En Route to Self-Publishing

Here’s where my little book currently stands:  It is about to be professionally edited.  This is a step that a lot of people skip and boy, does it show.  You simply cannot edit your own work with the same critical eye that someone else can give it.  It is not possible. I’ve been writing professionally for much more than a decade now and I don’t submit a thing without having another set of eyes look it over.  And when they find something and point it out, the piece always ends up better for it.   

I think it’s a step that so many people don’t take because it has a price. I’ve looked at many cringe-worthy, self-published books that are riddled with errors and it ruins the experience. I have had three people I trust read the manuscript and give me notes and each of them has had a different opinion about different areas of the book. It’s been incredibly  helpful. But that isn’t the same as having it professionally edited.  Having been through the process a decade ago with Celebrity Tantrums I am already very familiar with getting my work back, covered in a sea of red markings, and not freaking out over it.  Anyone who hasn’t been through it has no idea what’s involved and how even the best, most careful prose can get picked apart like the wishbone from a turkey dinner. It’s humbling, educating and worth every cent.

While my carefully chosen editor works her magic I will continue to study format guidelines for conversion into an ebook.  It’s a daunting process.  I also have an artist mulling over ideas for a cover.  I would love to say this little work of wordsmithing will be online this summer but I think the fall is more likely. I’m predicting that it will be priced at $2.99.  And once it’s up and doing whatever it will do, I just might begin work on an idea for another non-fiction book to follow.

So, you might ask yourself, what the heck is this book about?  It’s called The Naked Truth.  It’s about the summer I spent as live-in help at (the now defunct) Four Seasons Nature Resort at Freelton, outside of Hamilton.  It’s not Disney but it’s not Fifty Shades of Grey either.  It’s just what happened during that eventful summer.  I’m a little edgy about it because it’s full of stories I’ve either never, or rarely told. Over the years many people have said, “I’d read a book about that!”  And I guess we’ll find out if they really meant it!