Texas Winter Storm: Getting EVERY LITTLE LIE Published

Most posts about an author's new book don't start with this plea.

Please don't buy my book until the evening of March 1.

Behind the Scenes

Against all odds, I somehow managed to turn in a final file for my latest book, but therein lies a tale

Every Little Lie was set to publish February 28. I chose that date because I knew I'd have the copyedited and proofread file back from my editor. Wrong!

The Best Laid Plans Went Astray 

If you bought this book prior to March 2, you may find some typos in it. There’s a very good reason for that. My home was one of four million households in Texas that had no power, no water, and no cell service from February 15 to February 20. That was the time slot I'd planned to use to make any changes my editor suggested and to correct typos too.

When the power came back on, I had only four days to copyedit, proofread, and generate the final manuscript file. 

The only problem with that was that my editor had never returned the corrected file before Texas went into the deep freeze.

I was forced to be copy editor and proofreader for my manuscript and began work the on February 21—after running a wet vacuum all afternoon the day before to remove water from my house. (A broken pipe outside had allowed water to enter my house through the weep holes. Fortunately, we caught it early.)

I was too exhausted physically and mentally to tackle the monumental task of editing and proofing my file. I started the next day.

Against All Odds

That song by Phill Collins was the soundtrack of the next 3 1/2 days as I put in eighteen hours a day to copy edit and proofread my manuscript. I still wasn’t finished when there were only 39 minutes left to upload the final file. I either had to upload what I had or be locked out of Amazon’s pre-release program for a year. I made the executive decision to upload it and hope for the best.

Well, that’s never a good thing, is it? 

I’ve now corrected the remaining 17 typos—many were using a period instead of a question mark—that I found after hitting the submit button.

Then I was locked out of making any change until the book published at 12:01am, Feb. 28, PST.

Deeply Apologize

I deeply apologize if you received the file with those typos. Sometimes, if you remove the download from your Kindle, power it down, then turn the power on and re-download the book, you may get the updated file.

If not, if you'd like to send me a screenshot of your time-stamped purchase, I'll send you a MOBI file of the book for your Kindle. You can reach me at JoanReeves @ outlook.com. 

Takeaway Truth 

I guess you just can't fight Mother Nature or the Texas power grid which royally screwed up.