Thursday, November 14, 2013

How to Avoid Epic Book Fails and Another The Final Omen Gift Card Giveaway

This week is my book blitz through Xpresso Book Tours. As part of the event, I'm giving away a $40 Amazon Gift Card. Check out the post I shared about avoiding book fails and enter the Rafflecoper below.

The Final Omen: Second Sight Book Four was the one for me—the book that would have me banging my head against the walls and questioning why I ever decided to print my stories for the world to see. Every possible book related catastrophe has plagued me since I began writing the novel and I hope to share some of my insight to prevent the same fate from befalling other writers.

I’ve got a MacBook now, it’s all good…
After my Windows computer went wonky on me and contracted some sort of zombie virus, I decided to save up my pennies and upgrade to a MacBook. The Apple brand gave me a fall sense of security, as if nothing ever bad could happen to my livelihood if I used a MacBook. So very freaking wrong! One hard drive crash later, I was left scrambling to try and find a data recovery firm who could get my precious novel off of the MacBook. When it didn’t work, I was forced to work off of a partial copy I had emailed myself a month earlier. This disaster led me to discover the wonders of Dropbox: an online document storage system that every writer should have installed on their computer.

My editor is the shizzel, I can’t wait to hear her thoughts on my final book…
A month past my expected publication date, I had finally managed to recreate The Final Omen as best to my ability as I could. I was all set to send my manuscript to my editor when all of a sudden her email address isn’t working. I go to her Elance page and it’s gone. No!!!! Since we only communicated via email, I had no way to track her down. This meant I had to start over with a completely new editor who hadn’t read or worked on the three previous books in the series. My point is that don’t assume anything. In hindsight, I should’ve worked out the editing details way in advance.

I can do it all on my own! I don’t need any help!
I bit off way more than I could chew with The Final Omen. I lost a month’s worth of work and tried to cut corners to get the book out on time. It was a bad call on my part and I finally had to take a step back and ask for help. Since my original cover art was lost on my computer, I tried to redo the cover using a small file I saved online. It was frustrating and time-consuming and I finally scraped it altogether and hired a cover artist. The end result? A cover that I love! I’m not a graphic artist or a formatter and I learned that although doing these things myself could save a few bucks, it’s not worth the headache.


When you’re a writer, it’s a constant learning experience. As crazed as I may have been because of these issues, I’m sort of glad they happened. It’ll make the process of publishing my next novel much easier.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

19 comments:

  1. Thanks for the giveaway!!! *fingers crossed*

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  2. I'm reading now. Can't put it down.

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  3. Can't wait for the Final Omen!!

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  4. Thanks for the great giveaway! Really hope I win!

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  5. I really like your work. Every book I've read so far from you captures and pulls the reader right in. Thank you.

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  6. Book sounds great- can't wait. To Read it! Thanks for the giveaway

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  7. Love your writing! Great giveaway

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  8. Thank you for the giveaway :) The book sounds great.

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  9. Awesomeness! I love that you deliver the dire warning for others. I've always backed up to an external and an online source since I lost a ton of photographs for my previous photography biz. I loved your final product and I think you did a great job with the story :) I couldn't tell you had issues. Thanks for the giveaway, Heather! WRITE ON!

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  10. Thanks so much for the giveaway! Can't wait to read the book!

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  11. Awesome giveaway! Can't wait to check out this series!! :)

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  12. I'm glad it all worked out Heather! I really did enjoy the book and can't wait to read future books from you. Thanks for sharing your troubles, I'm sure it will help other writers take a second and remember to back up their work multiple ways. :)

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