How the time has flown

Since writing this blog it seems that so much has happened, yet at the same time, nothing has happened. The book finally went to print about a week ago, and I am waiting for my own sample copy to arrive, which I was told would take 7 - 10 days. I was hoping it might arrive today, which is my birthday, but the postman did not bring anything (except a copy of a friend's book whom I have arranged to do a swap with). Once it does arrive, assuming all is okay and nothing has gone horribly wrong, people will be able to order their own copies. This may be tomorrow, or it may be next week. It will though be within the next week, that much I can say with 100 percent certainty.

It is just under a week until I go to Lundy for my 21st visit. This time I be gone for three whole weeks, the longest I have ever been away from home, before or after I met Coran. He is very good not to make a fuss about this, as I know some men who throw a wobbly if their girlfriend so much as goes shopping on her own - they would get very short shrift from me. Coran knew that I was going to Lundy long before I got involved with him. I always imvite him along, but he doesn't like boats and helicopters and has never been much of a traveller. Truth be known, I am not sure if I would want him to go with me anyway, since I need the time on my own, and feel that it does us both the world of good to spend time apart every so often. Absense makes the heart grow fonder ...

Almost there

It seems like ages since I wrote in this blog, yet such a lot seems to have happened. Britain is in the grip of a heatwave, and knowing how us Brits have a reputation for moaning, everyone is doing just that. I must admit it has been a little too hot for me, with the mercury hitting 31 degress today. Thankfully things are set to cool over the next few days.

Things have been hotting up in my life as well. This afternoon, in fact five minutes ago, I finally approved the last round of alterations. All I am waiting for is my proof copy, before it finally go to print. I was amused to find that my ISBN adds to up to the number 11, the numerical number for Master Jesus. This speaks volumes. I only hope the critics will not crucify me as they did him!

I have been working hard inviligating various exams at the college - I did 18.5 hours last week over 5 days, but only 6.5 hours this week. I had exams this morning and again tomorrow. This morning was maths GCSE. I am not sure what it will be tomorrow, but will have to wait and see. Whatever it is I am sure it will be fascinating. I feel really sorry for the kids taking exams in this heat, with the pollen so high. I am glad it isn't me!

There will be a slight delay

Unfortunately I have just heard that there may be a slight delay to the book, and it may not be uploaded to the printer until next week. It seems that James, who does the final tweeking as it were, has had some computer problems and lost some of his files (thankfully not mine!). He has just spent the last 2 days trying to piece things back together again, but should be back on track soon. To be honest though I was not expecting a copy until next week anyway, so does not make that much difference to me. Having waited five years I think I can wait a few more days!

Today then I had a letter from the bank confirming that they have opened the new business account that I applied for, the card will be sent under seperate cover, together with the PIN number. I also bought a receipt book in readiness for all those people who will be buying the book from me at various talks and things - mostly to help me keep track of things, but also so that I can write their details on the back to add to my ever growing mailing list. I also managed to persuade a friend to write a review for me on another website, which shall remain nameless, but for which I was until recently a moderator. I, and several others were unceremoniously banned when we voiced our displeasure at some new rules that the owner brought in, without bothering to consult us, the admin team, who were after all the ones who would have to implement these rules. Anyway, thanks to him, I am now, or very soon will be, co-owner of my own discussion site, Stairway of Life. There are however many people on the old site who I know would be interested in the book, and I am unable to post on there myself and let them know about the book, then his review will come in very handy.

The other thing I have done is apply for a stall at this years Questing Conference at the end of october. This is run by alternative history writer Andrew Collins, and attracts around 450 people each year. If only 10 percent of them buy the book then it will have been well worthwhile, since if I am succesful, the stall will only cost me £90. Half of it has be paid as a deposit, with the remainder due one month before the conference, on September 28th. I await their response then with baited breath. Getting the books up there on the tube may be a bit challenging, but I am sure I will manage.

I have finally done it .....

The final draft has been delivered, and this time it really is the final draft. All remains is to get the ISBN, do the spine for the book, and convert it to PDF ready for uploading to the printers network. I will receive a sample copy to check through, probably towards the middle of next week, and assuming all is well, and no corrections are needed (which I don't think there will be), then it can go to print and people will at last be a able to read and buy my masterpiece.

It looks then as if I will be taking copies to Lundy with me. I may even contact the Shore Office to see if I can organise a book signing on the boat - that would be interesting and may even find its way into the Bideford Gazette, not to mention the island newsletter!

I didn't realise that as part of the deal I get an Advance Information sheet prepared for me, so I won't even have to worry about that. Once I have that I can upload it to my own website and blog, plus a few other sites that I post on, and send it out to interested parties with a few review copies. There are a few copies I need to send to friends who have helped me along the way, but I will try to keep these as low as possible, since although their help does need acknowledging and they will also sell copies to people they know, free copies will eat into my own profits. I have to pay for them, and sell them myself before I make a profit ...

I wonder what the day will bring?

I awoke this morning with a very stiff neck, no doubt from too much sitting in front of this computer, reading reams and reams of stuff. It has to be done, although like I said, there is no time limit. It will be in my interests to get my part of the final proof read done quickly, as once it is done the book can go to print. The sooner it goes to print, the sooner I can start to sell it and recoup the cost of publication, not to mention the money I have spent in writing it.

Coran has an interview this morning for a job that sounds very promising. It is actually a second interview, the first one being just over a week ago. Today he has to do a Delphi test so that they can see the way he works, and also meet the company boss. If all goes well, he may get the job. Unfortunately, as tends to be the case, he has not been feeling himself these past few days, with the IBS flaring up. This has been acerbated by some healing that he had from our astrologer friend Sarah Jane Grace, in exchange for doing her website. She is a very powerful healer who channels the energy of the planets, and it has really knocked him for six. He knows that he has to do this, as a lot of it is resistance on his part, so is bravely trying to go and do what he needs to do.

For my part, I am waiting for the college to ring and arrange an exam observation for some time next week, so that I can see what the job entails in more detail. The exams do not start until after half term, at which point, as the book will very shortly be out as well, I will probably need to sign off. My benefit has almost run out anyway, so there will be no point in me continuing in the system jumping through hoops in order to please them, simply for National Insurance credits. I would sooner pay voluntary self employed contributons and maintain my freedom.

At the moment it is pouring with rain, so once Coran has gone, I will go and sort out all the rubbish in our shed and take it to the dump. Once that has been done, I may decide to go back to the Church (I was there last night doing the Wednesday service), and give it a good clean. Normally Tony one of the trustees (a man cleaning!) does this, but he has gone to Thailand for a month with his new girlfriend, so the trustees have asked Coran and I to do it for a month during his absence. By the time I finish there it will probably be lunchtime, so I will go home to get some lunch and watch some dreadful daytime television. Then back to the proof reading. I am already up to chapter nine, so have made good progress. If all goes well, it may be finished by the end of the Bank Holiday and I may be holding my book within 2 weeks.

The proof reader has finished

I meant to post this a few days ago, but have hardly had time to do anything at all!

The proof reader finally finished last weekend, so this meant I was busy answering reams of questions. It's a good job Richard, my Editor and owner of Authors OnLine Ltd appointed someone with a scientific background, as there were several important places where omitting words by mistake had completely changed the meaning, and only someone with this background would have realised this. He certainly proved his worth. I have not received all the amendments. These were done on screen, rather than paper copies, which I find much easier to look at. It must be a nightmare being a bonafide proof reader with all those bits of paper to keep looking at, since most of them work on paper rather than on screen. Still, the name of my publisher is Authors OnLine ...

As it is it means that I will have to have 2 documents open as I go through the amendments. Technically I don't have to, as with Word Tracker you can display different versions of the same document, flitting between them if you want. I decided that to help me read it and understand the changes that have been made (most of them are simple things, like commas etc in the wrong place, and words that should or should not be hyphenated) I will input them into my original document. Once I have done that, only then will I read the whole thing through.

Unlike with a mainstream publisher, there is no time limit for completing this. I do not intend to rush through it, but it would be good to get it finished by the end of next week, which is half term. Once the schools are back, I will be busy invigilating GCSE and A'level exams, amongst other things, so may not have as much time. I will have to think very carefully when the college ring to arrange my timetable. I need the money, but I will also need some time.

I am also celebrating the fact that I am now spending three weeks on Lundy rather than two. I noticed that the cottage was free for the week after I was due to come home a few days ago, and was not sure what to do, since I did not want this to adversely affect my promotional plans for the book. I asked my pendulum, which said, yes, you should go and you may not get another chance to go away this year. I still wasn't sure, so asked my friend Wendy to check for me. She got the same results, so I have booked it.

Having spoken to Richard, he informs me that it is up to me when I want the book to come out. All that needs to be done is for me to approve the changes made by the proof reader, he will then send the final page count to his son James, who will do the spine, and once that is done it is ready for printing! The book could be available within the month, and almost certainly by the time I go to Lundy!

It may seem like madness to be away for three weeks so soon after publication, but I will be at the end of a mobile phone should Coran or Richard need urgent queries sorted out. I feel at this stage that that third week became available for a reason - because I needed a long break in order to prepare for the mad rush that will follow! It doesn't leave me with much time to organise anything, but hey, who cares, I was not planning to have a huge book launch anyway, just a little party at the Church with a few friends.

I have already sold 100 plus copies to various people that I know through the Church and various websites, so the book will break even with a bit of luck within its first few months. All that remains is to try and get it into some shops, get some reviews in magazines etc, and get out there and sell it!

I am trying not to get nervous as this is such a big step, but one that I know I have to take. It is natural to feel like this, and I am sure all writers go through it, no matter how many books they write. I hope this will be the first of many - but who knows?

Have I bitten off more than I chew?

I have had three interviews for jobs this week, all of which turned out to be a complete waste of time, where the job description bore absolutely no resemblance to the actual job. All three were advertised as looking for someone with basic IT skills. This to my mind means the ability to know and understand the basic parts of a computer, with a bit of word processing. When it came to the interviews though, they all wanted Access and Excel, neither of which to my mind are basic. I knew pretty much as soon as I went into the room that this job would not be right for me, from the expression on the woman's face who was interviewing me. She seemed to turn her nose up at everything I said, and had I got the impression that she already made her mind up from the moment I sat down.

Still, what the heck, who wants to work with a load of toffee nosed know-it-alls anyway? They will be laughing the other side of their faces when my book sells its first 500 copies and makes me far richer and more fulfilled than they could ever hope to be.

When I got back from the park later on, Coran told me there was a message from the woman who interviewed for another job yesterday. I have left a message for her to ring me back, although it will probably have to wait until Monday now. I am wondering what it is about, since she phoned yesterday to say I didn't have the job, due to a lack of experience of dealing with foreign students (it was in the Basic Skills Unit of a local Adult Education Centre). Have they changed their mind and decided to offer it to me after all? I guess I will have to wait until Monday to find out.

Things have definately started to shift since I finished the book and delivered the final draft. I have had more offers of interviews these past 2 weeks than I have had during the entire previous 6 months - three of which were with the Council, whom I have been applying to for months. It is almost as if the universe were waiting for me to get the book finished before I was ready to go back to work.

The book though is progressing well, the proof reader has started work, and has already contacted me with a few queries. Yesterday I also received the preliminary cover design. There are a few changes that I have requested, before the final artwork is prepared. After that the scary stuff really begins - marketing it to different people, including book shops. Once I have the ISBN I will have to prepare my AI (Advance Information) sheet which will be sent to various people (Cygnus book club, Nexus, Kindred Spirit etc). Then I will have to open a business bank account and get stationary printed and all ready. Once I have a publication date, I can book the Church for a launch party, and send out invitations. I must check with the Inland Revenue whether I can claim for the cost of the drinks etc ...

It is finally beginning to hit me now I have seen some sketches of the cover, what this all means, and the way it is going to change my life. Namely forcing myself, in fact having to put myself out there, in public, selling this book. This will be different to anything I have sold at work, as this time it is my own product, and one that I have much more of a vested interest in. Since I have spent five years writing and nurturing this baby, and there is so much of me in there, it is in effect also selling me, something that I have never felt particularly confident about.

Yet at the same time I know instinctively that my whole life has been building towards this moment, when I get to see my own book in print, and hold a copy in my hands. I was told as a child that I would someday write a book, but I never beleived it, and forgot all about it until it actually happened. I wonder sometimes if I can really handle all of this, and have I bitten off more than I can chew, should I just emigrate to Lundy and lead a happy life serving food in the Tavern and cleaning cottages? I know that this would not be the answer either, as in time I would feel just as unfulfilled as I did at my old job. No, I have to write, and I have to do this, my soul has been crying out to me to get this done, and I cannot stop even if I wanted to.

I have to keep reminding myself that it is not the soul that is frightened, but rather the ego, and the personality self. This is not though who I am. The soul knows who I am and knows what I, what it needs to do. I do not intend to let it down, as otherwise I might have to come back and do it all over again!