Monkey Madness Monday: Book Piracy and other annoyances

I got a Google Alert about Never Eighteen on Saturday. And it brought me to this. Yes, it is yet
another pirated copy of NE out for anyone to download for free. For those of you just coming across my blog for the first time, this may not seem like a big deal to you, but it is. Why you ask? Well, here's the letter I was going to send to the young woman, screen name: Screamqueen42

I guess since you uploaded this book, it means you liked it, which is flattering, but you should realize, that writers like me, and some of the others you've uploaded here, hardly make any money from their books. In fact, after our small advances, many of us don't see another dime. If you like our books, it would be better for us if you'd tell your friends about them so they'd buy them instead of sharing them illegally on sites like this.  We're not million dollar rock stars, most of us are people who have to keep day jobs to keep our families running, many of us single parents like me.

Just something to keep in mind.

However, I can't send her a message, and where I was trying to add this comment, the CAPTCHA is not working, so unless Screamqueen42 reads my blog, she'll never see this.

I went to the site's, Kickass Torrents, piracy page, and basically it looks like they're a bunch of douches protecting their illegal content rather than the artists being pilfered. The process for getting your work taken off their site is akin to needing an ancient hieroglyphic, a virgin sacrifice, the head of Sasquatch, and the blood of a vampire.  So, I left that up to my publicist with HMH.

Aside from that, some day job crap, forgetting to take my meds, a day out in a way too crowded venue in the hot sun, with a kid who didn't plan well, then ended up breaking up with her boyfriend, and realizing beer and I are not friends, helped to balance out a perfectly lovely weekend of fun.

But seriously folks. Most of writers, we don't make money. I know I don't. I'll just put it out there, I've not seen a dime of royalties from Never Eighteen and probably never will, especially if people keep downloading it for free. Every time someone downloads and illegal free copy of my book, I die a little inside.

And I'm not saying it's okay to pirate from million dollar rock stars either. They've earned their money as well. We all have and pirating is illegal. Period. But for me...I have two teenagers to support, a mortgage to pay.  Think about it. Piracy sucks.

Indie publishing: Websites, typos and release dates

Yes, so I'm setting up a website for  my indie publishing company. Well, I have two companies really because I have a mother company. Creative Chaos Media (site is currently under construction). Then under that company I'm going to have imprints because this brain of mine holds not only YA literature, but chick lit and other genres of fiction.  For now, I'll have one, Sock Puppet Press.

I was trying to create my own logo for  CCM, but my Illustrator skills are very rudimentary. I found this company, Logoytypers, who will create a logo for you for as little as $10 from just a drawing. They do have different packages. (I paid $30 and added a little to my editable logo) If you're looking for a simple logo design, you may want to give them a look.

Also, I'm still working on finding all the typos in my proof copy, and believe me, there are more than I thought there would be. Therefore, I'm fine tooth combing it. I'm hoping to really dig into it this weekend and get it done and get another proof back soon. Ugh. I'm a horrible editor I've found.

That said, I'm afraid I'm going to have to push my release date back again. I think realistically I'm looking at October. sigh. I hope my Indiegogo backers will understand.

This whole process has been educational. When I do get my website up, I'm going to lay out the indie publishing process so it's easy to understand to make it easier for others to go about getting themselves published and to get the most polished, professional book they can produced.

That is all. Happy Friday, have a great weekend.

Friday Scribbles:

Pandora Queue: Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol

 Book of the Week: 45 Pounds (more or less) by K.A. Barson. This just released this week. New YA, touted by Amazon as being one of the best of the year and I really want to read it.

Netflix of the Week: Sons of Anarchy Season One. Just started watching it. Pretty hooked.

Quote of the week: "Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing." ~ Randy K. Milholland

Monkey Madness Monday: Typos, typos, typos!

I'm going crazy. Seriously. I've read this book over and over again. I've had an editor read it. I know that there are people out there who self publish who don't have an editor read their work and this is one of the reason self publishing gets a bad rap. So much self published work it put out unedited.  It's put out with typos and grammar and punctuation problems and turns people off from indie publishing as a whole.

For the life of me, I cannot fathom having missed so much on the first five or six passes. I'm going to get another proof copy after this one. I'm going to make sure the cover is okay then I'm going to have someone else read it for typos in case I missed any. Again. I know that there are traditionally published books out there with typos in them. It's one of the reasons I refuse to read Never Eighteen since its debut. I don't want to find any mistakes. But for my first indie project, I want it to be as flawless as possible. I don't want anyone to say things like, "well, that's what you can expect after all it IS self published" or things of a similar nature.

I admit, when it comes to editing, I'm lazy, but this? The mistakes that are in there? UGH!!! Some of

them are just plain stupid mistakes.

I'm sure every writer in the world will understand when I say, I'm so tired of this book. :)
The next couple days I'm busting these typos out and getting them back to Lori so she can get it formatted again and I can get a proof from Createspace and Lightning source and make sure we're ok again.

Man, this process can be a real bitch. At least I'm learning and hopefully things will go smoother for the next book, which I'm starting to think I should be starting this process for now.

Happy Monday all.

Hermit weekend

This year for the 4th, I've decided to be a recluse. Why you ask? (you were thinking it) It's not that I
have anything against our country, or our independence. I like independence. Here's the thing: 1) I'm not really into crowds. Never have been, never will be. 2) I like fireworks and all, but to watch a public display here in Tacoma is like getting through a labyrinth. 3) I've never really had that 4th of July "tradition". Meaning, most of my friends and family have had their things they do set it place for eons. I was married for 18 years and we really just kind of winged it every year, so now that I'm single, I don't have a "thing" I do every 4th.

Put all those things together and when the 4th came around, I was kind of like, "meh." My bosses gave us today, Friday, off, so I decided to have myself a little staycation to catch up on all the stuff I'd put aside while I was working on my major marketing presentation for said day job. So, this is what I have planned:

• Deep clean the house. Seriously, my house is totally disgusting
• Shop for a new washing machine. I've been going to my parents house to do laundry for like a month now and I'm over it.
• Put together furniture that has been sitting in my garage for a year. Seriously.
• Frame prints a friend gave me over a year ago and find a more prominent spot to display them. I had them sitting on a window ledge, but they need to be in a better place.
• Print out pictures to fill frames that have been sitting on my mantel for 6 months. 
• Load music on iPod. I've had a gift card in my purse for about two months. This also include getting my besties country music OFF my iPod that inadvertently got synched on. I had it playing yesterday and wanted to tear my ears off.
• Walk the bridge. I slept through kickboxing this morning.
• Weed. Yeah, I have lots of weeding to do.
• Find all the typos in Dissected. Yep.
• Work on publishing house website. I'd like to get this done before the book come out.
  
• Find a box and finally put away those Cinco de Mayo decorations that have been sitting in my living room for two months.
• Handily avoid my children. Now, don't act like that. I love my children, but it's their dad's week. However, whenever they're with their dad, they always come over and end up staying for hours eating my food and messing up my house that I'd more than likely just cleaned. I told them about my hermit weekend and that the house was off-limits. Of course Thing Two already tried to come over last night with nine of her closest friends for a sleep over. I was like, "uh uh, no way." She was not pleased.
•  Find workout shorts that don't threaten to fall down revealing me in all my glory during kickboxing. Seriously, I don't know what it is. I guess I just have a weird body shape. I fear if I go down another size they will be so form fitting I won't be leaving much to the imagination. My body is shaped weird. Or maybe it's just that I have curves and usually what fits my hips falls off my waist. Who knows? I'm an anomaly.
• Organize my cupboards. Kind of. Not spending a lot of time on this one.
• Clean my office. You would think this would go along with cleaning the house, but my office is a whole 'nother dimension. I would take a picture and post, but honestly, it's too embarrassing. Imagine stacks of paperwork, computer programs, manuscripts, newspaper articles, book swag, office supplies...and I mean stacks and stacks and stacks and stacks.
• Write. I want to work on my contemporary. Because I love it.

I think that's it for the list. Enjoy your Friday, here are my Scribbles.

Next Pandora song (Imagine Dragons station):

Book of the Week: Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler

Netflix of the Week: Jeff, Who Lives at Home. Indie Flick with Jason Segel and Ed Helms. I really liked it.

Quote of the Week: The writer is either a practicing recluse or a delinquent, guilt-ridden one; or both. Usually both. ~ Susan Sontag

Major work projects and Dissected proof

Man, I have been working on a major major marketing presentation for work for about three weeks now and I'm finally done. It's why I've not been blogging. I've been having to work on it at home as well as work to get it ready for my office retreat which took place last week. Now life is getting back to as normal as my life can, so here I am, blogging again.

I received a proof copy of Dissected in the mail this week from Createspace. Let's just say, I'm glad I ordered just one. The cover came out much darker then I'd anticipated, and you know what else? I found...wait for it...TYPOS!!!

Yes, I found typos. This is nobody's fault but my own. I truly am surprised that I found typos, but there they were, a couple in the first few chapters. So I emailed the truly gracious woman who did my formatting and asked her to please not kill me, but did she mind if I send her more corrections for reformatting. She said she didn't mind, but I can't help but imagine that she was silently cursing me (or perhaps loudly) as she emailed me back telling me it was no problem.

She also told me that many of the covers she's done have come out two or three shades darker than expected, so I redid mine. Lightened it up and even added a little more color so it wasn't so black and dismal. Now I'm rereading the proof to find any other typos that may be lurking behind the pretty formatted fonts and styles.

I truly can see why many books, indie published or traditional, make it to the shelves with mistakes. It's difficult. It truly is, to find every last mistake, no matter how many eyes are on it or how many times you read through it. Humans and computers are simply not perfect. That is not a cop out, nor an excuse for my failings, it is simply a fact. I hope to catch every last error in my novel. End of story.

I'm in the process of setting up distribution so the bookstores may carry the novel. They are having a problem with one of my scanned forms for the second time though. I don't know why. So, I have to try again.

So that's where I'm at. Here is what the book cover looks like now. I'm thinking about adding a gummy bear to the back cover...