Publication Day minus 6, and in my office (aka the kitchen table) it’s like a NASA countdown. The second batch of proofs arrived and looked fine  –  just as well because I’d run out of time to do much about it if they didn’t  – and as some of you have pointed out, with the…

Proof copies of Dr Dan arrived a day early. The cover looked okay. Worth a tweak or two, but alright. Then I peeped inside. Aaaaarrrrgh….. it was a dog’s breakfast. Chapter breaks missing, front matter in the wrong sequence. It looked like a book assembled by a team of monkeys. So I spent the next 12…

If I were a dog, this is what I’d look like today.  I just learned that a) the Kindle edition of Dr Dan’s Casebook is now available for pre-order on Amazon and b) that proof copies of the paperback are on their way to me. Suddenly, this self-publishing lark seems very real. Have I actually gone…

No, not that F word. I’m talking about formatting, a variety of mental torture self-publishing authors must endure in order to make their book printable or readable on a screen. Formatting is easier than it used to be (they tell me) because there are programmes one can use to bring a manuscript up to trade standards.…