(No, this is not a plea for money. But on the other hand, if you do happen to have an extra million or two in petty cash that you don’t know what to do with…)
Due to a variety of factors I have multiple versions of pretty much every novel I’ve ever started, stored in a variety of places.
What led to this?
Well, it mostly started when my PC’s power supply went snap-crackle-pop, resulting a large amount of panic until my local computer tech managed to salvage my hard drive and transfer all my files onto a thumb drive.
Some of the stuff from that thumb drive (primarily my Academy of the Accord series and the Elven Bard novels) has been moved to my laptop.
Various versions of the Academy of the Accord books exist on my laptop and on multiple thumb drives, making it really hard to find what I’m looking for.
It doesn’t help that I tend to save every new version under a slightly different name:
AotA Bk1
AotA Bk1 1st Edits
AotA Bk1 for Beta
etc.
Now multiply that times the 13 books in the main series and a prequel. And then there are outtakes, stuff to add in, ideas for short side stories… Oh, and let’s not forget the “to print” versions, where I change to a size 10 font (instead of 14) and make sure that each chapter starts on a new page.
And that’s just one series.
Yeah, it’s a hot mess.
I’m currently trying to corral and merge all versions of the Academy of the Accord books onto one thumb drive, which I will find a way to label. (Unlabeled thumb drives are also part of the problem because I have no idea what each one holds.)
So, my question is…
Is there anyone else out there with this or a similar problem? Solutions? Suggestions?
I can’t be the only one. I mean, there is this mug that tells me I’m not alone, at least in the multiple versions department.
(I do own this mug, but the image is from a Google search.)
Novel Notes 