July has been kinda crazed in many ways for me. Hence why so few posts. Books 2 and 3 are done. I just finished the Story Grid edit of Book 2 yesterday, and the week before that, I was at the Realm Makers Consortium 2018 Conference for 5 days.
A blast was had, and I learned I neither suck at writing, and I have so much more to learn. Seriously, the classes were phenomenal (with one exception that for a Christian Speculative Fiction Conference was a seriously sour note… but easy to forgive. I keep thinking of the Niles and Frasier Crane definition of a perfect meal, where everything is perfect, except for one small flaw to pick at for the rest of the evening.
I will be going back, barring the apocalypse or some other minor but inconvenient tribulation. :cP
No I don’t have pictures. I don’t like pictures of myself. I look like a couch with a goatee and an arm brace. Who needs that kinda pressure?
That’s been July. Busy editing, learning and generally finding things to fix in my book. Hoo boy, it’s going to be an interesting edit. I’m now scheduling two more passes through the book on my own where I do an out loud read through as well as another pass to get it looking nice and polished before I send it over to my editor.
My editor and I had dinner last night, and we talked about what scene to use for the cover. Originally I wanted to do a triptych for the next three books, but alas, I do not think it’s going to be. So I’m going to just be happy that I found a scene that portrays Brother Finn and Bergamot I like. The other four scenes I seriously considered just all had fundamental flaws for how to portray the book best. Also, you didn’t get Brother Finn like on the ALRDW cover. I probably should contract the artist soon, if this is going to be a November release. Yeah, it’s looking like that’s possible.
Still don’t have a title though. Just the working title, which is going bubye. Need something more fitting for the aesthetic. I may wait till my Beta Readers get back to me.
Ohh! That reminds me! Beta Readers! I’m going to put out an open offer for some people to get involved in the beta reading process.
What does this mean?
Ideally I would like to get between 10 and 20 beta readers. I know that seems like a lot for some authors, but well, I like getting lots of feedback to consider. I am writing something I want, but it also needs to satisfy you readers.
It will be for the month of September with a hard deadline of probably the last week of the month. The date is not settled on yet. I’m going to be a bit more strict this book, but I would love to get some of my fans involved. I will also consider creating a Discord channel for us to be able to discuss the book. Or perhaps we can set up a discussion forum on the blog here, or through Minds.com. Again, haven’t decided but that will firm up, depending on participation from you guys.
Of course that means you will be rewarded with a free Ebook for your participation if you get in and provide the feedback I need once the book releases.
As a consequence of the conference (say that 3 times fast), I will not be doing a pre-order. I found out Amazon changed their algorithm and it now screws over rankings for those who do pre-orders. So if I do, it’s going to be less than 5 days if I do it at all. So thank Amazon everybody. Speaking of which, I’m probably going to go Amazon Exclusive for these next three books and see how that improves or hurts my sales. See what Kindle Unlimited will do for me.
Lastly, I have a hardcover here that I am wondering what to do with. It was supposed to go with me to Realm Makers, but showed up a few hours after I had to leave. That means I have no current plans with it but the ideas are simmering. I’m sure there are people out there who would like an autographed copy of the book. But what to do for a contest for it? I was thinking about fan art. Be a shame to throw a contest and nobody came. So if you like the idea, best let me know. Something fun for a run up to Book 2’s release. So, thoughts? talk to me now for this is the time.
Well, that’s all for now. The plan is:
August: editing
September: Beta Read
October: More editing, cover and formatting
November: Final polish and release (Late Nov publish date most likely)
Repeat process for an April Release of Book 3.
Repeat process for a November/December release of Book 4 (if all goes according to plan).
So there you have it. Hope you like it. Let me know what you think!
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