At present, there are two digital copies floating around in the hands of early readers, and one paper copy (pictured) in the hands of my wife. She promises to not divorce me, despite the flat, listless prose, the horrifying lack of proper punctuation, and the abrupt ending. I've devoted a couple of hours (!) just reworking the introduction, which I find sluggish and dull. Not looking good for the other hundred-some pages.
All the same: I feel a surprising lightness in my chest just seeing my name on the hurriedly-composed cover. ("Crap! I need a subtitle? Um... OK.") It could be angina, but I have a sneaking feeling that it's pride. I'm not too proud to break out the clippers and duct-tape, though. No excuses for not seeing this through.
5 comments:
Nice, Mike.
So, where did you get the proof copy printed, if you don't mind me asking?
I've been reading a lot about EBMs and it seems like if you have a machine close, all it takes if a properly formatted PDF and $5 to get a library quality paperback in a few minutes.
I just started re-reading my 2009 NaNo efforts and have a lot of work ahead of me. Since I didn't have a plan going in and just did a bunch of free writing, I'm realizing that I'm going to need to put together a plan and do a lot of rewrites...
Looks like I'm about 6 months or so behind where you are at, so I'll be watching you closely for tips!
I used the free CreateSpace code offered to NaNo '09 winners to have this printed up. The process was pretty easy, though it took me a while to figure out how to get a title page in the book and still keep the page numbering correct -- user issues, nothing to do with the printers.
The cover was one of their stock designs and photos, with my text shoved in there. Total cost for the size I picked (8.5" x 5.5") and shipping was around $8. Very reasonable, I thought, for something portable. As I slapped it together at the last possible moment, the end product is surprisingly polished.
I'm already regretting not having it printed double- or triple-spaced, though. This is less a proof copy than a printed first-draft, and as such has a lot of edits in its future. It would have made sense to print with that in mind.
Looks like there's an EBM in San Francisco, although if I were to print again, I'd probably just pop over to the copy center with a PDF and get a simple bound copy done for editing. And maybe next year I won't lag so much in getting my draft re-typed, or I'll have this one printed again after rewrites.
I think that, if you haven't heard back yet from any of your early readers, it's probably more to do with some unforseen time-management-killing issues w/r/t those early readers, and nothing to do with the quality of your draft.
Not sure why I felt the need to say this, but I did.
But so here's my point - free bound books are schweeet.
Thanks for the info, Mike.
Yeah, I am still heeding Stephen King's advice and not letting anyone read my first draft.
I'm considering retyping it on a typewriter, but I think it would make a whole lot more sense, after I mark up my first draft, to type that into either my A3K or computer.
@Duffy, one of the technology-enabled proto-readers had his reading device taken away (his iPod) because he was messing with it late into the evening, distressing other household members (his mother.) I am sure the other reader has a similarly good excuse.
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