I think they must have felt bad over at KDP for the fact that I was having trouble requesting the proof copy, because it came in way faster than I was expecting. And, the wisdom of ordering a proof has already been proven by my husband several times over as he has been reading it. I haven’t read it through yet.
I don’t particularly enjoy reading over my own work. I think it’s because while I do feel that I am a competent writer, I also know that my writing is not what any editors to whom I have tried to sell wanted. I look for the flaws. I try to find what makes my story not good enough.
But that’s more for fiction. I’m a little kinder to myself with the Hike with Me books. After all, they are literally my lived stories. No one can dispute with me what I experienced. Well, they can dispute all they like, but I will stand firm. I’m not as apt to defend my fiction that way. Why not? It’s not like I can do fiction wrong. It’s all a matter of taste.
I’ll read my book out loud to catch typos, and then it will be ready to publish. Time for the family gifts, a bit late for Christmas this year, but just in time for my father-in-law’s birthday. None for my Mom this time. I wonder what will happen to her copies.
And I’ve got a whole bunch of plans for my publishing this year, but who knows if I will get anything done? I want to do so much. I want to get myself an author page set up on my website. I want to get business cards for the Hike with Me books. I need to update the about the author sections in all the Hike with Me books, and add a list of works, because when I hit publish on number 10, it will be my 20th published work. How did that even happen? (Technically, there are 19 under my name, and one under a pseudonym, and oh maybe some short stories posted on certain, ahem, story repositories that shall remain nameless.)
I also want to get my books onto a site for alumni of my college – self submission so the only thing stopping me is me. I ought to update my trail guide books, since the whole reason for doing them the way I did was so that I could update them regularly, and I have updates for both.