Vanity Killed has been uploaded and I’m waiting for the “proof” book to arrive shortly.
First, let’s do the Last Clichés:
Have the Upper Hand—To be in a controlling position or dominating. This has been around since the 15th Century. It’s derived from an ancient gambling game where each player in turn puts one hand on a stick, beginning at the bottom, and the last one able to put his hand at the top wins. See Miles Coverdale’s translation of Psalm 9:19.
Throw a Monkey Wrench in the Works—To sabotage a plan or operation. In Britain, the monkey wrench, called an “adjustable spanner” reminded someone of a monkey’s jaws, which loosely resemble the sliding jaws of this very useful tool. This name was acquired about the middle of the 19th Century. Not until the early 20th Century that it became associated with sabotage. This idea first appeared in print in 1920 in Philander Johnson’s story, Shooting Stars. This phrase caught on in America and was adopted in Britain as well, but it was in the form of throw a spanner in the works.
Second Nature—A deeply ingrained habit that makes one behave as if by instinct. This is very old – used by Plutarch, Montaigne, and other early writers. Modern version dates from early 1900s. See The Confidential Clerk, T. S. Eliot (1954).
Don’t Lose your Cool (Cool It)—To calm down. This is a slangy Americanism and emerged about 1950. It caught on rapidly. Came from the usage of “cool” to mean calm and unflustered. See E. Gilbert, Hot and Cool, 1953. Related expressions: keep one’s cool=remain calm, antonym= to lose/blow one’s cool= losing one’s composure.
How many did you find?
I went to a J.A. Jance reading and she said that the Indians always said you should have at least one mistake in what you do, because only the Creator is perfect. I thought that was very interesting.
So, did you catch the mistake in my last post? “Because wants you upload it…” try: once.
And those are the kinds of mistakes the will make or break you in publishing. When you finally get your cover and manuscript uploaded into CreateSpace, you order a proof of your finished book. You can get a pdf, digital and print on demand copy. I did all three. The POD costs less than $10.00 (depending on the size of your book) to have one shipped to you. Then you read the book from cover to cover and look for mistakes. All kinds of mistakes, because you don’t want to be in the same boat as those who don’t look for mistakes, because they think they are perfect.
Hopefully you’ve gotten wind of my blog that tells you how to and where to go to learn to create your manuscript and book for self-publishing. I had to read my blog from 2013 to remind me what to do to publish. CreateSpace has detailed, step by step instructions for you. They will give you the inside track on how to succeed.
Follow their instructions and no matter how many times you have to, re-edit, re-edit and re-read and re-read your book to avoid mistakes that will make your book amateurish, do it.
Keep Writing and Reading,
Julie
