Tag: publish

Posted on

Editing The 8 Fates of Okteveos

The 8 Fates of Okteveos has completed its second edit and author J. Tordsen has been tracking word counts throughout the process.

The following table shows how the book’s word count has evolved through the writing process.

Section Draft Edit 1 Edit 2 Change Edit 1/2/Total
1 24,112 22,098 23,013 -2014/+915/-1099
2 4,392 5,286 6,453 +894/+1167/+2061
3 3,086 3,397 3,471 +311/+74/+385
4 – 5 5,243 5.457 5,884 +214/+427/+641
6 2,789 3,248 3,255 +459/+7/+466
7 11,730 12,602 14,483 +872/+1881/+2753
8 2,517 2,957 3,287 +440/+330/+770
Total 53,869 55,187 59,846 +1318/+4659/+5977
Okteveos Word Count Table

Section 1: The first section is consistently the largest part of the book, however, during the first edit, a massive 2000 word chunk was deleted to move the story along. In the second edit, some detail was added back in but the overall length is about 1000 words down from the original draft.

Section 2: This section grew by nearly 50%. Detail needed to be added consistently as the other sections took shape.

Section 3: It was the least developed story in the draft. After the first edit, very little needed to be added to it.

Section 4 – 5: Section 4-5 are combined for a very good reason in the book. While not a lot of detail needed to be added, it need to be added consistently like section 2.

Section 6: This section was probably the most developed part of the book. Edit 1 involved some corrections but by edit 2, the story was polished enough where it only needed a small edit.

Section 7: This is the second largest section of the book and where a lot happens. It also needed massive edits to tell the story properly.

Section 8: The rest of the book leads up to the events at the end so, any changes here almost require changes elsewhere in the book and vice-versa.

As you can see, the book started out smaller and grew as the story was refined. Most of the time we hear about authors “over-writing” a manuscript and the tug of war that happens between the editor that wants to cut it down and the author who wants to keep every word. This is not how J. Tordsen writes.

“For me, the story has always developed in editing. The rough draft is, well, rough. While I am not afraid to cut out entire sections out of a story to make it flow better, on the potter’s wheel of writing, I only start off with enough clay to make an ashtray before adding clay to build up the story into a vase. I have a short story I wrote decades ago and I have revisited that story many times over the years to re-edit it. With each edit, it got better and more detailed. If anything, I under-write a story.”

Posted on

New Author Publishes Small E-book Guide for Writers in a Week

Gigabooks Logo

It is nothing short of a rousing success. A brand new author set out to create a non-AI generated e-book from concept to publication in less than 7 days and did it. J. Tordsen, an experienced but unpublished writer, wrote, designed, edited and published their first book in 7 days.

The e-book titled The Gigabytes Guide to Writing is a light read at only 31 pages that mixes wit and wisdom from veteran writer, J. Tordsen. It is billed as “a lighthearted road map to your book writing journey”

He writes on his author’s page: “It is done! Book submitted to KDP and is under review. If all goes well, it should be live in less than 72 hours!”

“The approval was faster than anticipated,” he notes, “and there are a few minor issues to correct in the description but overall I am pleased with the result.”

One of his BETA readers even commented: “The book promoted some confidence to write as someone who never thought of writing.”

“That was exactly what I was hoping for,” J. Tordsen noted. “I wrote it specifically for new writers to inspire confidence in their writing by taking some of the guesswork out of it without getting into the weeds.”

The e-book is for sale on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BWVVB6KF

Posted on

New Author Plans to Write and Publish First Book in 7 days

A new author is taking his first book from concept to published work in 7 days or less.

The new author, who goes by the name J. Tordsen, is a writer with over 25 years of professional writing experience and has written countless blogs, video scripts, website and ad copy but has never published a book.

The book, titled The Gigabytes Guide to Writing, is a lighthearted look at the writing process itself based on J. Tordsen’s own writing experiences. Written from a first person perspective, it provides a general overview of the process of taking a manuscript from concept to publication with special emphasis on writing technology, world building, and overcoming writer’s block.

The book is full of useful information that a new writer might want to know mixed with humor and wit to make it an easy read. It is expected to be available through Kindle February 26th.

J. Tordsen has other works pending and has hinted about them on his facebook page. The titles will be revealed in the upcoming weeks. You can view his author page here on Gigabooks Press.

%d bloggers like this: