Bird’s-Eye View: Rough Draft to Final Draft

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Fate’s Haven

This is similar to my previous post in that the image shows the progression from one draft to another. I was able to use some of Word’s comparison and tracking features to recreate every change made during the course of my first book, Fate’s Haven. The difference here is this is every change from first draft to final draft. For an enlarged version of the image, click here.

To recap the history behind the idea…

A user on kboards.com and I were discussing rough drafts and I made the comment that I once zoomed out my first manuscript to get a look at how much red covered it after tracking changes using Word before accepting the changes for the next draft.

The conversation basically began because a lot of people don’t know just how much effort goes into writing something the length of a novel.

So in case anyone ever wondered what one looked like or how much markup was actually on a draft, this is one of mine. I may see if I can get Word to compare two versions from Fate’s Haven and track those changes automatically. I’d love to share that image. Being my first book, it was a learning experience and as such was littered (I mean seriously littered) with red where corrections were made.

As you can see from the image, it was given a serious face lift before hitting the publish button.

Filed under: Fate's Haven, Writing Tagged: Amazon; Creative Writing; Ebook;, Editing; Kindle; Kobo, Nook; Self-Publishing;, Writing; Fate's Haven

A Bird’s Eye View of a Rough Draft

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Rough Draft – The Enemy Within (Click to enlarge)

A user on kboards.com and I were discussing rough drafts and I made the comment that I once zoomed out my first manuscript to get a look at how much red covered it after tracking changes using Word before accepting the changes for the next draft.

The conversation basically began because a lot of people don’t know just how much effort goes into writing something the length of a novel. The attached screenshot isn’t from my first novel. I didn’t keep a copy. This is actually from The Enemy Within, my second novel. This draft was about 97k words in length, only 1k words or so shorter than the final draft (not including headers, footers, title pages, etc.).

So in case anyone ever wondered what one looked like or how much markup was actually on a draft, this is one of mine. I may see if I can get Word to compare two versions from Fate’s Haven and track those changes automatically. I’d love to share that image. Being my first book, it was a learning experience and as such was littered (I mean seriously littered) with red where corrections were made.

Enjoy.

Filed under: The Enemy Within (Fate's Haven 2), Writing Tagged: Amazon, Creative writing, eBook, Editing, Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Self-Publishing, The Enemy Within, Writing

Paradox now free on Kindle

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Amazon finally lowered Paradox to free, matching their competitors listings. Get your copy for Kindle here!

Filed under: Marketing, Paradox, Writing

All books now available on Google Play Books and Kobo

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I just received word that all my books are now listed on Google Play Books. If you prefer Google’s reader to the competitors, now they’re available. This is something I should have done sooner.

• Fate’s Haven


• The Enemy Within (Fate’s Haven, #2)


• Tales From the Abyss: Paradox (A Fate’s Haven Novelette)

On the iTunes and Amazon fronts, I’m still in a holding pattern. Kobo is experiencing some kind of serious technical problem. I’ve heard rumors of books waiting months before users give up, though Kobo has assured me it’s just a small delay. iTunes is a bit more convoluted so I’m using an intermediary vendor to help push it through. I wish I had a time-frame to put out there. Amazon is still fighting me on price-matching Paradox to its competitors prices. I’ve assured them once its available it will be free on all competitor websites but they’re still groaning about dropping the price to zero. I don’t understand why. It’s just a process of dragging them kicking and screaming. And well… Amazon is kicking and screaming. Rest assured, I am hitting them with price match requests every day.

Filed under: Fate's Haven, Marketing, Paradox, The Enemy Within (Fate's Haven 2), Writing

Amazon dragging its feet. Want to help speed up their price match?

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I released Paradox three days ago and so far its seen some decent web traffic on the one free site it’s available, Smashwords. I have some direct links for download here as well, but I have no way to track activity. Since traffic to this site has been lower than usual the past dew days I’m assuming the number if downloads is darn near zero.

My assumption was Amazon would price match to Smashwords within a day or two but since they’re dragging their feet, here’s my request: visit Paradox’s Amazon page, scroll just past the reviews section, and report the lower price listed at Smashwords. Maybe a few dozen reports will get them to act a bit faster. Amazon is my primary market and right now my downloads for Paradox are zero (which isn’t surprising since it isn’t the expected price of $0.00).

Filed under: Marketing, Paradox, Writing

Paradox: Cover Art, Full Title, and Other Updates

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Putting together cover art is always a point of stress for me. This one was one I fought with for a bit. I always think they can look better but when I try to add to the images I often find less is more. So here’s it is, the final cover!

As you can see, the full title will be Tales From the Abyss: Paradox, subtitled A Fate’s Haven Novelette. I always intended to title it this way. It was just a matter of whether or not to include the word ‘The’ in the title. I subtitled it to ensure the connection to the rest of the series was clearly stated even though both this story and my book series can be understood without having read its counterpart. That said, I think this helps round out my series a bit even though they are so vastly different.

I also finished my content edit and did another read-thru for mistakes and polished the front and back matter. I’m hoping to hit the Publish button later this evening or tomorrow.

I’ll make an announcement as soon as the project is available and will do another update once Amazon KDP price matches to the venues where the story is available. As I’ve stated before (many times), it will take some time for widespread availability and price matching. Once it goes live, keep checking in!

Filed under: Marketing, Paradox, Writing Tagged: Amazon, E-book, eBook, Fate's Haven, Fiction, Free, Google Play, iTunes, Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Paradox, Permafree, Self-Publishing, Short Stories, Smashwords, The Enemy Within, Writing