Getting published-

I haven't written any short stories in awhile, due to investing my time in cleaning up my rough-draft novel.

Besides the task of polishing the story I have been exploring the best way to get the thing published. I have explored Lulu.com and the services provided by Amazon. I have looked at blogs on the subject of getting published, and checked web sites of those who offer to assist. I have also looked at web sites warning of the excesses of some who offer to assist writers in getting published.

I am currently researching how to get an agent. I face an uphill battle, since I am a first-time writer trying to get published at the age of 55. Still, I don't really see gaining the necessary skills to market a novel on my own. I may work on a project with the intent of self-publishing through print-on-demand resources, but this novel is not that project.

There is still much work to do in finishing and formatting my novel. I have a serviceable level of skill in word processing for writing reports and simple documents. I feel the need to gain a bit more skill in learning to manage and format a novel length text.

That, and ongoing research has limited my resources for writing the short stories I love. Oh, and the switch from working days to nights has been a bit taxing, as well. I am fairly well accustomed to the new hours, and hope to do better.

If all goes well I should publish a new little tale in a few days. For those of you who are checking in, thanks for sticking with me.

Word Processing-

I have finished red-lining my rough draft for my novel, Inn at the Edge of the World. I started making corrections and additions last night. As I did so, I realized that I have not actually mastered my word processor. It does not help that I go from Word at work to Word Perfect at home.

If I do go with a self-publishing service or the print-on-demand services with Amazon, I will need to learn how to format my work for publication. I could pay for the formatting and other services, but I feel that learning how to do the formatting myself will be valuable learning. It is more in line with my budget, as well.

First comes the rewrite and a more serious approach to learning the word processor. I suspect that formatting a novel for publication will be a bit more involved than anything else I have done in the area of word processing.

I have a lot to learn. That seems to always be the case.