You know, I hear writers complain about their editors quite often on T.V. and other media. I’ve even heard a few of the ones I’ve known for years complain about editors, but man… They are a blessing. No matter how good you are, or think you are you can always benefit from a second set of eyes on your work, especially if it’s someone who knows and loves the genre you are writing in. Having published my first book on a shoestring budget (essentially nothing…) and not partaking of traditional publishing I originally published my first book on Lulu.com without getting it edited. Sure I edited the crap out of it myself (and caught a few glaring continuity errors while I was at it, like how 200 men suddenly became 2000 in a different chapter.)

So not being able to afford an editor I was a bit taken aback when a friend I haven’t seen in years piped up on my Facebook that she has done some editing and would be happy to do it for free. “AWESOME!” says I. And it was fitting because if it wasn’t for her I would have failed the stupid spelling tests in my college communications course. Christine (Chris) Chapman and I went to NSCC in and around the same time and the same class. We became fast friends and she helped me spell my way to a diploma. Now she’s helped me by editing the 106,000 words that have become “The Knights of the Martyr.”

All she asked in return was a signed copy of the book. That’s a price even I can afford! Sadly when I graduated from College Chris and I went our separate ways. But from the looks of her Facebook feed she’s led an interesting life full of things like Chickens and Medieval outfits. So that’s pretty cool.

Anyway, be grateful for anyone who wants to help you while at the same time wants to maintain the integrity of your work.

A friend of mine posted a picture on her facebook with my book. That’s so cool! It makes me feel important! But now the big test, when she finishes reading it will she still admit she knows me? The other thing is I actually sold some books this week. I’ve made a profit if you can believe it. I have a good friend (Christine) who is currently editing it for me so I can create good copies and finalize the versions for Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, Apple Ibooks, Kobo and Everything else. Kind of cool you know.

Here is Krystals Pic… She’s super cool.

Yup… I wrote a book, but alas… I am lazy… and cheap. So that’s a catch 22. I tried for a bit trying to get an agent interested in taking me on, but none of them really seemed interested in me. Then I decided to try and maneuver through the arcane steps involved with submitting manuscripts to publishers… but that’s hard. Every one of them has a different set of rules for submitting. So being lazy I decided to self publish through Lulu.com. It was a pretty simple process, change your document to the right size, submit, design a simple cover and hit the publish button.

Then… The what do I do next thing… Well, being cheap (and necessarily so, I’m currently unemployed and my wife is a student…) I couldn’t afford to buy any of the premium services available at Lulu. So I have a cover that looks like a ten year old did it and I edited the book myself. Now I’ve come to the realization that people are actually buying this and it’s not that great. I don’t like to disappoint people so now I’m going to have to get the book edited (a friend has volunteered) and redesign the cover as well as go through all the steps to make sure the ebook will get published on Amazon. Fun stuff…

The sad part is, I don’t care if it sells, but I do. I don’t know how to describe what I’m feeling but I’m pretty sure the Germans have a word for it. Not expecting much, but also hoping for some kind of affirmation from a complete stranger. Kind of a way of saying your hundreds of hours of work weren’t for nothing.

But truthfully, when you get right down to it, I just wanted to tell a story, and I did, and if anyone wants to take part in it they can…

So I’ve come to the realization that if I actually want to sell any books then I’ll have to learn a little about self marketing… more work. Gahhh… Harvey was right.

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