Another---RAZZAMATAZZ

Last week I spent a lot of time proofing Razzamatazz, a suspense novel published originally under the pen name, Jack Early.  But this time my friend Consuelo Baehr showed me a way to do the proofing that made it much easier.  Still, it takes time and diligence.  But I've chosen to do this, no one is pushing me or waiting for this book.

I'm going to do another one this week and that will be all of the Jack Early books.  After that I'll start on my Lauren Laurano series and there are five of those.  But I mustn't let myself think ahead or I'll slip into a deep depression.

I have to keep reminding myself that this is my choice and no agent is going to give me a hard time and make suggestions I can't use.  No editor is going to reject me.  And no editor is going to insist I cut this or that or change an ending.  None of that happened with these books but it's happened, believe me.

I think it's fun until I start the proofing and then it's hard and crazy making.  But it's interesting to read books that I wrote so long ago.  I'm impressed with me!  I've never read any of my books once they were published so this is a brand new experience.

So pop on over to see for yourself.  It's going for $1.99. What do you have to lose...except maybe $1.99. Razzamatazz

At Last

A Creative Kind of Killer is up and is perfectly formatted.  So should you wish to get it you won't be disappointed.  At least not by the formatting.

A Creative Kind of Killer

Sorry

Just found out that my ebook is a mess.  The formatting is crazy.  I don't know how that happened but if you want to d/l it wait until the next one is up.  And if you have d/l it you'll be able to do an exchange.

Very depressing.  Waiting for help.

Ebook

Okay, it's up.

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Kind-Killer-ebook/dp/B004M8T1C4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=books&qid=1296938020&sr=8-2-catcorr

 

Shout it from the rooftops, please.

One Up, Seven to Go

Yesterday I u/l my first ebook to Amazon.  I've been screaming about the tedium of proofing but it's all worth it.  The book isn't showing yet because they had some questions about my rights.  I've put it up saying by Sandra Scoppettone writing as Jack Early. So it isn't there yet which is annoying.  Still, I'm sure it'll be up by Monday. This first book is A Creative Kind of Killer which was originally published in 1984 under the Early name.  No one knew who it was.  I'd published quite a few books under my own name before that, but not a mystery. So lo and behold it was nominated for an Edgar in the Best First category and won the Shamus for Best First.  Nobody knew who I was then either.  Someone else accepted the Shamus for me.  Anyway, my first 3 ebooks will be Early books. 

The big news is that my cousin-in-law has done the cover.  I think it's pretty damn good.  His name is Andy Little.  I thank him profusely.

When Creative is up I'll put a link here.
I'm actually looking forward to the next book which I'll start on tomorrow.  Who said I couldn't be flexible?

Retirement?

Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing,Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing,Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing,Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing.

Do you call this retirement?

Proofing

I can’t think of anything more tedious than proofing these scans. These, I say. I’m on the first one, fourth chapter. This isn’t like proofing in the old days when you’d go over your manuscript when it was finished or proof your galleys. Oh, no. You have to hit the backwards P in Word and the guts of the manuscript shows. This horror of proofing may only happen if you have your book scanned. If you’ve already got the manuscript typed in your computer it’s a matter of formatting and I don’t think you’d have this work.

I just realized if you hit the HTML Code tab in what you use to write your posts for your blog you see a similar thing. But the scanned page is much more annoying because of the way you have to format. Be aware that if you have your book scanned you’ll have this problem. Maybe you can afford to have someone else proof it, but I can’t.

I can’t because the money is mounting up. I’ve already paid to have three books scanned and I have at least five more to go, bought an up-to-date copy of Word and lets not forget about postage. And mostly lets not forget about the cover. The most important expenditure. I’m discovering.

That’s why I’m begging. If there’s anyone out there who wants to do my covers for experience and a credit please get in touch with me. sandrasc@optonline.net

I await your reply.

Starting Off

It wasn’t easy. The copy of Word that I got looked slightly different from the 2007 that I’d been using. The one I lost when my computer crashed. For instance, Tools had changed to options and it was in a strange place. Why?

Once everything was uninstalled and installed, my mentor, Consuelo, sent me the scans of my first book having made it into one long document. When I got it there were all the pages. No one document. Over the phone we went back and forth trying to get it into one document. We tried everything. At least we thought we had. And then suddenly I did something and it happened. I quickly saved it.

Now came the formatting. This took a long time to figure out. While Consuelo tried working on it on her own computer, I acquainted myself with the Word program. This helped a lot. She called me back and we began.

This may sound like nothing but it was over a period of about five hours. Now it’s ready for me to start proofing today or tomorrow. I’d like to start proofing right now, but life interferes.

The hunt for someone to do a cover persists.

Word Arrives

Just as I thought, the package from Amazon was hanging from the mailbox. It was late in the day so I decided not to start anything until tomorrow. First thing I'll do is the uninstalling and the installing and hope that all goes well.  No reason it shouldn't.  Then I'll begin working on the first book:  A CREATIVE KIND OF KILLER.  Originally written under my pseudonym, Jack Early.

BTW, the UPS people wrote "delivered to front door."

Waiting

It's cold here.  And windy. I live at the end of a long road. Sometimes trucks won't come down here.  I doubt whether UPS will today. So no Word software.

But maybe I'll be lucky and they'll leave it hanging on the mailbox which is on the street.  Sometimes they do that and say on their delivery pad that they've delivered it to the door.  Let them lie, I say.  As long as they leave it hanging on the mailbox I don't care about their morals.

I can track the package at Amazon and right now it's about an hour away.

If it arrives I'll uninstall the 2003 Word and install the new one. Then I can go back to being anxious or hysterical which ever is preferred.   What time I get it will dictate the process.  I think I won't begin actually working on the book until tomorrow.

The winds are howling.  And so am I.

Three Back

Yesterday I got an email from the place that's scanning my books.  It said that the 3 I sent were ready to be d/l. It also said:

1. Please be sure to unzip the file first before opening the contents of
the archive (we recommend using WinZip or 7zip, as the built-in Windows
utility sometimes has difficulty with multi-gigabyte files)
2. Please also be sure you have the latest service packs/updates
installed for Word.

I immediately started the d/l.  It took a very long, long time even though at the start it said 39 minutes.  I'd directed it to be saved on my desk top.  When it finally got there there was nothing in it.  My fault. I started over and this time I marked it to be saved in WinZip. It came in about 40 minutes and everything opened in the window of WinZip. I copied them all into a folder on my external drive. Also I put them on a CD RW and then I clicked on the first one. It opened in Word.  But I have Word 2003. Once again not paying attention to the directions it looked odd.  I realized I'd have to get Word 2007.  On to Amazon to buy it.

The thing about the scan is that it's in page form when it has to be one long document to u/l it to Amazon.  I didn't know how to get it into one document.  I called my Guru today.

I sent her the doc of the shortest book as she requested.  She found a way to make it into one long doc.  But we're not sure it can work that way.

My software should arrive tomorrow or Saturday. When I find a way to make it one long doc I'll have to start proofing.

I don't know why but I feel hysterical.  Maybe that's too strong a word.  Anxious.

Why?

Then there's the cover problem which is not solved.  I tried to do it myself but it didn't turn out correctly.  That's because I don't know what I'm doing.

So far this is costing me a lot of money.

Yeah, anxious.

Getting Close

I've started the process of putting ebooks up on Amazon.  As I said I found a scanning place that is reasonable. Three of the books are there now. I'm not sure when I'll get the scans back (in email) but it should be fairly soon.

I've chosen to have them scanned the destructive way. This means they will tear them apart and I won't get them back.  I didn't want to do this with my copies so I went on the Internet and found eight copies of the eight books I want to do this way. They were very cheap.

The first three are my Jack Early books.  They'll say on the covers by Sandra Scoppettone writing as Jack Early. And speaking of covers I'm not sure what to do about them. I need a designer who'll do it for experience or very little money.  So if you know anyone please let me know.

When I get the books back I'll have to proof them and that will take a bit of time.  This won't be like my failed attempt at typing them.  I don't think. I hope I won't start rewriting.

Once I do this I'll get help from my writer friend Consuelo Baehr http://www.setthiswriterfree.blogspot.com/ how to publish.  I feel lucky that I have a mentor!

At this moment I'm looking forward to the process.  Ask me in a week or two.

I guess this blog will now be an account of doing the Ebook Rag!

A Bust/And Hope

The scanner is packed up and ready to be returned on Monday.

But thanks to two writers I have a place to send my books which is very reasonable. I’ll do this after the first.

Why Can't Anything Be Simple?

The scanner arrived.
I bought an extra cable I didn’t need.
Unpacked scanner.
So far it doesn’t seem like this is going to work for me. No wonder it was $50. I thought it said clearly that I could turn documents into Word documents.
Not so far.

Flip Flop

I bought a scanner today. See below.

So Much for That

A week ago Saturday I started typing a book into the computer and then again on Sunday. All together about 4 hours or so. I got 8 pages of the book done. Unacceptable. I wish I could pay someone else to do it, but I can’t afford it (a dollar a page) and it seems to me that defeats the purpose. I decided to go the scanner route and looked up some services. They charge 150 to 175 a book. Unacceptable. Then I thought I’d look into using my own scanner on my printer which I’d never used. Hours and hours and couldn’t make it work properly. Could hardly make it work at all.

More hours passed looking for a stand alone scanner online. Nothing seemed to take the scan anywhere but into Adobe Acrobat and you couldn’t manipulate the text. Pointless.

I finally realized that the scanner was meant to work with WindowsXP and I have Vista. Dead end. But wait...I have a laptop that runs on XP. I installed the printer software and there it was. I could scan easily. Then I did something (I’ll never know what) that screwed up the whole system on my laptop. You probably know what that means. I had to reformat and reinstall XP. Also had to reinstall the printer software and Word. Hours went by. Finally got a few pages done. There was lots to proof.

The next day (a week of trying and failing had gone by) I woke up and I thought "What am I doing? This is retirement? It’s a frigging drag to do this."

I wrote the books, they were published and some people read them and that’s it. Finished. To do this is taking over my life and I’m only on page 7 of the first book. No, this is not the way I want to spend my time. As we all know, life is short. I want to spend it with my partner and my dog and friends, and I want to read books and see movies. In other words, I want to have a life again.

Even a five year old child can do this, but getting ebooks online is not for me.

Naturally This Would Happen

The next day after my post below I started reading the Amazon instructions to turn my book into an ebook. What? I couldn’t understand them. So I tried the instructions for Smashwords. Same thing. I know I’m not stupid. But here’s the thing: I was coming down with a cold. You know how you can’t think with a cold? That’s what happened. And the cold kept getting worse and worse each day. Today is the first day I can write anything or do anything on my computer. I’m not about to try the instructions until I feel a lot better. This is the nice thing about doing ebooks. I have no deadline.

I’ll be getting back to it soon and if I still can’t understand the instructions I have a friend who has put up 5 or 6 ebooks and she’ll kindly walk me through the process. I’m anxious to get this going.

Not Quite Writing

Not writing at all, really. However, I’ve decided to turn some of my published books into eBooks. A friend of mine has done so and is enjoying new sales. Almost everyone knows about Joe Konrath’s experience, but I’m sure I’ll never sell anywhere near what he has.

The first time I thought about doing this it overwhelmed me. You see, I’m going to have to type into my computer any book I want to make an eBook. I never made a backup copy on a CD. Mostly because they didn’t exist in 1984. I backed them up onto floppies and later to the small discs (can’t remember what we called them) and even if I had them I’d have no way to put those into my computer as there’s no slots for them.

My cookbook holder just arrived. No, I’m not going to start cooking. I need the holder to hold my book upright while I type it into Word.

But first I have to read how to format, etc. The first book I’m going to do is A CREATIVE KIND OF KILLER, originally published under my pseudonym, Jack Early. This time the it will say, Sandra Scoppettone writing as Jack Early.

I think I’ll keep writing about this new venture here so you can follow my progress, should there be any. I don’t feel overwhelmed now because what else am I doing?

Tomorrow I’ll begin reading the instructions. I’m not great at following instructions. I taught myself everything about the computer in the 80s. And then I taught myself how to get online. Still, I don’t think I can teach myself how to do this without at least glancing at the instructions.

So wish me luck. I’ll keep you posted.

Done

Are you tired of me waffling about whether I’m going to write again? I am. For the last two years I’ve been in this frame of mind: will I? won’t I? Enough. About a month ago I decided that I won’t. But I didn’t want to post it here and have to take it back until I was sure. I’m sure. That doesn’t include Flash Fiction.

I’ve written my last novel. I can hardly believe it. I’ve been enjoying myself as a retired writer and I’ve told my partner and friends. Yesterday I wrote this in an email to another writer who isn’t really a friend but more than an acquaintance. Once I’d sent it off I began to feel strange. Sad. The sensation was with me all day. I finally realized I was grieving. Retiring from writing was now real. It was one thing to say it to my friends and partner and another to say it to this woman.

You can take it back, you say. No, I can’t. And I don’t want to. I’m doing what I want to do. But I went from the decision to retire to nothing, and that doesn’t compute. After fifty years of turning out plays, screenplays and novels, why would I think I’d have no feelings about this? It’s the way I do everything until something snaps me out of denial. Hey, only a month of denial isn’t bad for me.

I’ve been enjoying hanging out, following blogs, reading books, watching movies and sleeping late. And I will again. After my period of mourning is over. I hope you don’t think I’m being overly dramatic. My identity has always been as a writer and it’s hard to give that up.

I thought about closing this blog down, but now I think I’ll keep it and post about writing and books and movies, etc.

Thanks to all who’ve left me comments over these last three/four years.

Now say it, Sandra.

I’m done.

Reading and Inspiration

Over the weekend I read Laura Lippman’s new book, I’d Know You Anywhere. Besides having a super title, it’s a terrific novel. I don’t review books so I’m not going to write anymore about it. Buy it and see for yourself.

However, while reading it I kept hearkening back to the most recent novel I started. They aren’t anything alike, yet there were echoes for me. Especially in structure and time.

But the most important and surprising thing was that it made me want to write. And it made me want to go back to that book and work on it. I felt a little excitement. The Labor Day holiday is coming up and that’s when I always started writing again if I’d taken off the summer. I think I tried to do this last year. Or was that two years ago? I’m too lazy to look back and see, and it really doesn’t matter.

So here’s the thing...by the next day my excitement had fizzled. There was still a little piece of me that thought I might do it. But then I reviewed my life now and realized I like not writing and all the things that come with that.

I’ve written about this before: the schedule. I don’t think I could write a novel without one and I don’t want one. A moment ago when I wrote that last sentence I felt a frisson of fear. I think it was fear. During my career I’ve had many months, and sometimes years, when I couldn’t write. Among other reasons, I think I was afraid then. But I always came out of it and wrote again.

I hadn’t thought that this desire/decision to stop writing was connected to anything like fear. And even now that seems absurd. Still, why one day could I be excited enough by something I’d read to make me want to write and the next day not? It’s a bit suspicious.

And I have no answer.