Writing in the Tropics- Lori T. Hurst

I'd be happy to share what I've learned over the past six months and to hear about your own experiences. We Indie authors are a unique but steadily growing tribe. From dedicated writer to published author. IT 'S damned hard work but oh so worth it. I've just about been glued to my office chair for weeks- months on end. My family are practically starving to death. Not true.  They are all quite capable of cooking for themselves (& me). Hmm sometimes more than others.  Soo many things to learn about branding. promoting & marketing. Soo many sites to check out. And while I'd love to say I've sold thousand of books- I'm quietly confident it will happen. And in the meantime they are selling slowly. So for those of you who have bought my books I'd love to hear from you. Please leave  a comment (whether you've read my books or not)  My personal facebook page is www.facebook.com/lorihurst.581 For those fellow authors out there I've just star...

Butterflies & Beyond. I guess I'm not alone in suffering from the New Novelist's Nerves. What if people didn't like my book? What if nobody buys it? I am generally a pretty confident woman & over the years I've faced my dragons & had my fair share of wins. But this. This was totally beyond scary.  I am reminded of the Dr Zeus story I used to read my kids; The Monster at the end of the Book. When you got to the last page it was lovable old Grover. Nothing at all to be scared of. I'd love to hear from other authors or anyone facing stage fright.

This has changed my world. I'm now officially a published novelist.  The truck pulled up in the driveway, the dogs barked & I held my breath. They are here . My books are here. How to describe my emotions. Disbelief, excitement, absolute terror; what if they didn’t look good, what if they looked awful?  I waited until family arrived before opening. That’s how off the scale I was. I kept circling the boxes. Started ripping off the tape & stopping myself. Calm down Lori. Just calm down.  The big moment arrived. Hugs & kisses, congratulations glasses clinking & what can I say? I’m over the moon. They look absolutely incredible & I can’t wait for people to start reading them. This is what it's all about. You spend years researching & writing & all the while in your head you're sharing with your readers. I hope you enjoy reading my books as much as I've enjoyed writing them I'd love to hear from you. 

A HINT OF DARKNESS & THE JOURNEY OF EMMALINE ARE ON THEIR WAY.  Bottle of bubbly on ice . Doing the final proofs & then ordering copies was exciting enough but holding my own published books is the stuff of dreams.  I have ordered twenty copies of each, but have no doubt there will be a follow up orders almost immediately. I have so many friends & fellow writers (not to mention family) all demanding copies. I don’t expect to have to make changes (fingers crossed) I have proof read the print off them. Just about.

TAKING THE PLUNGE: INTO INDIE PUBLISHING  MY JOURNEY WITH CREATE SPACE  From December to September: so what was the big holdup? Genuine nerves! Cowardice! Procrastination!   All of the above plus a liberal serving of self-doubt . Not as an author or editor or fear that my books wouldn’t cut it simply my lack of expertise/ experience in publishing.   The weight of responsibility. When you self-publish. It all comes down to you. There is no one to edit your final work, no feedback on plot foul ups, repetitions, typos, bad grammar its all the same to publishers such as CS (CreateSpace )    While I was completely confident there were no issues in any of these areas; both   books had been edited &   gone over with a fine tooth comb , still little errors cropped up.   So my MS(s) were read, re-read, & then over it all again.     Most books these days have minor errors even when published by big publishing houses. Eve...

CHECKING OUT CREATE SPACE SITE  CS is very user friendly still being a newbie I managed to stumble around what later became obvious.  First step setting up the title of your MS. One of the reasons I chose to go with indie publishing is having complete autonomy.   TITLE: A long time ago I just knew the perfect title for my novel was A Hint of Darkness. It epitomised the essence of the story.  When I made the decision to split the book (it really was too cumbersome) I went back & forth between The Story of Emmaline & The Journey of Emmaline. I chose the latter. Emmaline endured quite a journey; one which I shared with her. I could predict her every thought, emotion & action.  That may sound weird but once I begin to write my characters take on a life of their own. Ellie of course, had her own journey & fond as I am of her there were times I felt a bit annoyed at her behaviour. She is quite wilful. Back to reality & more autonomous decisi...

GETTING TO THE GOOD PART. UPLOADING YOUR MS. Wanting to be as sure as possible that everything was hunky dory I uploaded my document many times. Each time proof reading & making adjustments. Am I pedantic or what? No.  Small errors needing correcting appeared each time. I chose to convert my word document to PDF (easy enough- just don’t convert it back to word again or it will go out of whack) if you want to make changes go to the word doc you used to convert to PDF & work on that. When changes are made convert again to PDF using a slightly different title for doc before uploading again. It really doesn’t matter how many times you do this until you are satisfied it is exactly the way you want it. Then you submit to CS for publishing. (this is not final) They will get back to you via email with the document & comments regarding any changes to make it print worthy. NOTE this is only to do with cover, print, page size etc, not to correct any errors you have overlo...