I'm writing, publishing, and launching a novel in 7 days.

[themental]

Corona has kicked the arse out of my word counts.

Between homeschooling children, looking after shielded relatives and just general creative drain, my publishing schedule has fallen to pieces.

So, I have a pre-order deadline and a file that needs to be uploaded on Monday at 11.59pm. 5 days to write, 10k a day, two days for editing and formatting and then publish.

The fastest I've ever managed a book is two weeks. So this will be interesting.

Cross your fingers for me please

@themental thank you so much for the update! I hope I haven’t taken you away from your 10k words!

After years in an agency, I work in-house for a corporate company (although currently working from home) and always find it fascinating looking at other areas of design and other areas of expertise!

The cover looks amazing and I can totally see what you mean when you’ve put all of the elements together - different genres definitely have their own look!

I don't usually like reading first person I meant to say present tense not first person. I need more sleep.

Thanks for taking the time to share all of this. It's fascinating. I like your attitude to criticism. A think skin is definitely needed for anyone putting their creation out into the world where anyone can comment anonymously on it!

Hi @themental. Name changed for this as I don’t want my previous posting history to follow in this section and I have been lurking for a couple of months following yours and other authors road to publication. I’ve read all of your posts in this section and I am in awe of your successes congratulations! I loved the chapter you posted. Whilst I don’t want to drag you away from your looming deadline, can I ask a couple of questions When you have time to answer? Can I also say you are one of the most generous posters on this whole forum in terms of being so helpful with other writers.

As my name might suggest I would like to write FT and I think my writing style and work rate might lend itself to self-publishing much like you have done probably under a pen name. I have been using lockdown to try out styles of writing and think I have narrowed it down. I’m waiting to see if I might be accepted to 20booksto50k FB group (I do have an active FB profile so hopefully I’ll get in) my first q is: if I use a pen name, how does any income come to me not my pseudonym? How do you keep the copyright without revealing your true identity?

Could you signpost me to a good editing company/person? Ditto cover design?( I loved yours by the way ) for when I am ready? At the moment when I am ‘in the flow’ I can knock out 3k word count per day, probably more if I cut down on time spent baking 🤣

If I write in MS word is it easy to convert into vellum? Is there a format I should be using that will take less time to upload/alter later or should I be writing on another format then concerting? I also have macs here.

Lastly, you described the dialogue on another thread as ‘clunky’ - this is an area I’d like to improve on so could you be specific as to why you felt it was clunky?

Thanks so much for any words of wisdom! All gratefully received.

Not the OP but I can chime in while you’re waiting (I’m also self-published):

• income goes straight to whatever bank details you give Amazon and other vendors (they will need your legal name and tax info)

• copyright is yours automatically, regardless of what name you sell under, or whether or not you publish at all

• editing depends on what type of editing you’re looking for and some cover designers specialise in particular genres (I don’t pay for these services so not much more help here I’m afraid—all done in house)

• Vellum is a program (Mac only). Yes it converts from MS Word. As long as you use the styles feature in Word for title and chapter headings, etc. Vellum will easily convert into the required format (ePub, Mobi, and so on). You can pay a bit extra and get the version that’ll convert to paperback too.

If you can comfortably write 3k per day and write an engaging marketable story, you can probably do quite well as an indie author.

Hi @SplishSplashShow
Thanks so much for your response. So helpful. A couple of Qn’s if I may:

1. I had previously set format for submission to an agent - double line spacing etc. But having read the angst from the writers on here I thought maybe self-pub Is the way to go. When you mention ‘styles’ on word is this a tab on the programme? Which one is best for conversion?

When you say ‘in house’ do you mean you do the editing and covers yourself? Or do you mean you have access to a publishing house? (Sorry if I sound dim)

I am a physical book sort of gal. Don’t own a kindle (planning on getting one though) but assume you mostly publish to kindle rather than in print? At what point is a print run a good idea?

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions!

^ I would add I do read a lot in print (don’t expect to be a writer and not read myself!)

@Firsttimenovelist everything splishsplash said 😁

I'll try to cover some of the other points in your post?

So I don't actually use a professional editor but I'd just say do your research before you choose one. There are editors and there are editors. You want someone who is going to add something to your writing and not just get tied up in grammar and kill your voice in the process. Grammar / typos can be easily dealt with in Pro Writing Aid, and then try to have a first reader to catch typos. Mine is my gran and a superfan who do it because they love my books and want to read them early. You can try joining groups with other authors like Alessandra Torres Inkers, or Lee Savino's Author Mastermind and ask for recs. OR usually authors will credit their editors in the copyright pages, so check in there if you feel the author has a similar style to you.

Same goes for cover design. Use the look inside feature on Amazon on covers you love, and see who their designers are. It will vary depending on genre but if you let me know, I can point you in the direction of some good ones. They all mostly use groups on Facebook. Premades will be a lot cheaper than customs, but if you're on a very tight budget please PM me and I'd be happy to help come up with something for you.

MS word is totally fine! If you decide to get serious about it then you might want to look into Scrivener. This is a program basically built for manuscript writing and you can have chapter notes, rearrange things easily, keep an outline, add photos from pinterest and character notes etc. Word is completely fine but this just makes everything easier, and it exports easily into Vellum.

Re clunky dialogue I'm sorry, I can't even remember 🙈 I have conversations in my head ALL the time and sometimes just type them out in my phone. I earwig into conversations a lot and make little notes. When I'm watching a film or TV, if people say something I like / find interesting I make little notes about what I liked, or how they did it. Basically become a creeper with a phone full of good words and sayings 😂 and just practice writing out conversations. I did a lot of this (and still do). Conversations that will never be published but are interesting. A girl on her first day in a new high school with an asshole teacher. A police officer dealing with a drug dealer. You get the idea. Also read a lot.

For the actual technicalities I recommend this book! The Dialogue Thesaurus by Dahlia Evans (it's on kindle). I'm still practicing getting this in on the first draft, as it doesn't come as second nature. Don't be afraid of using "I say, I said, he said, she says." What I mean is don't always try to edit this out for "he moaned. She whined. He mentioned. I exclaimed."

"Say" and "said" just vanishes for a reader. They literally gloss over it. But always exchanging that for a "better" word can get really distracting. If you need to use:

"I won't do it," she declares.

Try:

She sticks out her chin and squares her shoulders. "I won't do it."

This makes it clear who is saying it, and that she's declaring it, and it lets the reader actually see it in their mind.

Hope that helps

Oops! By “in house” I meant between me and my OH. I do covers (I have design experience), we edit together (his actual job is writing/editing).

And forget the styles thing, just go with themental’s suggestion of Scrivener. I know a few prolific authors who use Word, but nearly all use Scrivener or a similar program (Ulysses, in my case, but it’s subscription based so that puts lots of people off).

Hi OP, I'm impressed. I've looked into self-pubbing and just have no idea how to get an audience.

That aside - can you tell me about Pro Writing Aid? I use Grammarly a lot (I'm a good writer but I find it handy, especially at work where I check a lot of short pieces) but it has its limitations.

@themental and @SplishSplashShow

Thanks so much for the advice! Been accepted into the FB group now so probably will be back with a ton of q’s!!

How is it going, OP? Sorry if I've missed it but to what extent do you plan the structure in advance and chapter plan or do you have the characters and setting and destination and let the flow determine how you get there?

But late to the party here, but good luck OP!

How did you get on with your wordcount today, Op?

What is going ON with that guy who keeps crossing in front of him during that video? Why is he completely incapable of just staying over the side he wants to be? How does the man giving the talk put up with it? He must have the patience of a saint!

I think it’s in a pub and he is delivering food and drinks to attendees.

Hello!

Just wanted to update and say it's done 😁 uploaded late last night so a whole day early!

Thanks for all the comments, it's been fun!

Sorry if I've missed it but to what extent do you plan the structure in advance and chapter plan or do you have the characters and setting and destination and let the flow determine how you get there?

I always just start with a story idea. Like a sentence. This one came from "what would happen if we decided to legalise drugs?" Another one was birthed by a game we used to play as kids that was a cross between "kissy catch" and "hunt the cunt" (I'm not even joking that was an actual game in my part of scotland) and I thought "what if that game had went wrong?".

Then I think up two interesting characters and give them emotional wounds (Emotional Wound Thesaurus is amazing for this).

Then I write the blurb.

That's when I start writing. I have a rough "story map" I follow that works for me - The W method - but other than that I'm usually making it up as I go along.

Well done and good luck. You must be drained!

Wow! @themental, I'm in awe 😁 Well done

Well done! How fast do you type? 🤪

I'm thinking I could plot a book out over supper with the teens tonight. Thank you.

Sorry that sounded like I'm minimizing your achievements - you sound amazingly accomplished and are so generous with information.

@SimplySteveRedux I'm actually quite a slow typist 😂 I was hunting and pecking until late 2019 when I finally took some time off and trained myself to touch type. But even then I think my fastest on a challenge is 69wpm.

@Wallywobbles do it!!! I'm taking tonight off then about to start the craziness again. Giving myself two weeks this time though 🤣 I could start another thread if enough people wanted to write along and post their WCs etc.

Have you ever co-written with anyone? I'm thinking older teen (creative drama magnet) and I could maybe do one with our two "voices".

I have! I have a dark-ish sci-fi romance series planned for the summer with another author. Co-writing is really good because you can club together, use two sets of author friends for newsletter swaps etc, and also it helps with exposure since two audiences are bigger than one. And obviously the main benefit is you only need to write half the book and it's really motivational.

I've done some YA/ New Adult stuff in the past but they were definitely geared to adult readers I don't think I could write a book without swearing and sex in it haha.

You just need to be careful that it sounds like two different voices and not two different authors. So when I've done it in the past, I'd have free-rein over my characters dialogue in her chapters etc.

Google docs is good for writing collaboratively though 😊