The Introduction: My Psychic Toolbox

The introduction is put in the first section of the book, and needs to give the reader a flavour of what the book is all about. This I find hard to do, my first attempts usually being a description about the book which makes for a boring read. 

So: My Psychic Toolbox: have been stuck for the last few days with The Introduction. Have finished the editing of the Pdf downloaded from Lulu, just the intro to read. Oh direness set upon me as I found it to be dull. Couldn't get some sparkle into it at all, which was irritating in that I am nearly ready to upload to Lulu again. 

But: Yippeee! Woke up early this morning with the words: 'This is how it is for me when I am being psychic' and knew them to be the opening words. Launching myself out of bed I grabbed at a pen and paper and wrote those words down, knowing that they would evaporate away into nothingness if this wasn't done. Once dressed, straight onto the PC I went, and not allowing myself to deviate away into checking emails or Internet surfing,  into MPT I went and out the words came. Phew! 

I am not saying that I have done a fantastic job of The Intro, nor that I am a fantastic creator of words, but I am satisfied that I have done my best to reflect the book and that is all I can do. Upload to Lulu this afternoon, then onto the book cover stage. 

I find it useful to write this diary blog, because it pushes me on. Thanks for reading, and if you are a creator of words, or photos, or anything, then I hope your creative flow is at full speed today.

ebooks?

Next step in the self publishing saga. Can't rest on my posterior now. Need to keep pushing forward. There is no publishing house taking doing this for me, taking the marketing, etc, off my shoulders. Trouble is that I am not a person who can 'sing my own song'. What I mean is, that I find it difficult to sell myself. But then I am not actually selling me, am I! I am staying in faith with a book I have written and formatted the best I can, although it will still have a 'home grown' look because it is a cottage industry book. 

So: ebook time. Inspired by Hubs who is a Tech guy, and enthuses endlessly about what ebook reader he is going to purchase when the roofs of our house are paid for. (Snippets, my other blog, for more info about roofs: payment for!) 

Onto Lulu again: Publish button clicked onto: Email section entered. Since book already loaded onto Lulu, files should be available. Then I got stuck. Couldn't find a button which said 'Next>>>>>' So thought I would write to you instead!

But did find out some good info about Kindle, Amazon's ebook service, and Lulu's ebook service. Even though Lulu 'owns' the ISBN of Psychic Virgin because France doesn't have a 'Buy your own ISBN' service and I can't have a UK bought one because I don't live in the UK anymore, it does not make any difference to publishing an ebook with any other service provider. Kindle and Lulu are also marketing houses, so it makes sense to convert Psychic Virgin into ebook formats with both companies. 

Now all I have to do is fiddle about with the Lulu ebook process, then do some more fiddling about with the Kindle ebook process, then I am done!

And all I wanted to do was write a book to inspire others to follow their own star!


Thankyou www.ifunbusiness.com for imparting some of the info above.

Amazon's got it!

The title of this post was going to be 'A Brick Wall', the theme being that I was bang up against a wall and couldn't seem to find a doorway through. After having finished the read-through of My Psychic Toolbox, then the wall banged up infront of me. Effort seemed to have expired. 

And then it came into my head to investigate batteries. Why? Because my new camera gobbles up batteries so Internet search to find out why this is. I need the camera for certain aspects of my work, and also for my other blogs. 

Through a round about route I fetched up on Amazon. And a thought: would Psychic Virgin be posted up yet? But since other people I have read about complain that Amazon take forever to post their books up (normally up to six weeks), and since it was only about three weeks ago that I authorized Lulu to send it to Amazon, then chances are that it isn't going to be posted. 

It is. Posted up with millions of other books hosted by that web site. A tiny little fish in the hugest of oceans. Engage your head with worrying about whether it is ever going to be seen by anyone, and you will get depressed and possibly give up with writing. So what you have to do is get busy with other projects to keep you moving forward. This I am trying to do. Then the brick wall effect hit me. 

How do I feel about seeing PV up on Amazon? First of all, surprised that it had been posted so fast. Second, that the cover is not quite right, but something inside me is telling me that it is a temporary cover anyway, so not to worry. At least it looks original and not mass produced. Thirdly, that I am pleased that people can get inside the book and have a look at a sample of content. Not being able to do so would prevent me from purchasing a book, and I don't want anyone to buy the book without first seeing if it is something they are comfortable with reading.

And I have the tiniest bit of nervous anticipation, like butterflies, in my tum. Crikey! I have made a book from start to finish and got it out to Amazon. I have a smile on my face as I write this. I am not thinking about the money I may or may not earn. After all, if one did focus on the money side then the writing would not be so good. Oh I could have written something which was more 'popular', but then I would have been prostituting my work because it would have lost its passion. Been soulless. It would not have made an impact on the reader, not lit a spark, not made a difference. 

As in all times previously, when brick walls appear, something happens to disintegrate that wall. Inside of me I have a warmness that PV is Amazonned. Now all I have to do is research what the next step is....... will let you know how I get on with that, just in case you are hovering on the brink of that step into the big wide world of Amazon!


10 minutes later: Helful Hint: One of the things you don't need to do is go have a look to see where your actual placement is in the listings for your genre. Seeing how many other books are listed is likely to whoosh the wind out your sails! In your mind focus on your own book. Never mind about the others. Focus on the fact that the right person will find you. Send out positive thoughts to your book. It is, after all, your offspring. You created it. Now off into the world it is going to go, to do whatever it needs to do. Focus on that. Because if you don't, then despondency will set in and up a wall will go infront of you. 


It is the doing which is important, the personal achievement.

The plod of yet another read-through

So, My Psychic Toolbox has now been uploaded to Lulu, who have downloaded it back to me now in Pdf format. Now I have to read it through again. Which I have tendency to avoid doing. Because it is correcting errors, not writing. Therefore it is, quite frankly, boring. Now 'boring' is a word I never usually use, 'too much to do' being my preferred term generally. Not with 'reading through' it isn't. 

One has to be alert all the times. Looking for escapees: little words missed out, like 'and' or 'the'. Or add-ons: like two of 'and' or two of 'the', or 's' tagged onto a word when it shouldn't be. This takes concentration. Previous read-throughs would have been more interesting. Then I would have been re-writing chunks of words which were not running smoothly, or which had been repeated elsewhere, and I would have been alert to repeating the same word too many times in a paragraph. Even the Big Read, when I have to go from start to finish in one hit which has to be my total focus for a couple of days so that I can see how the book flows through itself, is not too tedious. 

But Pdf read-throughs are. Silly really, to sit on this stage in the process, but I do. I am, after all, nearly finished with the book. Yet I sit tightly in avoidance mode, wasting time. 

So: Onto PC this morning. Got the Pdf file opened. Got my Word version opened. Plugged myself into my headphones, banged on some music (classical with no words, Tchaikovsky to start off with, Chopin later) and started reading the Pdf file, altering my Word copy when errors popped up. Managed 50 minutes before my brain became addled, so off for dog walk then back again, determined to not to avoid. Oh so why then am I chatting to you! Ooopss! 

Ok, Ok, Ok! I'm going back to Pdf and Word!

The writing fright.

Why is it that I write like I do? What is it that is inside of me and needs to spring out? Why can't I write at will? Why do I have to wait until I have a start-off sentence, or a title? Why can't I sit down and plan ahead as to what I am going to write? 

For the last week I have been scatching around in my head trying to find something to write about for 'Snippets', my other blog. Nothing. Zilch. Empty. No words to be had anywhere in my head. 

And then this morning the words posted themselves in: 'Hesitatingly stepping forward'. Having learnt in the past to act as quickly as possible and not allow myself to become diverted by other things, I managed to get the words written. But instead of feeling on top of the world because I had updated the blog, all I am left with is a feeling of....., well, .... almost of being frightened. What is this strange thing which makes me write? What is the driver? And why when the words are coming out do I feel engaged with a part of me which seems do be so different to my day to day self?

Also, if I don't write, then the days in between are not so good. I feel dull. Mentally devoid of energy. But when I do have the word flow it gives energy to my day. 

It is not easy being a writer, a creator of words. And I don't even dare to think of myself as being clever, or gifted, or a better writer than everyone else. Therefore I really, really, do feel uncomfortable with the surge of words that come out. When they do. And I feel just as uncomfortable when the surge is not happening.

Why is this? 

But one thing: I wouldn't change this. I wouldn't want it not to happen.

So: does this mean that I am a 'natural' writer? Or does it mean I lack discipline? 

Or perhaps I should just be happy that I have times of word-flow, and be patient when I don't. 

Or perhaps I should be less examining of myself, and say 'This is how it is for me' and accept that sometimes I can write, and sometimes I can't. 

Anyway, thanks for listening, or rather 'reading'. It helps to talk things through sometimes.