Love & Other Stuff – an update
I wanted to give you all an update of where I’m up to with Love & Other Stuff. It’s been a fascinating project to work on and I’m glad I made the decision to go ahead with the book. I will be more or less able to stick to my revised publication time frame of February 2015, barring unforeseen circumstances, of course. It’s been relatively straightforward to convert this blog to a book, and I would urge anyone who has been blogging for a while to consider publication. It’s also been enjoyable rereading old posts (the book spans the years 2006 up to the end of 2014).
I also wanted to share with you some of my learnings, because I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t, and it might help other would-be authorpreneurs* in their quest for independent publishing status.
Scrivener
I was only a couple of weeks into the compilation when I realised Word wouldn’t cut it as writing tool. I had too much content to organise for cutting and pasting to be effective. I couldn’t easily navigate around my manuscript. I knew about Scrivener, and I had heard that other authors loved it, so I downloaded a trial copy and imported Love & Other Stuff into Scrivener. I enjoyed using it so much I ended up buying a full license.
One of the really cool things about Scrivener is that you can export a complete manuscript, fully formatted for either print or for ebooks, in a wide variety of file types. But while it’s cool, it’s also tricky, and I am working hard to master the compile function (I’ve spent lots of time on YouTube lately). I’m nearly there, and just need to fiddle around with the output a little more. Other than that, it’s an intuitive program to use and makes life as a writer much easier.
I’m writing a book!
Actually, I’m not so much writing a book, as collating and editing one. Because, you see, the writing has already been written. I am turning this blog – The Diane Lee Project – into a book, and the book is called Love & Other Stuff. I plan to have this book ready by Christmas February