Friday, March 04, 2005

Old Blog 10: 01/19/05 -- A Successful Lulu

Dreamer is my first novel, and I love it. Some of the imagery was terrific, some of the characters memorable, some of its commentary worthwhile. Dreamer is also completely unsellable to a publisher, because it's about a woman who is just trying to keep faith with her family, her religion, and her heart. The MC is a *nice* lady, who wants to be nice. I like the book that way, and have no interest in sexing it up or deleting her reminiscings. No publisher would waste their time on it.

Tough shit for them, I guess. And hurrah for Lulu Press, which will allow me to get those precious 300-odd pages into print and onto my shelf.

Today I successfully uploaded my poor old workhorse Character Assassin to Lulu (and ordered one right away!) by way of testing Lulu's system before I entrust Dreamer to it.

I have had to learn so much about Word and Photoshop that I can hardly believe it's me in the mirror. (Who is that woman with all that hair and knowledge?) Six months ago I wanted to get a book into Lulu printing, but I had not the faintest idea how to do it. Today I spent much of the day with a test document, trying to figure out how to make numbering appear consistently throughout a document except for those pages which divide say "Book One" from "Book Two." What an effort, and one which Microsoft Word's "Help" pages shed no light on whatsoever. With tidbits of information from Lulu resources and their suggested links, I was able to piece together a plan. None of them was comprehensive or complete, I might add.

I WROTE THE THING DOWN! If anyone on the Piker Pages needs the info, I can just post it, step by eye-bugging step.

The effort made me stink, but I feel like a god. A smelly minor deity, perhaps, but larger than life, nevertheless.

Onward.

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