Second edition

A Short Collection of Small Stories by J J Watson by | Make Your Own Book

Last September, I very quickly put together a collection of ten short and very short stories and self-published them via Blurb.com.  I had previously used this method for putting books of photos together, but had never tried my hand at a book containing only text.  I should know by now that doing something too hastily is not a great idea.  But there is a balance between being a perfectionist and getting things done.  Sometimes it is necessary just to get on and make things even if they are imperfect.  Often we learn more by making mistakes than by doing something exactly right.  And to be honest, how often does the latter happen?  Not very often, in my experience.

What I am trying to say, in rather a roundabout way, is that there were mistakes in the first edition of my short story book.  As someone who has edited scientific journals and biological text books with razor-sharp precision (or so I like to think) in the past, I should be ashamed of myself.  But funnily enough, I am not. For once, I just got on and put the book together.  Yes, there were a few places where words got chopped in half at the ends of lines.  Yes, horror of horrors, the font size changed from one story to the next, at one point (but not within a story, now that would be unforgivable).  Yes, there was a slight inconsistency in the use of "'cause" and "'cos".  But no-one complained. At least not to me. I don't think the tiny wandering apostrophes spoiled anyone's reading enjoyment - I do hope not.  

Since there is still a perfectionist lying dormant, mostly, within me, I have recently edited the book, taking on board the very useful notes and comments from a very helpful friend at my art class.  Thank you, May.  So, the second edition is now available, either via Blurb, or directly here, from my website, or, coming soon, from Amazon (for Kindle).
  
And if you spot any errors - please do let me know and I'll keep notes for the third edition.