Monday Musings: The frustrations of formatting a book in Microsoft Word

I've been pulling my hair out trying to remember how to format my new book for publishing. The hardest part is putting the headers and page numbers on the right pages in Microsoft Word. None of the tutorials I found were helpful because my problem seemed to be unique. Most of them showed instructions on how to add headers and page numbers. I know how to add them. That's easy. I don't know how to add them to the right pages, how to skip the front matter and first page of a chapter. LOL

I think this tutorial was the most helpful because it focused on the importance of using section breaks correctly to get your headers and page numbers on the right pages.

This is how I spent the last few days and why I forgot all about a new post for today. Hopefully the above tutorial link might help another writer and keep them from being frustrated.

I guess what this taught me is that self-publishing is not easy. Unless you want to pay someone to do all the formatting, you have to learn how to do it yourself. If I did it more often, I'd remember how I did it before, but I don't, so every time I am ready to publish a new book I have to try and re-learn how to correctly add the headers and page numbers. Maybe I could take better notes for the future. LOL

Kelley Heckart

Otherworldly tales steeped in myth, magic & romance.

http://www.kelleyheckart.com

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Monday Musings: Don’t rush to self-publish your book

I’ve been doing some spring cleaning, well, more like a 15-year cleaning, and found my collection of rejection letters from 2000-2004. I forgot I saved them. Curious, I read a couple. Of course, at the time I received the rejections I thought they (magazine editors) didn’t possibly know what they were talking about—there was nothing wrong with my stories. Uh huh. Now I understand why they were rejected—they weren’t very good. Sure, the grammar was good, but there is much more to writing a story than good grammar. So much more. Plus, I was missing something even more important—a professional edit.

This made me think about all the changes that have been made in the book publishing world, how easy it is to slap together a story and self-publish. On one hand, it is a great opportunity for writers. On the other hand, it might cause newbie writers to rush to publish before they have perfected their craft.

If I could give one bit of advice to new writers it would be: don’t rush to get that first book published. Take the time to learn the craft of writing and take the editing process seriously—hire a good editor. If I had done that with my old stories, they just might have been accepted. Or maybe not.

Think twice before publishing that first book. That one is for practice. Write the next one. And work with a good editor. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my first stories were practice for better things to come.

Think of it this way—does an artist sell that first painting? It’s probably not going to be as good as the next one. Or the one after that. Honing your craft, whether it’s creating a painting or a story, takes time. Having a good grasp of grammar isn’t enough. It took years for me to understand all aspects of writing a novel. The important thing is to not give up.

 

Kelley Heckart, Historical fantasy romance author

Captivating...Sensual...Otherworldly

http://www.kelleyheckart.com

http://kelleysrealm.blogspot.com/

http://twitter.com/CelticChick

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kelley-Heckart/111838455604

Monday Musings: The journey to self-publishing

After going the traditional route and having a publisher do all the work of publishing my books, I decided this time around I was going to try self-publishing. Well, it hasn’t been easy and I have a newfound appreciation for my publisher, but I feel more pride in the work I’ve turned out because I had to do everything myself—hiring an editor, a graphic artist to do the book cover and formatting the interior of the book.
I didn’t have much of a problem hiring my own editor and in a way I think this is better than being paired with someone unknown to me, but I’ve had both good and bad experiences with the publisher-assigned editors. This time though I picked a tough editor. She challenged me and I liked that. It made me take a closer look at my story and work to improve it.
The cover design was a challenge for me because I know nothing about designing a cover. Why should I? My publishers always took care of that part of the publishing process. The first covers I planned on using were made by a friend for free, but after I showed them to another friend, who is also an author and graphic artist, I nixed them. And my friend was right—the covers weren’t that good. Now, I am probably one of few who don’t think a cover should make a book. It’s the inside, the story that should make a book. But readers don’t think that way. To them a good book has a good cover and a good story. And they are right, of course. I got lucky and found an awesome cover designer on Fiverr. He opened my eyes to what a great cover looks like.
Finally, I had to tackle the interior formatting of my book. I know a little bit about formatting so I figured it couldn’t be that hard. Wrong again. At first I was going to have a friend format my interior, but then I decided I wanted to learn to do it myself. I picked up some helpful tips and went to work. And it drove me nuts, but I managed to fumble my way through it and I’m satisfied with the results.
Will I self-publish again? Sure, I plan on self-publishing the other 2 books in my Arcadia series. After that, I’m not sure. It depends on how well these books sell and if it’s really worth my time and money to do it myself. I still believe in using a publisher. They really do a lot for us authors. I just wanted to see how well I could do it myself, see if my sales increased or not. I do like the flexibility of setting my own prices and designing the book the way I want it.
If anyone out there is planning on self-publishing, do it right. Hire an editor. I can’t stress this enough. This is probably the most important step in the entire process. Writers cannot see their mistakes. Believe me. I know what I’m talking about. My editor really improved my story and found things I should have seen but didn’t. So, don’t skip this step.
This has definitely been a learning experience for me and opened my eyes to new opportunities.

Kelley Heckart, Historical fantasy romance author
Captivating...Sensual...Otherworldly
http://www.kelleyheckart.com
http://kelleysrealm.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/CelticChick
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kelley-Heckart/111838455604

Forbidden love… Broken vows… Betrayal…