A Book

I am down to the formatting part of sending LIGHTED WINDOWS out into the world. I’m not worried. Amazon publishes (I use the term very loosely) 53 million books a day, or at least that was the last time I saw figures on ‘the Amazon’. My little work will sink amidst the swamp of other works sent onward that day and most likely never be seen again. I am not troubled, okay, maybe just a little.

Why am I not upset about the impending death of my first book? First, it is my first and therefore, not my best. I improved as the work progressed (no really, my editor said so) 🙂 and the next two books will be better. I direct you to John Grisham’s work, A TIME TO KILL. I thought it was a good book but, yes, THE CLIENT was better. Secondly, this whole thing has been a learning process and I am still learning. Currently, I’m unable to create a table of contents even if Word 2016 says it is easy. I have tried ten times and still cannot create anything close to an acceptable form that will pass through the CreateSpace portal. I’m seeking help and have found that there is another world out there that is populated by ‘formatters’ or people who correctly format your work for whichever e-book or print book version you wish. These special people are very busy and charge large amounts of dollars. I tried to learn to do it but I was merely kidding myself. I don’t read code, find meta-data confusing at the best of times and I must refer back to the Word program that tells me it is easy to create a TOC. (yes, that means table of contents).

When I left high school, the very last day, we received a form to fill out asking us to tell the school what our plans for the future were. I wrote it was none of their business. As you can imagine, that did not go over well and I was called to the counselor’s office. The female guidance counselor was a Miss Cook, a short, black horned-rimmed glasses wearing, middle-aged woman who asked again what I had planned for my future. I numbered off five goals, since she’d asked, and she called me Scarlot O’Hara and handed me some college applications. The reason I tell you this little memory is because publishing my books was number five on the list. I have completely accomplished the other four, more on those first bits some time in the future.

In conclusion, (I know you were wondering if there was one) if I can manage to launch LIGHTED WINDOWS in any way at all, I will have reached my final goal. That, in and of itself, is an accomplishment and I will feel fulfilled. Okay, not totally but, there are more books to write and I hope to be able to create a table of contents by the third or fourth book. Fingers crossed….