Journey to publishing update #8

Oh so close . . . 40 pages done today, 200 / 224, 89%!

See you tomorrow.

Journey to publishing update #7

Not as much time today to work on the proof read. 10 pages, 71% completed, 64 to go. Found a couple of sentences with passive verbs. Bad verb! Fixed.

Passive verb example: The meeting was held by the committee last night and a decision was made to  . . . 

Active: The committee met last night and decided to . . . 

Bad verb!

Journey to publishing update #6

An unexpectedly productive day: 50 pages done in one day! Now I'm at 150 / 224 for a 67% complete status. Only 74 to go.

Part of the fun of writing books about World War II is doing the research. Thanks to the internet, and Google in particular, I can find out most of things I need to know. Since my novels are war stories, I spend a lot of time researching weapons, aircraft, seagoing vessels, and places. Google Earth is also a fantastic tool. I can pull up a map of France, for example, and select a place for my characters to exist. In some cases, I can use Google's street level view and actually see what they might have seen. 

At the end of my books, I have Author's Notes. This is a place for me to share things about the book, the inner workings, where ideas came from, and sometimes why I did what I did. Writing books about a historic period can also create some anxiety, as I may sometimes write something in the first draft without actually researching properly. Although, I can think of one instance in the new book where I temporarily got a fact wrong. Only because I double check everything did I discover I had simply misread the research article! 

On my website www.ronnmunsterman.com, on the Novels page a you can find a photo gallery of places and things in Operation Devil's Fire. I will do the same thing for the new novel, Behind German Lines.

See you tomorrow.

Journey to publishing update #5

The proofread is going well. I'm approaching 100 pages done out of 224 and finding few errors, which makes me quite happy. How do I know when to actually quit manhandling the manuscript? During each edit, I develop a "feel" for how things are going. When I finished the last one, I knew I needed the proofread, even though I wanted it to be done. Turns out my gut reaction was correct, but now it's also telling me this is it.

I don't want to do a countdown publicly, and it’s a little risky posting these updates and saying that I plan to publish by the end of the month. This is because I’m the publisher, not some big house that has a lot of people doing different things in a book’s production.

Let me say again that I love writing and I especially love writing the Sgt. Dunn novels. I’m writing the kind of story I like to read. Having other people enjoy it is a rather remarkable feeling.

I’ve received emails from folks all over the world (which simply amazes me) and some tell me why the book had a special meaning to them. Out of respect for their privacy, I will never repeat their stories to the public, but many were simply very moving. It made me understand that while I started out writing a story, it became more than that because my readers felt a connection to the characters, and the time and place.

I am emotionally attached to some of the characters, Dunn, of course, and Saunders, and Pamela and when I write certain chapters I am ALL in. It’s always every writer’s hope that the reader feels emotions, too.

Hospital bed salute - U.S. Army Ranger Cpl. Josh Hargis

This man's salute represents all that is good about our soldiers, warriors. Read the article here:

Soldier's hospital bed salute

There's really nothing for me to add after this article. 

Journey to publishing update #4

Short post tonight. 

Proofread 43 pages, total of 93, 42% done, 131 to go.

See you tomorrow.

Journey to publishing update #3

I just realized I haven't explained completely what I'm doing. I am self-publishing my third book, the second in the Sgt. Dunn Novel series. This set of blog posts is reporting the work I am doing to finish the book so I can publish it on Kindle and CreateSpace (the paperback version), both will be for sale on Amazon.com. My first novel, Operation Devil's Fire can be seen here: 

http://amzn.com/B005EC3PE2

To give myself some credentials: Operation Devil's Fire hit #7 in the War genre in 2012.

By work, I mean everything: writing, editing, formatting, getting the cover together (design by my friend David M. Jones), writing the description, the copyright page, the also by Ronn Munsterman page, and now the final run through of the manuscript, the proofread. Here I am only changing things that are wrong, typos, left out words, etc. No more "gee this word would be nice!" Forget that. I'll never get done. Plus I have day job. Building the website and the posting it. Now don't get me wrong, I love this work, or I wouldn't even do it.

Today's progress

Proofread up to page 50, or 22.3% of the total. My manuscript is 224 8.5 x 11 pages, single space, with one inch margins all around. The paperback will be around 330 - 340 pages, or about the same size as the first book.Remember, I'm trying to get this published in the next two weeks, and certainly by the end of October. Why, you ask? I just need to get it out of the house so I can actually watch a baseball game or two. As it is, it's 10:50pm CDT and I'm getting sleepy.

Then I have to format the file for Kindle and CreateSpace and submit them for publication.

Then there's the Public Relations work to do . . . .

Let me see your comments! Let's start a conversation! . . . . 

Ask me questions.

Thanks

Ronn

Journey to publishing update #2

The Kansas City Chiefs won today! 6-0. They had a 49 plane flyover trailing pink smoke for Cancer awareness. http://www.kshb.com/dpp/news/local_news/kc-flight-attempts-to-break-record-at-kc-chiefs-game.

Picture from my cousin's house near Arrowhead Stadium. 

Today's progress

• More work on the description.
• More work on acknowledgements and author's notes.
• Updated my website to include the cover.
• Proofread the manuscript - 10% done.

See you tomorrow.