I just now sent the book up for publication with Ingram Spark, so in 3-5 days, usually 3, I'll have it back and can go over it to be sure I didn't miss anything big. I'm usually afraid of the smaller things that I miss, to be honest. I do miss quite a few small things.
I did use Grammarly this time, and that's cool. I hope I can subliminally learn from the program and get all the rules embedded into my head so I can use it less and less in the future. I don't mind using it to be honest. It's a great safety net, to be sure.
So, what you do is you write your book, you go over it 10x, and you make a bunch of your own corrections. Then you run it chapter by chapter (I did 3 at a time) through Grammarly, and you pay attention to all the suggestions because you want your book to be your book, not the AI's book. Grammarly asks you if you want their AI to correct for informal or formal issues; it also asks you if you are educating or telling a story. There is a huge difference in the way the AI suggests corrections.
After you do that, you go through the book and separate the paragraphs. I decided to use James Patterson and John Grisham as examples. They have differences between them as well, but it's always good to use the best when you're trying to mimic greatness. I read the way I did the other books, where I separated all the dialogue, is also acceptable. The book was closer to 400 pages before I chose to consolidate. It's 372 pages now.
The book does have a memorial to Toby Keith; it seemed fitting to do so. He was a great Oklahoman, and this book primarily takes place in Oklahoma. I decided to dedicate the book to my good friend Karen Treadwell, so that should make a few people laugh -- if you know, you know. I have the standard "Thank You" page, my fabulously famous "Disclaimer" page, and I think you, the reader, will find the book lighter, fun, weird, and interesting.
I wanted to add so many more stories from the days I lived at 1211 N.W. 30th, but decided I really had to stop and draw the line at some point. I only mentioned a handful, to be honest, leaving out the stranger smaller events, but it will be fun for the readers to know that some (most) of the antics in the book actually did take place in some manner or the other. Life, they say, can be stranger than fiction. This is true about 1211, for sure.
It will be about $19 (paperback) on Amazon until I can get the books I've written in EPub format. I can't do that until I'm hired and making good money. I tell people I may be an author, but I'm not yet a successful one. When I can, I'll bring the price way way down since a download to Kindle or Nook will be around $2.99, and I'll make more, too! Win!
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