careers

T-1 Days: LAUNCH! LAUNCH! LAUNCH!

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"Focused Fandom: Cosplay, Costuming, and Careers" is published.  Available.  Seen by the world.  Also, it's only $4.99 for any of the eBook forms.

You want PDF?  Got it.  ePub?  Got it.  Kindle?  Got it.  Give it a bit more time and it'll be on the Nook and in the iBookstore.

It's DONE.  Out.  Launched. 

Thanks to everyone for your support, my fantastic interviewees, my swift editor, and everyone else!

Now, spread the word, people, let's help out the cosplayers and costumers we know, or are, turn those edges, experienced, and costumes into careers!  Forward, professional geekery!

Now I'm going to take a month to market the book – then it's back to the next one(s) . . .

– Steven Savage

 

T-10 Days: In The Abyss Of Editing

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And the editing of "Focused Fandom: Cosplay, Costuming, and Careers" is done.   We have ten days until launch of the ebooks.

I want to note I hate editing.

Oh I don't mind the act.  It's very important.  In some cases it's quite insightful.  In all cases it makes the book easier to read.

The reason I hate it is that it is hard to stop.

If you have ever published anything, from fanfic to a public book, you know that you are never satisfied, ever, with the results.  You can look at that book or document or whatever and keep finding mistakes until the apocalypse.  You will never be 100% happy with it.

I of course try to make it perfect, and know I can't.

So what I actually do for my editing is set boundaries.  I edit "X" amount of times, I take my editor's comments, etc.  At a certain point after enough actions or iterations I declare it done and move on.

Why not try to make it perfect?  Because I won't.  A book that looked perfect to me today will look flawed tomorrow.

So what I do is set that deadline and bloody well make it worth it.

Not only does it keep me from obsessing forever, it also forces me to make the time editing worth it.  Knowing I set limits in place keeps me from wasting my time.

I'm especially curious about how knowing I'm doing this as an ebook has affected my mindset.  Was I less cautious because it's easy to correct, or more cautious because I expect greater sales and a more diverse audience?  Was the nature of the book (driven by interviews) making it easier or harder to edit as I'm using a different voice?

I don't know, but it's going to be fun to watch and learn.

Next up, time to format . . .we're nearly done!

– Steven Savage

T-24 Days: Oh, Editing

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24 Days Until Cosplay, Costuming, and Careers comes out!

So I'm blowing half this weekend editing.

The reason I do this is I find it easy to edit in one, huge lump.  I get into the "zone," I get focused, I notice things, see patterns.  Admittedly after 180+ pages I'm probably going to be hallucinating things as well and become convinced semicolons are out to get me.

This is also a tricky time as the book isn't being edited in a "normal" fashion, but I'm taking feedback on the go.  This is because, simply, I'm experimenting with how I can streamline my writing process.  There's a chance I'm going to be so horrified after this weeked I might slow down.

But knowing me?  Probably not.

– Steven Savage