Only five real days of solid writing for this month. Not what I really hoped to make, but not bad either as I ease back into the swing of the writing process. Today was dominated by publishing concerns. I’m finally working on the print format for my first book. I’m looking forward to getting that done since my first book won’t be finished until the print and audio versions are done. Well, print is done and audio is in the works. For the print version I’m giving CreateSpace a shot. I’m also learning InDesign CS6. I went with a so-called “legacy” copy instead of the stupid subscription model so many companies are pushing now. It costs more up front but after the first year I’ll have saved a good chunk of change. At this point I’m just learning the ropes as far as formatting goes.

One thing that became evident immediately was that I should have worked out the print cover before doing the electronic. In the future I’ll simply clip the front print cover to be used for the electronic. Makes things much easier. As it is the electronic cover of my book will be changing a little to match the print version. It’s not really a big deal though since changing the electronic cover is as easy as uploading the new file. Welcome to the brave “new” world of self-publishing! This is definitely one of those things that has become infinitely more accessible thanks to technological advances. While a part of me wishes I’d been writing non-stop since high school (since I’d probably be sitting on a veritable mountain of stuff that I could now publish), I might have been horribly discouraged by the publishing system of yore.

I’m planning on putting a full guide together capturing all of my experiences with self publishing along with a quick reference guide. There are a lot of good sources of information out there, but they’re pretty widespread. Also, the specifics (like how to estimate your page count for print purposes) are buried in a mountain of more general information. A quick reference or cheat sheet would be incredibly helpful until I really get used to this. Once it’s all old hat I shouldn’t need the hours I’ve sunk into the publishing side so far for future books and projects. Still, I don’t begrudge the time. The journey itself is definitely worth the effort.

Well, today wraps up the month of March. I may have only put in 5 real days of work on my book, but I’m pretty pleased with the results. Today was particularly productive. I think I’ve found my flow again for the story which is very heartening. I’m looking forward to seeing just how much I can get done in April!

Writing Log – Day 5 Month 1 (Monthly Wrap-up)

Transformation (Second Shroud Novel) –  11,050 words to date (2,269 today)

Other Fiction – 0

Blog Entries – 495

Emails – 0

Total Fiction This Month: 12,144

Total Words This Month: 14,920