Why nobody told me self-publishing is going to be THIS hard!!
I mean I am still in editing phase and I am literally losing my mind and vision both.
I didn’t want to launch a book size of a freaking thesaurus and everyone has short attention span these days so I wanted it to be a collection of 50 to 60 poems. Best would be 50.
After deleting in installments I am left with 67 poems right now. And I have to delete 7 more.
But the bigger challenge is to categorize them. I mean I wrote all of these poems on pure impulsive jolt like creativity attacks. Now editing them and trying to reach a balance in overall selection is the real challenge at the moment.
I still have long road ahead. And not that much of time.
I really hope whatever I am doing works. The whole process takes 5 days of research and then 1 day of implementation. I just don’t want to rush my first ever book. But it’s turning into a daunting task.
Let’s really hope I finalize and publish this collection without driving myself 100% insane.
That’s all folks.
Just wanted to vent.
..
Kindly visit my post Warriors Invited To Raise Mental Health Awarenesswhere I am inviting Mental Health Warriors to submit their blog’s address so that we can join hands to control this wildfire.
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It can be nerve wracking lol. I took almost a month editing Reflected Echo.
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1 month only?? It’s been monthssss already I’m sure. It is nerve wracking! 😞
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Well, that was one month after I finished draft #5 lol. I tend to edit as I go.
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Draft #5..ok now I can breathe. Lol. I edit as I go and then I keep editing..
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Me too. Draft 1 was 33k words, Draft 4 was 76k, Final was 55k lol
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Ahaha I started with 125 poems. Lol.
Literally trimmed it to half.
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Good luck! I’m seeking advice from a friend who has a series of books out…
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Thanks. Good luck to you too.
I am doing the same and lucky to have found a very helpful person for that. It can be scary to do it on your own without any guidance.
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Dear friend,
I nominate you for The Versatile Blogger Award
https://alltheshoesiwear.wordpress.com/2018/11/17/the-versatile-blogger-award/
You’re the Best!💕
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Aww. So are you!
Thanks for nomination will get to it once I crawl out of editing pit alive. 💕💕
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Best wishes, friend! As miserable as it may be, it’s experience you have to share and grist of the writing mill. Pull the beauty from the mud.
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try my best to do this one thing for myself. it’s more like a gift from me to me. and I don’t regret the effort its taking to pull the beauty out of mud 🙂
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Why not split it into two parts, 30 or 35 poems per book. Then you will have volume 2 ready and waiting when volume 1 has been published.?
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This idea was so brilliant that I woke up and started working on it. As I already categorized them it was easier to pick poems from every category and there I have 2 volumes. Chose the best ones for first.
This reduced the pressure to half!! Thank you soooooo much 🤗 xx
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💖 Glad to help
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💖🙂
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Good luck!
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Thank you 😊
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You are welcome! Looking forward to reading your poetry book!
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Thank you. Trying hard not to disappoint.. 🙂
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Glad you have a picture now I have a mental image of you, wooot
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Ahahah if I had picture in the beginning I wouldnt even have this many followers 😆
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Lmao
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😆
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That’s not true! One thing I’ve learned about the blogging community, they aren’t superficial. It’s about sharing thoughts ideas values, struggles and happiness. Cause they are real looking to enjoy:) You have no worries on that score! 🙂
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yea nobody unfollowed so they are not superficial at all.
I agree on every word u said. I haven’t seen a place like this in my entire life 🙂 I mean it
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Nor me either. It’s a true blessing! These are wonderful people, YOU included! Most definitely!
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🤗😊
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I know! When I was younger I dreamt about self publishing as something wonderful and cool… and when I was finally able to do it I was like “this is not what I thought it would be”
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Ahaha same here! I dreamt in will be publishing through HarperCollins or something but now I think that would have been bigger nightmare.
Never imagined it would be that complicated.
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suggestion: don’t edit the actual poems. I make two points on this: your poems are naturally good, organically brilliant. So don’t alter them. Leave them in their raw form.
Second point: you don’t need exactly 50 poems. 67 would be fine, and if you release this on the kindle, I would definitely buy it. 🙂
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I am trying hard to not alter a lot. Trying to keep the essense intact. But there are tons of works we repeat unintenaionaly so that is my main focus right now. Only pruning it. 🙂
I split the book in two (as suggested by a fellow blogger). And focusing on first volume at the moment which will most probably comprise of 35 to 36 poems. That made the process and my panic attacks relatively manageable.
That’s so kind of you. 🙂
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Yay for venting!
I’ve always struggled with that; editing the…as you perfectly put it “pure impulsive jolt like creativity attacks.” Its hard to strike that balance of intense “jolting” creativity with a balanced mind. You don’t want to lose the original feel when writing it but at the same time wondering if tweaking a word or structure would make it feel better.
You know what would be a genius idea? Republishing a thesaurus and promoting it as a DIY poetry book. You provide the words, they put them in whatever order they want!
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Well I don’t have problems like ‘balance mind’ so it’s like trying to repair unbalanced content with unbalanced mind which makes entire process exceptionally unbalanced..I went dizzy waiting this..
Well. Yea you actually do want to fix it or change something in it because you are editing.
Oh poetry scrabble! Don’t do that man. Please don’t do that.. this is making my eyes bleed already.
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Poetry scrabble! Yes, perfect words for it.
I think I’ll have a hard time at the editing stage because I’ve never really edited anything. I’ll write it and move on and leave it in that kind of…capsule in time.
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I used to do the same and look what happened..
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Yeah, totally not advocating for it 🙂
Not recommended. Like…at all.
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Yea. We strictly condemn this practice!
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I hear ya! I’m currently polishing up a set of (rude) parodies of popular Christmas carols, and the saying that the last 10% of a project takes 90% of the effort is certainly holding true in this case.
I decided to add more graphic elements than in my previous efforts, and that is taking time. Plus the production issues troubleshooting the files–erg! I decided to build the .mobi (Amazon format) myself rather than use Amazon’s online book builder, so that has been quite a learning curve for me (i.e., lots of Googling and trial-and-error).
But, I think it will be worth it. I know more than when I started, and I am seeing a glimmer of light at the end of this very windy, rubble-filled, partially collapsed tunnel.
Do press on–you will succeed. 🙂
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I exactly know what you are talking about. every word of it. the last 10% of the work is the toughest. compiling editing the content I haven’t got to cover, index etc yet.
today I was exploring the file formats and options available at publishing sites and it was crippling. so I did one thing. I made a demo book one on epub just to have a picture in mind with a random image for cover and some extra poems. it helped to calm my nerve.
Everything is based on trial and error here too. and google, I can’t imagine life without google now.
InshaAllah, I will 🙂
All the best for your book. 🙂
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Sounds a lot like my recent journey. I at first tried the full-on EPUB 3.0 route, kept crashing and burning, then managed to get something cobbled together with an EPUB 2.0 template and a lot of CSS tweaks. It looks great in eth Kindle previewer, but so-so in actual Kindle readers. Still, overall I am happy with the outcome. Per my habit, I hand-coded all of the HTML.
Here is the result (free to download 11/22-11/26): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KRGLTXM
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honestly I am not aware of the technicalities and its my first book details like these are a tad scary.
it says title isn’t available for purchase.
I don’t know any carols (not a christian) and not sure if I am going to like the type of content but I sure will like to see the format. I already like the cover it’s catchy.
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I should mention, it is a bit rude in places (adult themes, language). 🙂
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thanks for mentioning 🙂
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Keep going!! Editing phase is pure pain. But on a positive note, you have the poems written! Content is there. You go girl!!
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yes its actually painful process but I just finished editing and its such a relieve..
thanks 🙂
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Hang in there!
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Hanging like a bat 🙂
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You’ll get there. I have faith in you. I divided my poems into humour, love, family, thoughtfull etc, if that helps, or subject matter
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That is so encouraging. Thank you so much.
I have divided them into categories . Love and loss, life, random, day and night, anxiety depression.. but I will rename them.
Will do that soon right now on a break 🙂
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Awesome. Wet to go, sounds like a winner to me
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Have to reword them tho.
But those are the categories.
Thanks
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Your welcome. I mean it’s literally up to you, but it was a starting place and a suggestion that might help. 🙂
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Yea any suggestion can help when u sit down to edit or format you remember all the points. So thanks for sharing 🙂
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Your awesome! Keep going, your doing a great job.
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