Proofreading's where the edited work can really take a beating. Authors who love to do it all ourselves including cover art, edit and format, must have at least one pair of fresh eyes upon this marvel of unprecedented genius. So we hand the manuscript over to the proofer and keep ourselves busy waiting and hoping for the magic words - okay, it works.
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If lucky, we get away with fixing a couple of typos or inconsistencies like characters popping up in other scenes or vanishing in the midst of action. Easy enough to fix. Harder when our proofer looks completely bewildered and says, "I have no idea if this works."
That's a nice way of saying "this stinks" so with input from proofer, the author settles into yet another edit. I've just finished one. Proofreader is now delighted with results but I had to rip out a lot and rewrite more before the sweet honey flowed. This is one of the reasons I love self-publishing. Deadlines, schmedlines.
Sylvia Rose Books on Smashwords
Sylvia Rose Art on Zazzle
In the end, the extra effort pays off with this series. It was worth standing on my head and trying to touch my toes, in a literary sense. Learned a lot. Still learning. When learning stops the brain is kaput, finished, done, fried, en panne.
Here's some background.
This Victorian detective trilogy is set in 1896 Germany or the German Empire. It was still a young country, unified in 1871. Through two earlier industrial revolutions, the swift wheels of progress brought German industry and entrepreneurship to the forefront of Western technology.
In the first novella, Death Cruise, our hero Reiker investigates murder on a luxury Rhine riverboat cruise. In Hotel of Horror, inspired by true events, Reiker is hired to find a missing millionaire and unwillingly gets a partner.
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In Murder in the Cards, Reiker and April delve into the world of magic, fortune telling and money as a psychic's predictions of murder come true. But what's behind her insight?
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Sylvia Rose Art on Zazzle
Sylvia Rose Books Author Website