Today’s image has nothing to do with today’s post, but it was free and I liked it so I used it.
After knocking off early on Tuesday, I felt very lazy. It’s always so exhausting finishing a big job or a job that’s been hanging over your head for a while. But first thing yesterday morning, I still wasn’t raring to go. I was feeling smug again that I’d actually done yesterday’s blog post and scheduled it and everything the day before, so I didn’t have that to do. Instead, I checked the latest calls for submissions and shared them everywhere on FB, plus I shared Duotrope as well.
The poet is still on sick leave and we spent some time gazing out of the window at a neighbour who had a digger arrive in the early hours. From the moment the machine was set up, the driver was working away, lifting paving slabs and other spoil. At first we said ‘copycat!’ (joking, of course), but then we thought it was nice to see one of the existing neighbours having substantial work done on their house. We have no idea if it was already planned or if we gave them the idea. But it was fascinating to watch, nevertheless, as a big pile of rubble grew on the footpath alongside their property.
With the amount of spoil that came out, they’re either having a complete drive installation or they’re reinstating a green front garden. I can’t imagine them digging that far down when the garden was slabbed just to have it block paved or tarmacked. It will be interesting to see if they’re installing a wrought iron fence or a brick wall as well as these houses have a restrictive covenant on them for permanent structures at the front of the property.
However, the precedent has already been set by not one but several other properties if anyone complains. I wouldn’t even know who to complain to, or who to ask for permission. Wrought iron railings is something we’d like to install too, so the dog has the run of the entire garden, front, back and side. There are restrictive covenants regarding keeping a ‘house on wheels’ on the property too, but again, several neighbours have already been doing that for years.
I was bone idle for the rest of the morning until after I’d had my midday breakfast, and then I started today’s blog post. I got this far (precisely this far) and started on the republishing again…and oh, what fun and games I had there.
When I create an epub file on Draft2Digital, I usually add their ‘about the author’, their ‘also by…’ and their teaser. But each of those links back to D2D in some way. I already have my own ‘about the author’ in every book, and I already have my own ‘also by…’ in every book, and that means it doubled up.
The very short stories are too short really for D2D to distribute to the likes of Amazon, so the extra front and end matter bulk them up a bit. Any that were still too short, I just published direct to Amazon. Also, I was putting the D2D ‘also by…’ at the front of the books, and most books have that at the end, now. It really annoys me when I have to wade through loads and loads of front matter before a story even starts, so I’d already decided to move the D2D version to the end. But that would have meant removing my version.
Now, since I started publishing direct to Kobo, Amazon and Google Play Books, I’ve had to take those three elements out as, even if external links to other booksellers wasn’t frowned upon, it’s a bit rude, in my opinion. So I’ve been producing the ebook without those elements first, and then adding them in.
Yesterday, I found myself wanting to change some of the interiors across all platforms and after only one book it soon became a pain in the backside to take those elements out, save versions everywhere, then put them all back in and save them again. So I had a bit of a brain fart and decided to take them out of the D2D books too. I mean, it’s already in my master file anyway. I didn’t need the D2D versions as well.
The only thing I don’t have is a teaser at the end, and I plan to include teasers in the novellas and the novels. But I’d do that in my main file too.
I couldn’t really justify including teasers in the short stories as I may as well just include the whole next story. So I shelved that until I’m republishing the longer books. But I had to go through and re-do the first six books I’d already republished. And that took the entire afternoon.
I was so smug yesterday at scheduling the blog post to publish at 8am the next day on two days on the trot, but even if I had the time at the end of yesterday to still do that, I didn’t have the energy.
While I worked on the books, the poet (who’s still not firing on all cylinders yet) mended the bi-fold bathroom door, fitted the new blind in the bedroom, and took the dog for a walk. He also had quite a few meetings with work colleagues via Teams. And then couldn’t understand why he was shattered at the end of the day. And that meant we were both tired.
Today is more of the republishing work. I need to keep up the momentum because after a 3-month break, I was having to learn how to do everything again. Doing it more often keeps it fresh in the mind. I don’t have any client work this week so I already have the allocated time to do this. I just hope it’s something I get quicker at doing the more I do it.
While he was out with the dog, the poet met another three of our new (to us) neighbours for the first time, one of whom lives in the house having the work done in the front garden, directly opposite ours. Everyone seems to nice and friendly here, and they all seem to be happy that our house is being lived in again after being empty and shuttered for 14 months.
This post appears on Words Worth Writing, Medium and Patreon.
I’m glad you have nice neighbors! That always helps.
I know what you mean about it being easier to do things all in one go. I keep extensive notes on everything, and I still feel like it’s all brand new often.
Hope you are both feeling better soon.
This morning I remembered I had a checklist for the publishing! D’uh! That would have been so helpful yesterday. I’m using it today, though.
Thank you, we are.