Publishng THE HORSEMEN is Coming Ever More Close

The final edit of THE HORSEMEN was completed an hour ago.

The prohibitive cost, for a small indie author, has forced me to conjure up a method of producing a decent edit to publish my work.

The problem of course with editing your own words is familiarity. So it takes a combination of discipline and mechanical/psychological tricks to get the work done.

The first thing I've found to do is basically, perform the first edit as I go. As each "scene" in the story is completed I take a quick break then go back and re-read and edit that section.

The second thing I do in the editing process is done each morning before I start in on that day's writing. I re-read and edit the last chapter or two written the day before. Two things are accomplished with that. First I get my head firmly back into the story for that day and second, when the -THE END- is written on the last page I have effectively already completed two solid editing passes of the manuscript.

With a completed manuscript I then read through aloud - line - by line - hunting for awkward wording, misspelled words, doubled words, punctuation etc. If something "sounds" odd in the outloud reading I work it over until it flows well to my ear. Only then do I move on.

The last and final edit is what I call my Kindle Audio edit. The manuscript is emailed to my Kindle. That lil' gizmo has a sweet lil' ability to convert text to speech. I use the ear buds off my Ipod and follow along on the lap top as it reads it back to me.

The computer generated voice sounds a bit strange I suppose, but, it tries to ready just how you put it down. So... if you have doubled words that you missed or badly misspelled text or commas in the wrong place, that JUMPS out at you as the Kindle reads it back to you.

It also shines a pretty bright light on awkward sounding phrases or too long sentences that you might miss. It's an idea I've not heard anyone else use... so unless someone else can claim an earlier inspiration I claim to be the Inventor of the KINDLE EDITING TECHNIQUE! :)

All that remains is building a table of contents and some final formatting and my fifth novel will be prepared for publishing. Mid to late next week seems a very reasonable release time at this moment.

I'd thought of trying a pre-order release but I think it more likely I'll just announce when it will be available and try to get as many to secure their copy on the same day as possible. Doesn't change the price for those who will be buying a copy and gives a great boost to the author's ranking in the lists.

So... it's back to work for me!

- BK Gore

Editing For Indies...

Everywhere an Indie author looks they'll read that you CAN NOT edit your own work!

How-some-ever; None of those prohibitors ever explain how a poor boy with not enough cash to eat three meals a day is supposed to pony up the $3500 bucks it takes to pay a commercial editor for the lower end of editing assistance on a finished work.

I have literally been told; "That doesn't matter! If you respect your work you do it!" Seriously? You spend the $3500 dollars that you Don't HAVE? How imaginative. That guy HAD to be a fiction writer! ... Science Fiction...

So... putting those prohibitions aside, and doing the task to be done with as good a quality as I can muster, I have discovered a couple of tricks that help.

One is enlarging the text to fill the entire screen. Sometimes having the type increased to that size, misspellings and punctuation goofs will jump out at you a little more clearly. Also, I for the life of me can't remember the name of the lil' gizmo just now... but... on the tool bar at the top is that lil' reverse P thing-a-ma-bob? Turn that on so you can see all the spacing and formatting. That will also help reveal some mistakes.

The third and most helpful thing I've found is my Kindle. Not only is it a SWEET electronic library... it is an AWESOME editing assistant for a poor aspiring author trying to turn out good work!

I email-to-kindle my finished manuscript. Right off, the biggest of formatting issues seem to pop out once that email has been converted to the kindle format.

Then, I turn on the Text to Speech Option of the kindle. Personally I use my Ipod ear buds. Though the computer generated voice sounds a lil' odd, misspellings, awkward wording and quite a few punctuation oddities JUMP out when it tries to pronounce and speak them!

I've found many tricky to "find" misspellings... when the Kindle "Sounded" weird trying to say the word!

Audioize your manuscript on your own personal Kindle as an AWESOME Text editing tool!

I follow along on my laptop and correct as I go. Just put the kindle on pause; make the corrections or rewording, hit go! and continue!

So... don't get your shorts in a knot when the prima donnas tell you that you can't. Just find the ways to make it happen!

~ BK Gore