Adventures in Self Publishing...

A few months ago, Barnes and Noble shut down their PubIt! service and started Nook Press. The only real difference that I could see at the time was that they had added a manuscript editor to the website, so you could write your novel on the Nook Press website at any time from anywhere as long as you had an internet connection - kinda like Google docs.

I have Sigil at home, and I like it and enjoy using it, but I do a lot of writing at work when I'm on break or lunch. Since my company wouldn't approve of me installing unauthorized software on their laptop (which is totally understandable), I didn't want to drag my own personal laptop to work (lugging around one laptop is enough, thank you!), and I didn't want to wait until the weekend to work on it (who knows if the cats would actually let me work on it at home, though, since they're pretty big attention whores), I decided to give Nook Press's online manuscript editor a shot.

You know what? It's actually pretty easy, and pretty cool, to use!

When you create a new chapter, it automatically includes the chapter title at the beginning of the new chapter for you. It even has presets for the cover, title page, dedication, table of contents, etc that it automatically creates for you at a click of a button! The only downside is that at the moment it only has one font and font size aside from the headings for the title page and chapters, and that there's no way to download the manuscript to your computer while you're working on it... but other than that it's pretty cool and I love it.

Unfortunately the serial hasn't been published yet as I am still working on the cover art. The stock art I want to use for the cover art is goregeous and fits in with the simple cover art styles that are so popular with new adult novels right now. Unfortunately, buying it has been a bit of a pain as most of the stock art websites I can find the image on all charge credits for their images. The image I want is only 7 credits, which isn't that bad, really, but none of the websites sell just 7 credits. The lowest amount of credits they sell is 14, or 20, and I don't want 14 or 20 credits. I only want 7!

I'm reminded of this scene from Father of the Bride:

Thankfully my ROW 80 goals are going much better than the cover art:

• I'm 80% done with chapter 9 of TUO. Though I worry I may be giving away too much too soon in this chapter. So I may have to remove some of the dialogue in edits.
• I've chipped away at the other project some more
• And I went and started another story, because I totally needed another project...

My sewing is moving along as well. One of these days we'll have a bigger place, and I can have stuff pre-made and ready to ship out. Since we don't have the room, everything is made to order. I was able to get the bodice I sold on Etsy sewn and 80% done in two days. I probably could have gotten it completely done if it wasn't for the fact that my grommet press has wandered off somewhere.

It's not in it's usual spot, but we did do some cleaning right after faire season ended - so it may be hiding in the Harry Potter cupboard (yup, we have a closet under our stairs that's just large enough for someone to sleep in... if it wasn't stuffed full of camping gear and other junk) I've asked the husband to go looking for it since he's better about pulling stuff out of there and putting it back in than I am (it's an art).

And now on to the WIPpet Wednesday portion of the show!

WIPpet Wednesday is run by K. L. Schwengel. To participate just share a portion of your WIP that somehow relates to the date and then post a link to your blog in this linkie.

Since today is October 16th, I'm giving you 6 more paragraphs from Maya's prologue (10-16=6). She and her parents have reached the hotel they'll be staying at, and her father has taken her to visit the dig site while her mother unpacks.

Originally Jack Lensherr had wanted to stay at the dig site with his colleagues, but Maya’s mother had refused, insisting that she would not rough it and neither would her daughter. Jack had tried to explain that the amenities at the dig site were actually pretty nice, but Iris would not listen, demanding that he find a hotel somewhere until he eventually gave in.

Following her father through the middle of the dig site, Maya could see that her Mother had been right. While the tents were nice and kept the rain out, all the power in the camp was produced by a row of cranky old generates that smelled of grease and acrid smoke and had to be refilled every so often with fuel. There was no TV or showers, and the only bathrooms were rickety old out houses that smelled of human waste.

However the people at the dig site were nice enough, and almost all of them spoke English. They greeted her dad excitedly, talking about a stone carvings that they had found in the woods not too far from camp. The carvings were like the ones they had seen in ruins near Pompeii, they claimed, and based on what they could translate they spoke of a gateway not too far from camp.

Her father stopped in his tracks so suddenly that Maya almost ran into him. “A gateway.” He asked the blonde woman who had told him the news. “An actual gateway?”

She nodded, her brown eyes bright with excitement. “Yes. A ‘porta’. It doesn't mention where...”

As Maya watched he pulled the woman into a hug, swinging her around in a circle. "Who cares! It exists! They really exist!"

To see more ROW 80 updates, check out this link.
To see more WIPpet Wednesday updates, check out this other link.