TOVAH REED FROM NZ

Nothing goal orientated occurred today. Just another day waiting around for the editing to be finished.

So I figured that I might mention a few things about me.

I’ve always been into writing. I used to enjoy writing poetry at school and I won a cup for a descriptive story I made up. I was bullied so much by a variety of people from my school, that even the kids that were in charge of the Yearbook refused to publish my story and instead printed the second place story, instead of mine.

I remember the first time I ever shared my work was at a poetry workshop at the H.B Williams War Memorial Library in Gisborne.  I had written a poem based on how a woman feels after being abused. At this time in my life I wasn’t too familiar with it, but a friend of mine had experienced it (her court case was circulating throughout the media at the time) so I wrote the poem with her as a strong influence… as I had admired her strength in standing up to her abuser.

The first time I thought about Arnaeyn and the first book, I actually had a dream about it. It was a sand fight where he uses sand and electricity to defeat his enemy. He saves his love from dying and there’s a beautiful moment between them where he declares his love mid battle. This was a movie version; some goal I have that may possibly be out of reach… When I woke up, I couldn’t stop thinking about this story. From then on, I knew I had to write a trilogy about Arnaeyn and Sodisium. This was back in 2007. It’s interesting that it took me ten years to build the story, develop characters and then grow enough courage to make this dream a reality. Several years I left the page empty, but the thought stayed there. I wrote small paragraphs and ideas down during slow periods in my life or when on holiday. It only started to become a full story when I was unemployed and needed something to kill the time, while I patiently waited for teaching jobs to arise.

During that moment, I wrote all my ideas down on paper then I walked to the library, which took me roughly an hour to walk to each day, and I typed it out on one of their computers. You had a two hour time limit per day, so I spent the time frantically applying for jobs and typing out my written ideas. It was a great summer, considering I had only $15 to live off and I was on the benefit. I used all the resources I had near me. I was determined to get a job and also was determined to finish my first novel. I felt quite accomplished when I finished my first draft.

I’ll share more another day.

 

 

 

Today I received my quote for printing 30 copies. It is an acceptable amount that can still provide me around $5-$10 in profits per book. I feel pretty good about that. Although it isn’t much, it is a definite start.

My goals are still the same, at present.

 

Today I contacted a publisher for advice.

• I requested a quote for a quality published book (roughly 30 for the first batch)

They told me the following useful information:

• All books don’t require flash publishing with embossed font or anything like that
• Buying multiple copies isn’t always the cheapest solution anymore
• Distribute some copies to different book retailers (private as well), Whitcoulls only accepts established authors (so this is a goal to reach), Paperplus is more lenient
• Russ  (my graphic designing friend) can sort out the internal formatting for the  E-book and the printed novel version(s)

So my next few steps are:

• Receive my edited book back and pay for that
• Get the book cover and format sorted for an E-book and printed novel
• Sort a fund me page, if the print costs are excessive

I’m looking forward to that moment of opening my box of printed books. It will be a very special moment for me.

 

Things are slowly developing. I’m making my social circle aware that I am publishing a trilogy.

The editor has sent me a quote and I will be sending the final document today, after touching up the final edits I have edited/proof read so far.

Some advice for anyone heading down the same pathway as me, I think it’s important to print out your story and proof read it, then go back and correct all the errors at least twice before sending it to an editor. You can pick up a lot more errors when you proof read by reading off of an actual document, rather than a computer screen. Highlight areas you should change and circle and correct the small errors, then when you’ve finished completely, then come back and change the highlighted areas. If you change them earlier then you would lose the flow of the story and you may end up sidetracking or being lost in adding material, rather than sticking to proof reading and editing properly.

I am glad to have a lot of support around me at the moment. Encouragement helps when going through this process. Same with recognition and positive feedback. It’s very easy to drop the idea of publishing, if someone gives you bad feedback. But writing is something I’ve always wanted to do for a profession, so I will keep going through all the processes, vulnerably.

I have no idea what my capabilities are, until I live this dream of mine completely.

Today is the first day of many where I am on the mission to become an author.

Things I need to do:

• Start up Blog, Website, Facebook page for advertising purposes
• Send my book(s) into an editor
• Find and pay for a book cover designer
• Find a lawyer for copyright and other info
• Print copies to distribute

More things to add to the checklist will follow soon. At the moment, everything is overwhelming and I’m uncertain where to go so far. All that is in my mind is finding an editor and getting a cover sorted.