How you comin' on that novel?
Brutally close to home, but makes me cry with laughter every time. Yes, it hasn't been quite three years for my novel (if you can call it that)...yet. But I did finish the first draft back in August, which seems like three years ago at this point.
The truth is, most of the last four months has been spent researching every little aspect of the publishing business, which, if you decide to self-publish, turns out to be like the wild west right now. Every subsidy publisher (or "vanity publisher". as they used to be called) is vying to convince anyone with a keyboard that "You too can be the next New York Times Best Selling Author." Because with that keyboard comes a lot of angst and--what they are hoping--enough delusion to get you to fork over your money to be that next big thing.
The whole process is about to make my wee noggin explode. Fortunately for me, where I am high on delusion, I am low on dollars. So the joke is on them!
We are actually getting pretty close to publishing this baby. [Notice how I just swept additional accomplices onto this sinking bandwagon with the simple shift of a pronoun. That's right, I am now including you, Tricia (the book's illustrator), you Allister (the book's developmental and copy editor), and anyone else who has ever glanced at the manuscript] On Thursday, Jan 4th, the manuscript (a word I am getting kind of fond of using) was sent back to Allister for copy editing. That is a huge step. That means we are only weeks from sending this thing to the printer.
There is still a ton of other book-related tasks to do before then...
get ISBNs
LCCN
EAN barcode
select book manufacturer(s) for POD, large batch, e-pub
assign book size, paper stock, cover stocks, etc.
flow and format text
layout cover and flaps
proofread
approve galley
set retail prices for hardcover, paperback, e-book
set trade discount for wholesale and 3rd-party sellers
etc.
etc.
but at least the light in yon tunnel approacheth.
So stay tuned. I will be giving regular updates from here until the release date--which I have not set yet. I do expect to have books in hand by March though, when I head to Scotland to hand them out to my dear Ducklings (Dreamflight kids) for the reunion.
Until then, lots of late nights and nervous giggling. I am having a pretty good time :)
Jim
