We're Jellin' On A Roll
Friday, 27 March 2015 11:37![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_phil_physicsI don't want to give the wrong impression that I've just spent the last ten days watching basketball games. I've had some very productive days. Sunday, in the middle of all the games, I put in 3000 words. On Wednesday, I wrote over 4000 words, but most of them went into Books 4 and 5. I've also continued on with editing Book 1.
Still have to come up with some names of minor characters. Some are written on a piece of paper which I haven't dragged out in a while, because I wanted the naming to jell.
I ended up not going to the office this week, but pounded the keyboard all week.
Of course, not all is laughs and giggles. I was looking in my Publishers subdirectory to see what I had on Lulu.com, since I've talked about printing up a couple of Beta copies of Book 1 Part A for people to read the book like a book. Anyway, I found a file "LuLu Titlescorer November 2010.doc" and you can Put your title to the test.
Now... I have no problem with being told my titles suck. The title to my Analog story "The Brother on the Shelf" was written by Stanley Schmidt -- my working title was "The Johnson Boys of Ames, Iowa" and was originally part of a much larger story called "Home Front". This is what editors are needed for. Of course Lulu doesn't think much of either Stanley or me:
Just for fun, I took Book 1 Part A, still in Book Antiqua 12-point and formatted it single spaced for a 6x9 Trade paperback, no Table of Contents, page breaks for each new chapter and ended up with an estimated cost of 448 pages: $7.32.
But there are still blank lines I put in for writing, so let's kill those and clean it up:
Remember, this is not for sale, but only for Beta reading purposes when I get that far. I am using the same formatting I did for my Christmas and New Year's PDF stories, so the same file will also be usable as an e-book. I'm guessing it will be about a month before I start sharing Beta versions with people.
New Researches: Chef de cuisine, Sous chef, etc. Law on quoting music lyrics. Æbleskiver, traditional Danish spherical pancakes. Also Swedish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Scottish pancakes. The first use of "katana" (gatana) as a word to describe a long sword that was different from a tachi occurs as early as the Kamakura Period (1185–1333). The holy swords of Masamune. Kanemitsu created some of the sharpest swords ever. Both 14th century. The distinctive curve of a samurai sword is created by differential heat treatment, not by bending the metal. Rattus norvegicus, the Norwegian brown rat is not Norwegian, or from Hamburg -- both victims of smear campaigns. There are very few places on Earth where the brown rat cannot live. Brudkronan, the Swedish wedding crown, a symbol of the bride's virginity, though "in some cases possible to convince the priest to overlook a premature pregnancy with a bribe or sometimes by atoning for the sin by paying for a new gilding of the crown". Sony Professional HVRZ5U HDV High Definition Handheld Camcorder. Sony HDR-CX330/B Full HD Handycam. Sámi people, previously known as Lapps or Laplanders. Quareg -- Tasselli quadrati. 2016 Acura NSX sports car. Consulate General of Denmark, Chicago, Suite 3950, Hancock Center Chicago. Currently there is a 29,008 sq.ft. office available for rent in Suite 4100. David Burke’s Primehouse – 616 North Rush at Ontario in The James Hotel Chicago. The Consulate General of Japan in Chicago is about two blocks south of the Hancock Center.
With a lot of time spent editing, not as much research is needed.
The broad shiny counters are up to:
Book 1 Page Edits (Pass 1)
The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.10 (03-27-15 Fr, 1148 pages)
And since there was a big jump in the later books:
The Lost Kingdom Fourth-Fifth Novels Version 1.10 (03-27-15 Fr, 68 pages)
Book 4 (4874 words) / Book 5 (11,573 words)
It might look like I got much less editing done this week than last, at the 222 page mark versus 138 pages, but one has to temper things -- page counts aren't story. And right now the story doesn't begin until page 40 of 520 in the Book 1 Version 1.10 file. So we are really at 98 of 448 pages lat week and 182 of 480 this, which makes for 98 pages edited last week and 84 pages edited this week -- plus a lot of writing in other sections.
Yeah, the accounting is such that I don't mind if you don't actually get down this far in the post. (sad-grin) But it looks like I might break 300,000 words in the original trilogy this next week...
Still fun!
Dr. Phil
Still have to come up with some names of minor characters. Some are written on a piece of paper which I haven't dragged out in a while, because I wanted the naming to jell.
I ended up not going to the office this week, but pounded the keyboard all week.
Of course, not all is laughs and giggles. I was looking in my Publishers subdirectory to see what I had on Lulu.com, since I've talked about printing up a couple of Beta copies of Book 1 Part A for people to read the book like a book. Anyway, I found a file "LuLu Titlescorer November 2010.doc" and you can Put your title to the test.
Enter your novel title in the field at the top of the page.I tried three variations on my current book title. Each of them scored:
Use the drop-down menus to choose the variables which best describe the attributes of your title.
Click "Analyze my title!"
Score represents the percentage chance of its being a number one hit. Results are between 9% and 83% chance of bestseller success.
The title... has a 10.2% chance of being a bestselling title!To put that in perspective, back in 2010 I had scored four titles:
My second massively unfinished novel scored a "26.3% chance of being a bestselling title!" As did my first completed novel which needs a rewrite and has never been shopped. My second completed novel, which has been shopped twice, had two variations in title, both of which scored: "79.6% chance of being a bestselling title!"Personally I like that it won't deliver either a 0% or a 100% -- the cynical part of me wonders if 10.2% is the lowest possible score, to make you feel better than getting 9%. (evil-grin)
Now... I have no problem with being told my titles suck. The title to my Analog story "The Brother on the Shelf" was written by Stanley Schmidt -- my working title was "The Johnson Boys of Ames, Iowa" and was originally part of a much larger story called "Home Front". This is what editors are needed for. Of course Lulu doesn't think much of either Stanley or me:
The title "The Brother on the Shelf" has a 10.2% chance of being a bestselling title! The title "The Johnson Boys of Ames, Iowa" has a 10.2% chance of being a bestselling title!So I'm not putting much stock in this, but gee, it sure woulda been fun to get a high score. (wishful-thinking-grin) This is, of course, in lieu of finishing this great project and SELLING IT.
Just for fun, I took Book 1 Part A, still in Book Antiqua 12-point and formatted it single spaced for a 6x9 Trade paperback, no Table of Contents, page breaks for each new chapter and ended up with an estimated cost of 448 pages: $7.32.
But there are still blank lines I put in for writing, so let's kill those and clean it up:
After Ctrl-H ^p^p^t ^p^t -- 335 pages And Ctrl-H ^p*** *** -- 332 pages Removed a blank page, added a line after each Chapter Title by hand... 331 pages Manufacturing cost per 331 page book: $5.68Formatting is everything.
Remember, this is not for sale, but only for Beta reading purposes when I get that far. I am using the same formatting I did for my Christmas and New Year's PDF stories, so the same file will also be usable as an e-book. I'm guessing it will be about a month before I start sharing Beta versions with people.
New Researches: Chef de cuisine, Sous chef, etc. Law on quoting music lyrics. Æbleskiver, traditional Danish spherical pancakes. Also Swedish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Scottish pancakes. The first use of "katana" (gatana) as a word to describe a long sword that was different from a tachi occurs as early as the Kamakura Period (1185–1333). The holy swords of Masamune. Kanemitsu created some of the sharpest swords ever. Both 14th century. The distinctive curve of a samurai sword is created by differential heat treatment, not by bending the metal. Rattus norvegicus, the Norwegian brown rat is not Norwegian, or from Hamburg -- both victims of smear campaigns. There are very few places on Earth where the brown rat cannot live. Brudkronan, the Swedish wedding crown, a symbol of the bride's virginity, though "in some cases possible to convince the priest to overlook a premature pregnancy with a bribe or sometimes by atoning for the sin by paying for a new gilding of the crown". Sony Professional HVRZ5U HDV High Definition Handheld Camcorder. Sony HDR-CX330/B Full HD Handycam. Sámi people, previously known as Lapps or Laplanders. Quareg -- Tasselli quadrati. 2016 Acura NSX sports car. Consulate General of Denmark, Chicago, Suite 3950, Hancock Center Chicago. Currently there is a 29,008 sq.ft. office available for rent in Suite 4100. David Burke’s Primehouse – 616 North Rush at Ontario in The James Hotel Chicago. The Consulate General of Japan in Chicago is about two blocks south of the Hancock Center.
With a lot of time spent editing, not as much research is needed.
The broad shiny counters are up to:
Book 1 Page Edits (Pass 1)
The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.10 (03-27-15 Fr, 1148 pages)
And since there was a big jump in the later books:
The Lost Kingdom Fourth-Fifth Novels Version 1.10 (03-27-15 Fr, 68 pages)
Book 4 (4874 words) / Book 5 (11,573 words)
It might look like I got much less editing done this week than last, at the 222 page mark versus 138 pages, but one has to temper things -- page counts aren't story. And right now the story doesn't begin until page 40 of 520 in the Book 1 Version 1.10 file. So we are really at 98 of 448 pages lat week and 182 of 480 this, which makes for 98 pages edited last week and 84 pages edited this week -- plus a lot of writing in other sections.
Yeah, the accounting is such that I don't mind if you don't actually get down this far in the post. (sad-grin) But it looks like I might break 300,000 words in the original trilogy this next week...
Still fun!
Dr. Phil
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