Hosted by the Indelibles, Indie Life is a monthly feature on the second Wednesday of the month. This is a chance for indie authors to post about indie life, find each other, offer support, encouragement, news, helpful hints, and anything else that makes life as an indie author a little easier.
I seem to be in a continuous state of panic as of recent. My debut book is due to be published in March and I’m in the process of cutting all the loose strings and polishing to a sheen. Nothing has gone according to plan for the last two months. Not to say it’s been bad, it just hasn’t been to plan.
I started with ten Beta readers that were supposed to
have their input in by February first. I
got three. >_< But I’m not letting that hold me back. I’ve taken it in stride and I’m working on
the final editing with what I’ve got.
Thankfully, all three of the Betas said nearly the same
thing: I need to fix my sentence structure and I tell a powerful story once
they figured out what I meant. Which of
course, pleases me, but I wish, oh I wish, I had an editor that could point out
all the sentence flaws.
And when I mean sentence flaws I mean I write my sentences
half-assed sometimes. For instance I wrote:
“Damia’s face flared in indignant rage and
for a moment Ari was prepared to shout a warning of an oncoming attack but instead
Damia stomped away.”
When it makes a lot more sense being written like:
“Damia’s face flared in indignant rage and for
a moment Ari was prepared to shout a warning. Damia, however, stomped away instead of
attacking.”
:Besides being the worst kind of run on ever it just
doesn’t flow neatly. The even worse part
about it is that it’s every other sentence I have to fix. >_< So it's going very
slowly.
Thankfully the story itself is sound. So I don’t have to add or change any
content. I would probably cry at this
point if I did. I’m beyond ecstatic that I don’t.
It’s a learning process though. Especially with it being
my first book and I honestly had no idea –
still don’t know a lot of – the process of
publishing other than the writing part.
I’ve had some great help along the way and I know I still have a lot to
learn about this process as I go along.
My goal for next time is to find a bit more reliable
Beta readers: does anyone know of some? And maybe find an editor –
what kind of editor I need I have no idea – to
help along the way.
I’m having fun though.
Even with my nerves being scraped raw and my fear of missing my deadline
I’m having fun. For me, that’s what’s
most important. As long as I have fun,
no amount of stress will keep me down. ^_^
P.S. The next Indie Life post is seven days before
release day. – I’m interested to see how frantic I
will be by then.
Join In the fun and excitement?:
Join In the fun and excitement?:
4 comments:
Beta readers often take the place of a content editor. But then there's a copy editor, who may do line editing and grammar and typos. I've found my beta readers through blogging, forums. Get involved. :)
And good luck! Better to work on that sentence structure and put out the best book possible!
I'd be glad to beta read for you. Two, its sounds like you need a line by line edit, three, editors...too many peeps cal themselves that and aren't. You've got to be careful, which means you have to check their work.
Hugs and chocolate,
Shelly
Found you through Indie Life.
Hiccups happen... that's all part of being indie! And I go through similar issues, except for me, it's not sentence structure but tenses! UGH!!
Good Luck! It is a dizzying time:) Enjoy!
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