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Steven Lake · 10-03-2010, 09:18 AM

Congrats Jaxx! I hope everything works out for ya on your editing! I actually use a date focused editing system. IE, the "version" number is the particular date the book is being worked on. So for example, my typical versioning goes something like this: book name (date)

Sometimes I'll even include the series name in the title (if it doesn't make it *too* long), and the number as well. If it causes the name to be too long, I'll a lot of times just fall back to doing the series name and the position in the series instead, sorta like this: series 5 (date)

Now it might seem like I'd accumulate a LOT of extra files doing that, since I create a new file with a new name for every day I work on the manuscript. Actually though, I really don't. Given the speed at which I work through a novel, the difference in a manuscript between days is quite considerable. Also, having dated older versions available for review is handy as it gives me something to look back at should I need to review or find something I took out of the current manuscript, or to see what I had written before in case I want to reuse an idea or scene in its original form that had been either removed, or heavily edited.

I also use this dated versioning system because it prevents me from losing all my work in case the document file I'm working on collapses. I had that happen one time, which is what spawned my current system of date titled versioning. I had been working on a story along the way, and every time I got to a certain point, the file would collapse and I'd lose everything. Well, the first time I lost everything. The second time I only lost my most recent work. It turned out in the end that the file was corrupt, and going over a certain size pretty much toasted the file. So I had to eventually export it to a new file, and everything was fine after that. But I learned to keep versioned copies after that. ^_^

Also, someone once told me that if you ever find that someone has stolen your work, and you want to fight them in a court of law, having numerous versioned copies of your manuscript, especially if they're dated copies (ie, the date is in the title), will give you a huge advantage over someone who only has one copy of the manuscript. A friend of mine had that happen to him a couple years ago. The guy came in with only his one copy, which turned out to be an early draft copy of my friend's manuscript that he'd gotten his hands on, and my friend had an entire CD full of versioned files showing workflow, story development, character growth, etc. The judge saw that, laughed, and then awarded my friend a sizable judgment against the guy who'd stolen his manuscript.

10-03-2010, 09:18 AM	#582
Steven Lake Sci-Fi Author Posts: 1,158 Karma: 14743509 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Michigan Device: PC (Calibre)	Congrats Jaxx! I hope everything works out for ya on your editing! I actually use a date focused editing system. IE, the "version" number is the particular date the book is being worked on. So for example, my typical versioning goes something like this: book name (date) Sometimes I'll even include the series name in the title (if it doesn't make it too long), and the number as well. If it causes the name to be too long, I'll a lot of times just fall back to doing the series name and the position in the series instead, sorta like this: series 5 (date) Now it might seem like I'd accumulate a LOT of extra files doing that, since I create a new file with a new name for every day I work on the manuscript. Actually though, I really don't. Given the speed at which I work through a novel, the difference in a manuscript between days is quite considerable. Also, having dated older versions available for review is handy as it gives me something to look back at should I need to review or find something I took out of the current manuscript, or to see what I had written before in case I want to reuse an idea or scene in its original form that had been either removed, or heavily edited. I also use this dated versioning system because it prevents me from losing all my work in case the document file I'm working on collapses. I had that happen one time, which is what spawned my current system of date titled versioning. I had been working on a story along the way, and every time I got to a certain point, the file would collapse and I'd lose everything. Well, the first time I lost everything. The second time I only lost my most recent work. It turned out in the end that the file was corrupt, and going over a certain size pretty much toasted the file. So I had to eventually export it to a new file, and everything was fine after that. But I learned to keep versioned copies after that. ^_^ Also, someone once told me that if you ever find that someone has stolen your work, and you want to fight them in a court of law, having numerous versioned copies of your manuscript, especially if they're dated copies (ie, the date is in the title), will give you a huge advantage over someone who only has one copy of the manuscript. A friend of mine had that happen to him a couple years ago. The guy came in with only his one copy, which turned out to be an early draft copy of my friend's manuscript that he'd gotten his hands on, and my friend had an entire CD full of versioned files showing workflow, story development, character growth, etc. The judge saw that, laughed, and then awarded my friend a sizable judgment against the guy who'd stolen his manuscript.