Helping each other

Re: Helping each other

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 13:00:36 +0000

So I didn't go and buy another printer. Instead I dismantled the one I've got and cleaned it thoroughly. It's an Epson and has a little tray with a thick felt pad in it for storing unwanted ink (though at the price they charge for ink they've got a cheek planning for unwanted ink.) Anyway, I cleaned the whole thing as best I could (which probably wasn't very good because I soon become bored.) I washed the thick felt pads in thick bleach until they turned white, dried them and replaced them. Thing is, it actually works now. So, for the time being, all is well.

Peter

Re: Helping each other

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 13:53:01 +0000

Anyway, I got the computer running sweet as a bird (are birds sweet?) and now I've been struggling for a vcouple of hours with my printer. It's illogical. It tells me lies, like it's out of ink. I hate it and will be off at the crack of Dawn tomorrow to buy a new one (and that's a dangerous activity: they don't even put enough ink in to print a page these days, so it's buy, buy buy.
I'm not so keen on printers any more. Anyone like to suggest a good one before tomorrow morning?

Re: Helping each other

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:09:48 +0000

Just gotta love those computers ain't yer!? ;-)

Re: Helping each other

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 10:04:27 +0000

There was me wittering about having two computers when my desktop (the other's a laptop) stopped working. I felt like a child barred from sucking lollies. And it was all to do with backing up. I've got a USB stick too, but I wanted something else, so I fitted my desktop with a CD writer (this laptop's got one, but I'm greedy) Somehow fitting it interfered with the BIOS and the thing wouldn't work at all; it wouldn't even boot up. And the worst thing was I needed a passwork to get into the BIOS and reset it, but I bought the computer second hand and didn't know that it had a passwor let alone what it might be. Fortunately I got some excellent advice from a local computer shop and it's going all right now. But it was a salutory warning to a technophobe like me.

Peter

Re: Helping each other

Sat, 17 Feb 2007 17:28:47 +0000

It's not just break ins that can bedevil the writer and cause him to lose half a lifetime's work. It can be his own carelessness too. I had (notice the past tense) a collection of short stories that I wrote more than a decade ago, and they were comfortably on discs (2 varieties - 3 inch and 3.5 inch because I used, back then, an elderly Amstrad CPC), and this past summer came along and I had to clear a whole lot of stuff out in order for work to be done throughout the house. As it was summer and the sun was shining I piled boxes on the back lawn and covered the lot with a tarpaulin. After all, it was only going to be a few days and it did look like being a drout. Maybe you've guessed it. There wasn't much rain that summer, but the heavens opened that few days… Anyway, in my frustration I threw most of the stuff away because it was ruined, though maybe I should have checked the disks. I thought I had a hard copy of those short stories, but well, it turns out I haven't. They've gone for ever and because I wrote them such a long time ago I can't remember much about them. I know all this because this weekend I decided to check them through, see what was worth saving and do some work. It was going to make a change for the longish novel I'm editing prior to uploading it on to Lulu. Silly me.
Peter

Re: Helping each other

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 11:38:02 +0000

Me too - infact I have three and a laptop (I know very geekish) LOL

I have also just bought myself a 2Gb memory stick as I have become paranoid.
We had a break in a few weeks ago and my biggest worry was that they had stolen all three PCs (infact they didn't take any).
Even though I backup between machines I don't have offsite copies of my writing and family photos/videos - hence the memory stick which now sits in the car.

taff

Re: Helping each other

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 16:54:09 +0000

I hope you're right and this forum does become comprehensive and well used. And it's good to know that there's someone around who we can turn to in times of need. There's nothing worse when a computer starts playing up when you'#re busy on one title or another (I'm usually doing 2 at the time so I can turn to something different if the dreaded writer's block comes along) I also have two computers so that I don't get caught in the lurch.

Peter

Re: Helping each other

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 14:27:39 +0000

I have been very active on a number of SPIA forums (Self Published Independent Authors0 over the past 12 months and I would echo that by clubbing together you really can help each other by sharing info and experiences (as well as business opportunities).

I think this forum could become even stronger than the Lulu forum so I have now added it to my daily 'check fourms' list :-)

As I say, I have picked up a lot of information over the past year and I am happy to help and assit anyone and shre my experiences with everyone here.

btw; I also run a one man PC support outfit so I am pretty snappy on IT issues too so feel free to fire up questions as needed.

taffybach

Re: Helping each other

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 12:22:52 +0000

There are no Lulu veterans, so you're okay there. Personally, I'm only a couple of months into using Lulu.com and am truly delighted with the end product but a tad disappointed at the price, a disappointment that is exacerbated because all of my 10 books (so far) have winged it across the Atlantic. I'm going to keep on nagging about them getting the pocket size books printed in the UK. It can't be that difficult, surely, if they can get other sizes printed here. But I have to constantly remind myself that I must always expoect to pay more per copy than I would if hundreds or even thousands were being printed in one go. With POD there can't be any economy of size.
Peter

Re: Helping each other

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 01:01:43 +0000

Peter is of course right. And the more pages on the site and the more text on these pages, the more there is for Google and the other search engines to lock onto, and the higher the chance of visitors dropping in. Links from other websites are also good for search engine rankings. There already seems to be quite a good cross-section of members here and this should help bring in different types of visitors. I will, in the next few days, be adding a How to start on Lulu page to the Help section on the sidebar and hopefully this might encourage a few visitors to sign up to Lulu, but as I've been offline for a couple of weeks I've got loads of work to catch up on so it may take a while. Feel free to add to or edit this page as I'm by no means a Lulu veteran.

Helping each other

Fri, 26 Jan 2007 20:35:46 +0000

It has long been held obvious that if a load of similar items appear together in most fields of human endeavour they assist each other. Thus if a farmers market with one stall sells £x worth of good, if that stall is joined by another then the first farmer will notice that he sells £x+y of goods. (This is not, of course, true if one of the stalls is a Tesco superstore!) So the more members who place their fiction on this site, the more future sales there may be.

Peter