After making it through my first year as an author I thought that I was past making big mistakes. Boy was I wrong. But more on that in a minute…
I am in the final days of my writing retreat. The ocean has been soothing company and I have been remarkably productive. Today, I planned to initiate a reread on my new B&B Billionaire Romance series book before it went out for edits.
I was excited to dig into the book I completed here at the beach. I grabbed a large – very large – cup of coffee and settled into it. Then, sadly, I got the surprise of a lifetime. The last six chapters of the book were missing. Gone. Kaput.
I scrambled to find them, my heart racing in my chest. So much work and somehow I never hit save? It couldn’t be. Or maybe…yep. It could. After looking everywhere, studying how to recover files, downloading an app to recover files and still getting nowhere, I finally saw this for what it was – a chance to do a rewrite, a chance to do better, hell…a chance to write.
I love to write. I would much rather write than look for or recover files, and I certainly prefer writing to panicking. Once reality set in, I did a quick outline based on my previous writing, made some notes on possible improvements and moved on. The new version will be better. Rewrites always are.
The Gods weren’t finished with me
With my heartbeat back to normal and the outline completed, I decided to tackle other to-dos earmarked for my retreat. Organizing and catching up with tasks that had somehow gotten away from me was at the top of my list. In particular, uploading new versions of the paperbacks for the Beguiling Bachelor series.
Many of you have been requesting paperbacks for months and I have been procrastinating reloading them to produce physical books. eBooks are no problem, but formatting new covers for a paperback takes some effort – and the employ of an excellent designer. I had dragged my feet getting this done.
No more. I put emCat designs to work on new covers and I tackled the formatting weeks ago. Guess what? Formatting is not my thing. Did I mention I am a writer? Yeah, not a file recoverer or a formatter, it turns out.
So lovely Megan said she would tackle covers and formats. Well, if I was using an expert, I decided, I would change everything – including the size of my paperback. Megan turned out great results.
I realized I was long overdue in uploading Megan’s hard work. I was frustrated about the file thingy and figured this would be a nice, brainless task.
Somewhere up there the Gods are laughing
The effort turned out to be more frustrating than the aborted file recovery. Seems Amazon won’t let you change the size of your book once you publish. Who knew? Maybe I would have if I read the fine print BEFORE I put Megan to work.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Seems Amazon won’t let you change the size of your book once you publish. Who knew? Maybe I would have if I read the fine print BEFORE I put Megan to work. www.madisonmichael.net/live+learn #amwriting ” quote=”Seems Amazon won’t let you change the size of your book once you publish. Who knew? Maybe I would have if I read the fine print BEFORE I put Megan to work.”]
So, I beg your patience a little longer. Reformatting and cover artwork is underway as we speak, but it will be at least a week before paperback books are in the system. Longer for Bedeviled, I imagine.
And a rewrite takes time too, so the second B&B novel will be a few days later than I hoped.
Know that I am hard at work, learning from my mistakes, and eager to write and publish another day.
Of course, I am counting on the Gods to pester someone else tomorrow.
What to Read Next?
This month Karen Marie Moning released a new book in her Fever series, a dark, paranormal series full of heat, passion, fairies and an immortal feud. The first book, Darkfever, starts out reminiscent of the True Blood series, but it quickly becomes something more exciting. The lead characters have tension building between them that is tangible and oh, so sexy. Characters are not what they seem and the plot is complex and enticing. Take this thrill ride. Before you finish the core five books you will curse me for starting you down this path. But ultimately, you will thank me and reach for the newest book in the collection, just like I did.
Contest of the Week
Can you answer this question? Please use the Rafflecopter below to enter answer the question and enter for a chance to win a wonderful ebook.
What is the name of the prequel to the Bequiling Bachelor Series?
- Bedeviled
- Beholden
- Bewildered
- Besotted
How can you get the prequel? Become an insider below for your free copy!
Oh my dear…. I know that feeling! I too would love to have drop kicked my laptop after our accounting system crapped out for 24 hours… so what did I do? I looked around and did all of those things I’d put off. Did I get it all done? Of course not! But I made a dent. It felt pretty good.
Thinking of you! Much much love…. B
Barb, I get it. Especially with that pernicious accounting system of yours. But you always seem ahead of the game to me, one step ahead of everyone else. Remember you inspired my first novel, are responsible for my meeting my boyfriend of almost 6 years and have provided me with more love and laughter than I deserve. Not to mention being a great source of recommended books! If anyone can fight off a bad day and rise to fight again, it’s you!
To be honest, I have 10 (yes, 10) back-up copies of everything. I have 8 thumb-drives, 3 of which are off-site and nowhere near me. I regularly email updated manuscripts to myself. I have a data card with the laptop.
And…?
I had written several scenes out by hand and spent a year on-and-off looking for them.
I probably should have re-written them, but when I found them, I remembered why I had looked so hard. Sometimes what you have is good. Other times, it is time to start over.
Before this episode, I might have called this overkill, but not anymore. I have a new system (pray hard for me to keep me up for more than a week!)
and two new thumb drives. But already I caught myself hitting the delete key by mistake. Human error…sigh.
Sorry to hear about your woes. There are just some days when you wonder why you got out of bed, aren’t there?
Thanks, Elf. There are fortunately good days to offset the bad, and good friends to commiserate with 🙂