Well, I finally did it! I’ve been writing on my arson book since 1989. I’m pleased as punch that I published Night Terror.
First, last week’s clichés:
At long last– Finally, after a long delay. Goes back to 16th century and put as “at the long last,” ‘last’ = noun, meaning duration. The most famous use – Eric Partridge in opening words of the abdication speech of King Edward VIII in 1935, when he gave up the British throne to marry a divorced woman.
Next to nothing– A very small amount, hardly more than nothing at all. “Next” = almost, a usage dating from the 17th century. Example: “She ate next to nothing” or “I earned next to nothing”
Up to speed– Attaining an adequate level of performance. Dates from the first half of the 1900s. It originally referred to automobile racing and meant achieving full speed at the beginning of a race or after a fueling stop. Of course over the years it extended to other activities.
So, how many did you find?
I’d like my book Night Terror to pan out. I hope that when people read it, it makes their hair stand on end. After all, my editor said it was a psychological thriller. This is very exciting and the process has been a learning experience.
I went through CreateSpace and used their formatting program for a 6×9 book. They have formats for all sizes. I used garamond 11 point and was informed that if you used all caps for a word, i.e. for modus operandi = MO, that you should make the font one size smaller. So I made them 10 point. After uploading the book to CreateSpace, they give you an on-line proof, and they also let you order a proof of your book. I highly recommend both. Not only is it exciting to see your book in print, but you can catch a lot of mistakes much easier on the printed book version. You can see that all of your paragraphs begin with the same word much easier. Or perhaps the indent is incorrect and you can catch that much easier on the printed out version. I used both.
Then I copied and pasted the CreateSpace formated version over to a word document and looked at Amazon Kindle formated guidelines for an ebook and began that process. However, I discovered that when you copied and pasted it – chapter by chapter. [Do not use select all and copy and paste. For some reason this messes everything up.] – the font size changed for all of my Caps in 10 point. the 11 point stayed the same, but all those caps became 12 point. I have no idea why this happened, but you need to be aware that it might. I had to go through my entire manuscript again and change all of the 12 points back to 10 points before I published it as an ebook. When I did publish it, they, too, give you a proof to read and I recommend that you go page by page and proof.
So Night Terror by J. A. Winrich is on Amazon Kindle in paperback: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Night%20Terror%20by%20J.%20A.%20Winrich
and it is available for a Kindle version: http://www.amazon.com/Night-Terror-ebook/dp/B00E3FOV1W/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1374758158&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=Night+Terror+by+J.+A.+Winrich
I hope all you writers out there publish your book. I can’t thank all of the people who helped me get this far enough.
Keep Writing,
Julie
