So, I’m setting up the second book in the TUYO series, paperback and Kindle formats, and I have some observations here:
- Setting up the paperback was SO ANNOYING. This is basically my fault. I scanned the whole thing fixing “widows and orphans” multiple times and THEN realized I had not right-justified the text. So I did that and of course that meant I had to scan through the whole thing fixing “widows and orphans” again. What a pain!
- You will never notice this, I bet, but the paperback winds up just a tiny bit different from the ebook version. This is because when fixing up widows and orphans, the easiest way I know of is to change paragraphing a little, sometimes by adding or removing a paragraph break, but also sometimes by adding or deleting a few words or even a complete sentence. This is almost always possible, but you do wind up accumulating a surprising number of tiny differences.
- You have to put a cover on a book in order to use the preview function, which means slapping a completely ridiculous cover on the thing just so you can do that. Pity they won’t let you load a blank cover, but no.
- You have to write back cover description and load that before you can move on to load the manuscript and use the previewer.
This means I threw words in the “description” box super fast just to get something in there, all the time swearing under my breath at how terrible a description I was writing. Here it is, for your amusement value.
For years, Ugaro and Lau have lived peacefully, near neighbors separated by the river that divides the winter country from the summer country. But an escalating series of offenses and mistakes now threatens to destroy that peace. One young Lau soldier, Nikoles Ianan, understands the Ugaro people better than most of his countrymen, but he can see no way to resolve the conflict. Until one of the king’s scepter-holders, Lord Aras Samaura, arrives to sort things out. But Lord Aras has only a limited time to resolve the problems in the borderlands. He’ll need all the help he can get — especially the help of a young man with a unique connection to the Ugaro people.
By the time I got halfway through that, I’d given up and was just scribbling. Well, the typing version of “scribbling.” The above does kind of give you an idea of what NIKOLES is about, sure, but I certainly need to improve it before I forget and accidentally leave that description in place. Let me just see here …
For generations, Lau and Ugaro have lived peacefully, near neighbors separated by the river that divides the winter country from the summer country. But in recent years, tension has increased between the two peoples, and now an accelerating series of offenses and mistakes threatens to plunge the borderlands into serious war.
Nikoles Ianan understands the Ugaro people better than most of his countrymen–he certainly understands them well enough to know how badly his own people are mishandling the situation. But he sees no way that one Lau soldier can prevent escalating tragedy . . . until the most famous scepter-holder of the summer country appears.
Lord Aras Samaura has urgent tasks waiting elsewhere and a limited time to forge a new peace between peoples who each consider themselves bitterly wronged. He’ll need all the help he can get — especially the help of a young man with a unique connection to the Ugaro people.
Okay! This is a lot like beating my head against a wall. I’m embarrassed to admit how long it took me to write the above three paragraphs, which I don’t even like. You were all very helpful with the back cover description for TUYO; please tear this apart and/or make helpful suggestions if any occur to you.
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Minor quibble, but “serious war” seems redundant – can just say “war”, I think
And, I’d put Lau and Ugaro in matching order with “summer country and winter country” – the orders don’t match here
Last sentence might read “He’ll need luck–and all the help he can get.”
The identity of the helper is best left implicit. (As written, it is too strong an echo of “Nikoles Ianan understands the Ugaro people”.)
***Not sure if this accurately characterizes the plot or not, but tried to tighten up the language a bit.***
For generations, the Lau and Ugaru have lived peacefully, trading across the river separating their lands of eternal summer and winter. But tensions are rising, and offenses and mistakes breed bitter hatred and threaten to plunge the lands into war.
Nikoles Ianan has roots on both sides of the river. He sees tragedy coming , with no way for a lone Lau soldier to stop it . . . until the most famous scepter-holder of the summer country comes to the border.
Lord Aras Samaura comes with urgent tasks and little time to forge a new peace before bitterness turns to war. He’ll need all the help he can get — especially from a young summer soldier with a unique bond to the winter people.
The power is back! so…. here’s an attempt at shortening it, and without checking into Tuyo to get the details…
NIkoles Ianan of the Lua, the summer land is a solder who understands the Ugaro people who dwell across the river in the winter land better than most of his countrymen. He sees how the Lau’s mishandling of border affairs risks the start of a war between summer and winter. But what can he do? Then Lord Aras Samaura comes to the border to forge a new peace. He’ll need luck and all the help he can get.