HateHATEHATEhateALSOHATE

[ursulav]

I have a shiny edited file of the Goblin novella in my hot little hand.

I am trying to format it for self-pub.

I HATE EVERYTHING THAT HAS EVER LIVED AND I’M NOT FEELING GREAT ABOUT FUTURE GENERATIONS EITHER

I stripped everything out in a text editor and then Kevin said “Hey, you can do that much easier in Scrivener and it will compile it to ePub”

Comments

[wedschilde]

self-pubbing is like being skull fucked by a hedgehog-durian mutant.

[ursulav]

And how many zillion things have you self-pubbed at this point? *grin*

[wedschilde]

Well there's Black Dog Blues..... And I did Morrigan Books for a while. So I think I'm up to 20 books on the small press side.

Mostly I'm happy doing book covers. :D Hates self pubbing. Control my ass. I let Dreamspinner deal with all of that. I'll just write and hand the document over. :D

[naamah_darling]

If it is of ANY consolation, it gets easier each time. Truly, honestly, it does. It's become second-nature for me now.

The first time, I DID cry, and there WAS rum. The second time was about 60% less awful. The third time was only about 20% frustrating, the rest was boring, and since then it's been smooth sailing. It gets easier.

And yeah, "You have all the control!" Well, fine, but that means it's up to you to make sure the manuscript is properly formatted. It doesn't mean you can do anything you want.

[ursulav]

I feel oddly better knowing this. I have literally been five minutes and a harsh word from tears all afternoon--at least it's not just me!

[naamah_darling]

No, it's not just you. Seriously. I swear, it gets so much easier once you have all the steps down.

[gabyrippling]

Flip side to more control is always more responsibility (and hassle). Pretty much universal truth.

[banshea]

I was going to say, this sounds like the difference between being a child and being an adult. Or between being an employee and being a small business owner. I can do all the things, now! Oh crap, that means that I'm doing ALL the things now

[3rdragon]

I realized a month or two ago, when talking to my students (inner-city high school) that a lot of them view owning one's own business as the ultimate pinnacle of success.

"But, but, you have a college degree!" One young woman told me. "A four-year degree. You should be so successful. You could own your own business!"

"Yes," probably, I told her, ignoring the implied slight that being an AmeriCorps teacher WASN'T being successful, because she's tactless but means well, "But I don't want to."

She was completely flabbergasted. I explained to her that I wanted a job where I came in to work and had a boss and someone else gave me work to do and I did it . . . and I still don't think she really understood.

(Mind you, the similar conversation she had with my boss, who has both a computer science degree and a teaching degree -- and is still a high school teacher -- was really funny. Particularly since neither one of us wanted to discourage her from going to college herself, but weren't sure how to make her expectations more

[banshea]

I wouldn't expect high school kids to get that freedom isn't necessarily fun. That age is still feeling chafed by authority and is chomping at the bit to get out. You don't really appreciate having someone else calling the shots until you've been left flapping in the breeze for a while

[compost75]

I hope it's a decent gin. Heaven forbid you should guzzle Gordons; it makes your tears corrosive.

[gwalla]

Yes, Gordon's is a sign that you have lost the will to live.

[skellington1]

If you're going straight to guzzling, I recommend New Amsterdam.

But really, gin is so much better with tonic or ginger ale.

[mmegaera]

Much sympathy. One good thing about going through this is that you do learn what to do while you're actually writing (styles, anyone?) that will make it much easier the next go round.

[skellington1]

Except that styles in word are SUCH a pain.

(Graphic design snob. After learning document formatting in InDesign, word makes me want to pull my hair out and run screaming through the streets).

[3rdragon]

If you need company in that, let me know. (I was messing with a Word table of contents the other day . . .)

[t_c_da]

I've never used InDesign (or any other Adobe product than Acrobat - employer provided) so I have nothing to compare with, and I have no problems with styles, so obviously I have a different brain to you (apart from the obvious gender related differences) - possibly being somewhat aspergers may be a clue....

I have run across some strange things in my days, e.g. Excel as a word processor and Powerpoint substitute, folk who think Word is great for mail merges when Publisher whips it's a$$ especially for mailing labels and name badges, etc etc ...