I'm terribly sorry to all of those who desperately desire my take on such things as random philosophical topics, but I don't really have one to discuss this week. I've tried to think of one...really, I have! But all of my ideas have seemingly oozed out of my brain through my ears. Or maybe the day-long retreat in St. Louis I attended on Sunday has left me contemplative, without actually having something I wish to muse here. So, I'm sending out a desperate plea - please please please please post different topic ideas in the comments! Otherwise you may end up with a technical explanation like this one that you really didn't want...
Book publishing! I gave a speech on the process thereof recently, and I'd like to share how I publish my books with you. It's not something that's very common knowledge, so I shall regale you all with my stories of publication. ;)
First, I need subject matter. I addressed this in a previous post, particularly character creation, so I'm not going to go into that today. If you would like to read what I had on it, you can find it here. Then I have to edit it. This is typically a painful process during which I choose a random friend, beg them to read my story, and sit back and cringe until they give me their initial response. They really get into nitty-gritty of what's excessive, what needs to be more in-depth, what needs expanded, and what needs to be cut away. It's a painful process...painful but necessary, comparative to childbirth from what I've been told. (No, I don't know it from personal experience!) Anyway, once I think I have it edited enough (which takes quite a while - I'm picky even if I hate the process), I start working on formatting my pages. If I was going to use a traditional publishing house, I'd have to pitch the story at agents, hire one, then let that person start pitching it at different publishing houses. Granted, they'd take care of everything, but I do not have the money to try to hire an agent. So I plead insanity and do it on my own.
I publish my books through a company called lulu. This is a company that will put the book together for me, I just have to have all of the elements to put together. So I format my pages to the book size I want to use. I typically go for a 6"x9" or what they call the A5 size (5.833" x 8.264"). Sometimes I'll do a pocket book (4.25" x 6.875"). But I have to format the pages within my word processing program so that the words don't become so small that you cannot read them. Then I upload the documents to lulu, have it create the combined PDF files that it needs for the book, and start working on the cover. I have lotsa options available - I can upload my own covers, or I can choose to use some of the images and fonts that are automatically made available on lulu. After that, lulu assigns an ISBN number to my book, I click the little button that says "Publish", and the book is available for anyone to read!
You can find my available titles at stores.lulu.com/yavetil. I've been working on more that should hopefully be available soon.
And this is the life of a college student-turned-author...people wonder why I lost my mind...
-enna
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