturday writing schedule for awhile. And then I’m going on vacation next week, so I’m going to READ instead of write that week. But I DID do something I’ve needed to do for a long time. In fact, I’m really ashamed that I hadn’t done this yet. It’s been hanging over my head for a while. When I proofed Haunted Lake for print, I found several errors in the original manuscript. Errors that had been missed before publishing the ebook. I fixed them and had others look over it before publishing in print. However…I never got around to replacing the manuscript for my ebooks on Amazon, B & N, Smashwords, etc. I’m am SO not proud of this. So last night, I went into my office and got the printout of my book where I had corrected the errors, and got to work. I fixed all the errors and made a couple of small changes I had made for the print version. And I got it uploaded everywhere.
The only snag I ran into was with Smashwords. Since all retailers have changed the requirements for book cover sizes, Smashwords couldn’t distribute the new version to Apple, Sony, etc. until I sent a new cover. (Amazon and B & N didn’t make me send a new cover.) My wonderful cover artist, Anya Kelleye, is super, super busy right now since she’s picked up several new book cover jobs, so I hesitated to ask her to fix this for me. I emailed her, told her the situation, and asked how long it would take to change the cover size. She dropped what she was doing and immediately fixed this for me. What a friend she is! So I was able to upload the cover and now Smashwords is happy. And I feel better knowing that an error free (I hope) version of Haunted Lake is now out there. This is still my favorite of all the books I’ve written. I don’t know if it’s the BEST one I’ve written, but this story is still close to my heart.
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I think reading a week is a great idea. In the past two years, I’ve had a hard time reading anything. I just couldn’t do it. However, about a week and a half ago, I picked up a book that just drew me in and spent an entire week reading. Coming back to writing afterward actually helped make it easier to focus and enjoy writing again. Best of luck!
Oh, and I hate it when retailers change things–like cover size requirements. What a pain in the hind quarters.
Oh, I read EVERY day. I love reading. That’s why the thought of having a whole week to read whenever I want is so appealing. And you KNOW whose books I’m going to be reading. 😉
I know, it IS a pain. But I do understand it. With all the new technology, they want the images to be as rich as possible, so they have to be bigger. It’s still an aggravation for those of us that don’t have a lot of time, though.
I hope you like them!
Yeah, I understanding the wanting the bigger sizes, too. B&N went up in the size they accept, too, but didn’t make an announcement. I couldn’t figure out why an older book I was updating wouldn’t save and after getting the red warning regarding the cover. Scrolled down and sure enough, the size had changed. This was a while ago, but any time I go to update a book that’s older, I have to do the cover, too. LOL
Glad I could get the cover updated so quickly for you. It was a fairly simple fix so it’s all god. 😉 Yes, I have been very busy lately. But you are the reason I started doing this so I try to do your stuff as soon as I can. It doesn’t always happen as quick as I would like so I know you feel like I put you on the back burner sometimes. 😦 So just kick me in the butt and tell me to get a move on and do it! LOL!
I’m glad you got it all updated and uploaded so that you will feel better about it being out there. Now if we can just get SoaV fixed so you can get it printed. 😉 And then on to redoing a few earlier covers, right? ❤
Thanks again for doing this so fast. 🙂 I’m glad I could “kick-start” your career. LOL
Oh, if we could ONLY get SoaV fixed for print! I’ve never had this much trouble with a CreateSpace project. I still owe someone a print copy that they won. Yes, I would love to get A Rocky Path redone for sure. We’ll get to it. 🙂
JR Pearse Nelson has nothing but good things to say about you, so I thought I’d check out your blog. I couldn’t decide which book to try, but from this post, I guess it should be Haunted Lake! Looking forward to getting to know you.
Welcome to my blog, Brooke. Stop by anytime! And I really hope you enjoy Haunted Lake. 🙂
How nice of J.R. to say good things about me! She is such an awesome lady, and I count her as one of my good friends.
I hear you on Smashwords. I changed the price of a couple books and had to do a new size on one cover and add a table of contents to two. I understand it’s because the channels they distribute to change the ways they want things done, so it’s not Smashwords’ fault.
Anya’s a great friend. 😀
They MADE you add a table of contents? What in the world for? Wasn’t it fiction?
Yes, she’s definitely a great friend. The best!
I hate finding errors. I’ve gone back and read one of my books from cover to cover and spent a long time fixing it up. Hopefully that error free version should be out soon. It’s disheartening and embarrassing to find problems.
Glad you got it all sorted and the cover for Smashwords has been accepted .
I’m a pretty good proofreader, but not necessarily with my own stuff. I think that’s because when we read our own work, we know what we MEANT to say, and that’s how we read it, even if it’s wrong. I have a couple of great proofers now, so hopefully, I won’t have this problem. What I found, too, is that I don’t catch errors on the computers, but I can catch them in print. The ebook version, I only proofed on the computer. When I was ready to publish in print, I went over it again with a printed out copy, and that’s how I found everything.
I’m breathing a sigh of relief that Haunted Lake is fixed.
Pour yourself a nice glass of wine this evening to celebrate. 🙂
Way to go on the new-updated-author-approved version of ‘Haunted Lake’. I’m too affraid to look at my novel for the errors that were missed (shivers at the thought of it). Good luck on your writing days this week.
VACATION! That sounds great. I need a vacation. Enjoy yours,
Thanks, Chris. I actually had a reader point out there were errors, and that was embarrassing.
Hubby and I REALLY need this vacation. I’m glad we paid for it a long time ago. LOL
I hadn’t considered taking a week off to just read. Maybe I need to.Good on you for doing that.
I love to read. Sometimes I feel guilty when I read too much because I feel like I should be doing something else. But on vacation, you’re supposed to do NOTHING, right? 🙂