Ten Days – Page 3

Ten Days - wordle example - Chapter 3 - for blog — Proportion of word usage in ‘Ten Days’ – Chapter 3

Welcome to the world of Wordle. Until today I had never visited the site although I had a knowledge of ‘word clouds’. I must say a big thank you here to my online friend and fellow blogger Chloe for pointing me in the direction of this incredible tool.

My romantic novel ‘Ten Days’ is now at a point where a lot depends on; feedback from my five sample readers, the response from my proof-reader and the results of the person tackling the design for the front cover. Personally I’m in the process of reading a hard copy of the manuscript, word by word and line by line.

I was aware of the overuse of some words but not others. It’s a romantic novel featuring two main characters; Pete and Gloria, so you might well expect them to appear a lot. In my Wordle experiment, I found that to be the case so I was pleased. After subjecting the entire novel to the filter effect of the Wordle system it seems that I rather like the word ‘looked’.

No, that’s not quite correct. I’m lazy where the word ‘looked’ is concerned, so I should now be seeking to alter it on many occasions to a word of similar meaning … and I’ve ‘looked’ and there are several out there. I would recommend Wordle to all writers.

Progress on the novel? Yes, I think I can say with confidence that I’ve made some. I’ve got the main task done, which is reaching the end of the third draft. My read-through will be a tidy-up and then my proof-reader will highlight issues for me. I have the opinions of one of my sample readers already and I’m confident in my cover designer’s ability.

I’ve decided to take the self-publishing route through Smashwords to produce an e-book. I’ve read all three books produced by the man behind Smashwords – Mr. Mark Coker. Once I’ve managed to work my way through that system I’ll tackle the Amazon Kindle method. One step at a time eh!

My aim is now to get the book out there for early-mid November. I have plenty of work to do yet and I still have to depend to a great extent on other people. One last thing to do is a bit of self-marketing. My website is now up and running, ‘Tom Benson – Creative Writer and Artist’. If you’ve checked in here, please feel free to check in there too, browse and leave a comment in the Guestbook. I’m constantly adding to my art portfolio on the site so it’s not just writing in there.

As I move on with the third draft of my romantic thriller I’ve taken the step of sharing my jacket blurb on Facebook. I’ve also shared Chapter 1 to give a taste of my writing style. My theory is that even if only 1 in 10 people who see the post actually go in and read either one of them then my marketing has started successfully. If I am fortunate enough to attract any reasonable comments I’ll add a second chapter to my blog next month.

Ten Days - Cover idea — A working cover for the e-Book

My graphic is a working cover page for the e-Book and may not resemble the finished article. I’ll use Twitter and local media when the time is right and I’ll continue to plug the story on Facebook. My other intention is to print off and distribute five copies to readers for market research purposes.

The jacket blurb I’ve used is only an experiment and may well change, but the first chapter is close to the finished article as it stands now.

My main investment has been time and effort but depending on the result of my strategy I may have to put money into the pot. I’ve worked out at the moment that a single photocopy of the manuscript is going to cost me £9. If all goes well I hope to recoup whatever outlay I have in that area.

I will very shortly live up to my promise to myself to reduce my retail working hours which will mean a serious drop in pay, but a vast increase in time invested in writing. In order that I don’t look as if my retail work is actually going backwards and out of control, I fully intend to alter my status and profession on any social media with which I’m connected – so watch this space.