Friday, March 21, 2014

CreateSpace and Me...
     I have been experimenting with placing my first novel of The Falls small town mystery series, The Falls: In the Dead of Winter, on CreateSpace. I have been told, and wisely so, that I need to have my books in print as well as ebooks at the Kindle Store. I agree, it's the way to go. But I am finding that self-publishing on CreateSpace is a bit more of a challenge than publishing with Kindle Direct Publishing. I totally screwed up the first couple of forms that I downloaded from CreateSpace. 
     Now if I knew more about working with Word, it might be a good deal easier. It seems that I know just enough to be dangerous. I seem to have screwed up the formatting of my first novel, which somehow doesn't surprise me. Luckily, I have a writer friend helping me, patiently working out the issues with me. I'm sure that as with everything else, it will get easier the more I do it. But that doesn't really help a great deal right now. Frustration and despair alternate at times.
     In essence, I am a storyteller. I weave stories and create worlds. That's where my expertise lies. I've used computers forever, but I don't have the technical savvy that some people have. I know enough to get around, email, Twitter, my blog, FB and writing on Word. I can download and install programs. I can print and scan. But I don't know the intricacies of technology by any means. I don't know how all the magic works. At this point, I'm wondering how many non-techies there are out there in the writing world. How many writers are just storytellers and have little technical expertise? It would make an interesting survey, don't you think?
     As I go forward, an old Scottish dog learning new tricks, I will persevere. From time to time, I'll post my progress in this blog. Perhaps for myself as much as for anyone else. Sometimes it's good to remind yourself of where you are and where you're going.
     May the dragons (and the technical gods as well) watch over us all...

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