Kelly O'Connor
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Hi everyone,
Yesterday’s session was great. I really enjoyed hearing Debbie’s responses to everyone’s questions, and seeing how it built on the course materials and took us into some really interesting material.
In discussing working with editors, we mentioned the Track Changes feature of Word. I posted a link to a blog post I found useful. The editor is using Word for Windows, but she links to a YouTube video that demonstrates with Word 2016 for Mac. The updated version of Word for Mac, which I use, is similar (though worse, I think), and I could figure it out using the video.
Here’g the blog post, which is the same one I posted in the comments yesterday. https://www.lisapoisso.com/resources-novelists/track-changes-guide/#:~:text=To%20toggle%20Track%20Changes%20on,colored%2C%20Track%20Changes%20is%20on.
I don’t know why it isn’t showing up as a hyperlink, but you can google “Lisa Poisso Track Changes” and find it.
I still have a question, though. When I get my giant word document back from an editor with tracked changes, do I save it over my original document, or under a new document name? When I worked in my day job, we had a document management system with version control, and I never understood it. Every time my team started with versions, we screwed it up.
I’ll try to remember to ask this question next week, and if anyone has a practice that works, let me know. My original draft is in Scrivener, so I still have it. (I am also not sure whether I am done with Scrivener for this book, or whether I should import the novel back into Scrivener from Word–I don’t think so unless the editor tells me I have to make massive structural changes).
Any thoughts appreciated!
Kelly
Lots of great information in Module 1. I really liked hearing Debbie’s perspective on pivoting from creating to being the owner of a product. Learning how to partner with freelancers is a great area of interest for me. I would really like to develop a long-term editor, but don’t know how to go about it, so i can’t wait to hear more about that. The most intriguing thing I heard was Debbie’s comment about how self-publishing allows you to keep your asset and exploit it commercially now, five years from now, or later. When I got started writing, I had no idea that if a book does not sell in the first year, it can die in the midlist, and the author has basically lost it. While I want to find the best freelancers I can ( I know I need professional help), I think what traditional publishing is offering works better if an author has leverage gained from a record of success in self-publishing. The path from indie to trad sounds like a trend, one that a lot of agents seem to dismiss and resist. I am intrigued by some of the new publishers, like Boldwood.
Love to hear everyone’s dream career path.
Kelly
Hi everyone, I’m Kelly O’Connor, 62, former lawyer living in the U.S., mostly in Connecticut. I am coming to this course a couple of years after completing the Jericho Ultimate Novel Writing Course. I think I may have been in the first cohort and recommend it highly. When I joined the course, I had been writing a historical novel, The Butterfly Game, for a few years and was pretty lost, despite having written 100K words. I finished a new draft last month (yay).
Set in 1815, my book is about a young Swedish countess, Jacquette, the neglected daughter of divorced courtiers. She vows never to play The Butterfly Game, the subtle and not-so-subtle war for political and social influence among the nobility in Stockholm. But when she is forced to move to the capital and falls in love with the heir to the throne, Jacquette must decide between her beliefs and the consuming passion of a once-in-a-lifetime love. The Butterfly Game is my first novel, and I am not certain whether I will query it with agents. I want to begin self-publishing, and my dream is to be a hybrid author, publishing both traditionally and indie. I am excited to learn everything I can from Debbie and to make some decisions about what to do with my manuscript, which is in its second revision.
I can’t wait to meet you!
Kelly
