Generally, our chosen field of writing is an isolated place where we sit alone with our thoughts, ideas, and determination to write a story that will impact the world, or at least our reading audience. In our self-imposed isolation it is easy to come to believe we really are alone and there is no one to help us … just me and my laptop. But there is hope and that hope is in the form of apps, programs and points of connection where we can turn to receive help in our writing career.
Birthing Your Book
Writing a manuscript and releasing it to a publisher is akin to birthing a child, raising that child, and then sending them off to kindergarten without us. There is that sense of helplessness, that we’ve lost control of that very precious entity and we no longer make a difference. But there is hope and help for us, even after we’ve released the manuscript for publication.
PDF Format
Do you have a program on your laptop or computer called Adobe or Adobe Acrobat Reader? This is a free download that will allow you to open, read and print PDFs as well as filling out PDF forms. Before we are ready to send our manuscript(s) to the publisher we need to be able to put them in a PDF format, for the publisher’s sake and to satisfy ourselves that it really is ready to go to the publisher.
Free Software
If your document is not yet in a PDF format and you know you want to convert it to one, Adobe will allow you to do that or to perform even more complex tasks. We suggest you download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader first to become familiar with it and to educate yourself on converting documents to PDF, adjusting the layout and even do some editing. You will be able to see the layout of your document as it will appear in printed form and, if you want, you can cut and paste text without messing up the source file. It takes a little practice and learning but it is well worth your time and effort. You might even like it well enough to subscribe to the more sophisticated platform of Acrobat Pro but start with the free download and work your way up.