Rat-a-tat-tat-tat! Razzle Dazzle I am Frazzled!

Agh! I'm pulling my long beautiful hair out! It's the twelfth, I forget the last day I posted a blog, oh it was the fourth... *eyes bulge out comically*. My back was killing me for a couple days, then when it was done my stomach was trying to do me in. Then I was out on a couple house calls and trying to catch up on lost sleep. So here we are today.

The final work on the book is being done. I went out and bought a software license for a PDF editor. After looking at one program to merge documents and a second one to do all of the security stuff, each for $50 US, I finally found one that does both and some other helpful stuff for the price of only one of the other two. I bought a copy of CutePDF from, um, whoever makes it. I wasn't Globalsoft like my CuteMap program for image maps. Oh well, the program works splendidly, I still have a couple of things on it to fiddle with, but as far as the e-book I'm good to go. Where I have a problem still is changing the size of the book when it comes time to send it to a printer/POD place. I have a couple ideas and some functions to look into but that's for later.

I ran through the first half of the book today and cleaned up a couple technical problems like mysterious indents in the middle of paragraphs, and missing indents, and extra blank lines that don't belong. I also cleared up a couple typos that somehow slipped right past the spell check. I have no idea why the word “coudln't” slipped through. I just hope that this final go through will result in finding all of the remaining errors. Despite the insistence of the RPG community that all books end up with errors in them I rarely if ever find one in a novel, or what I can only call real books since so many RPGs are proud of their pathetic and unprofessional lack of editing.

The book should be ready and on sale starting this coming Monday the 16th of January. Sometime between now and then I will add to the sales page a small sample from the book. I picked one that was very indicative of what the book is like without using any kind of spoiler while still having something imagination catching and new and exciting. I am also considering putting this sample on the very first page of the book (after the cover) like they used to do in books. A browse in the library showed me that most books now have the first page blank or its filled with hype and/or review blurbs and endorsements. There's only so much hype anyone needs and I think its overdone nowadays so doing it old school appeals to me a lot. I just have to sort out what font and other sizing issues before I slap it in that first page.

The e-book itself is laid out exactly like it will be for a print run with one of the POD (Print on Demand) companies, except for the size. So there are blank pages here and there. There's a front and back cover. It has a copyright page. The back cover has a blurb about me and a picture as well as the ISBN number and the barcode version of the ISBN and a secondary barcode for the price. Watch this space for further announcements. If you don't have the sales page marked you can find it here... Scary Stories @ R.M.T.P. Co.

Mood: excitable
Music: Blackened by Metallica and Killer Queen by Queen.