The 'Writing' Week

It's been one of those draining weeks that come along now and again in my own little corner of the writing world. Its been a research week, as I need to get ready PDF files for submission to the book printer. It was an easy enough chore, or at least I thought it was until I did it. I found the original .wps file I had written Booker's World in did not convert to a PDF verbatim to the .wps. A little digging made me aware of certain formatting I needed to adhere to when using my software which I didn't know about. It just means more work, but it should all be ready hopefully toward the end of next week.

The next thing after that was to find what I needed for e-book preparation. There's just so much choice out there and again different formats to adhere to for conversions. E-Books are hard to ignore in this day and age especially now that they are outselling hardback books. So a lot of work to be addressed there.

All this takes one away from what they like doing best and that is writing, but that is the downside of deciding to self-publish sooner than wait on an offer of publication. I'm eager to write, but impatient when it comes to publishing. When routes are there now for an independent writer to explore, it's hard to ignore them in order to keep writing for the dust drawer, in the hope that somewhere down the line someone might say they'll take a shot on you.
I can never picture a day when book form is overtaken by digital streams and being a traditionalist at heart, that would also be my wish. I'd happily churn out a couple of books a year if it meant i could afford to designate myself officially as a full-time writer. I love the process from idea to 'The End' and having given almost a year of my life to turning over the best I could find inside me at this stage of my writing life, I know I haven't cheated on effort, based on my own ability. Others can and no doubt will comment on that ability in the years to come, but that's a part of the writing life too. Criticism used to be a very hard thing to accept, but it can be an extremely useful thing if one can detach from what they feel about their work, and look at it critically too. I think if a writer can be honest to themselves they can draw from themselves the best of their capabilities.

I'll blog more about what's happening as time rolls on, and give my views on ebooks as I enter into that world. Marketing is something I feel I can be creative with and marrying my work with some important cause is also close to my heart. I do feel lucky, despite the economic woes that I had writing to fall back on to try and find a way through the days of unemployment.
I blogged last week that I had to deal with officialdom this week and all my reservations regarding any sort of adequate system in this country are proving to correct. I may still be stood corrected, but for now it's a 'well done, but you're on your own.'

A bit like the way Don Booker was this time last year and look where he is now...but that's another story.