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Jun 19, 2012

Dropbox

I have been using Dropbox to share my files with reviewers of my book and it has been awesome. So good in fact, that I have moved all of my documents into it and use it for my regular repository. That way everything I add/edit is immediately uploaded there as a backup.

Twice now I have overwritten a file accidentally and was able to go onto Dropbox and recover the previous version. It is like having source control, if you know what this is from computer science, on all of my documents only it is seamless.

Really awesome tool/site. The only negative I know of is that it is pretty costly if you want to buy more space. Their lowest paid upgrade is 50GB for $100/year. I don't need that much space and it is way too expensive. I'll stick to the free account and get as much space as I can through referrals.

So, if you are going to use Dropbox, use this link and we both get extra space: http://db.tt/FfAXzVTH.


Jun 14, 2012

Copy editing...

A late dilemma in this process... One of the things I learned researching self-publication is that the author should always get professional copy-editing for the book. So, I budgeted that in (at about $2.50 / page, which is what my research showed it cost).

However, reality is sinking in. I looked at a professional editors site for Colorado. Of the 16 (or so) people I have contacted, most of them were too busy to even consider more work. Of those that would consider it, three have supplied a sample edit. Unfortunately, two of them went way too far and the third did not go far enough. I want a copy-edit, not a deep dive and 6 comments in an entire chapter isn't really worth the $1100 (or so) I would have to pay. Ugh!

Since the package I am planning to get from Wasteland Press includes 20 hours of copy editing (that they admit isn't really enough), I am considering using them as my final editing. I would like to find the right level of editor out there, but it doesn't appear to be happening and so far my daughter has proven to be a superb editor (good thing that is going to be her career).