I am a great believer in using people with skills and paying them for their work. However, as a first-time indie publisher, I could not afford to bring in an editor (I used writer-friends as peer reviewers instead) or a designer, as I would have wished to. But I wasn’t going to stint on a proofreader.

I can proofread my own work if it’s a short article (or blog post), but not for a 60,000 word novel. So I brought on board Jenny Drewery (jdrewery.thewriterthebetter@gmail.com) who had done my book published last year by Sense Publishers (http://goo.gl/k360PX).

And she’s done an excellent job. She is also a font of publishing knowledge, telling me that song lyrics are not covered by the usual ‘fair use’ rules. Who knew? Apparently you can use a song title without fear, so you can have your characters humming the reprise which is the song title and you won’t get yourself into trouble.

Now all I have to do is her corrections on my manuscript, without falling into the temptation of recommencing a complete re-write. It’s a tedious job which needs concentration, and, therefore, only possible in short stints. Hopefully, by the end of the week I will have a novel I can begin to formatting for Kindle.