Countdown to Launch

Dead Stop has been cleared by Createspace and is on it's way to Amazon.com. The ebook version is under review and should hopefully clear in the next 24 hours as well. Both versions should be available soon. I'll be sure and post when they are.

For now, I just wait.

The writing and editing are done. Now I catch myself staring stupidly at my laptop, trying to think about what to do. Novels are like that. They sort of become the reason you're sitting down in front of your computer. Then when they're done, you're left staring at the monitor and wondering "Now what?" Maybe that's why they can become hard to let go of....why the writer always wants to do "just one more editing pass." Because once it's gone, there is nothing to do but start over.

Time to move into the uncharted territory of a new project.

But not quite yet.

There is still a little time to enjoy the sense of closure that comes with a finished project. Maybe even have a celebratory dinner with a friend or fellow author. Then I will have to make sure all the proper announcements are made, and that people get to hear about it. There is still much to do. But...

...the novel is written.

Almost There!

I've just ordered proof #3 for Dead Stop. Errors from the previous two copies have been fixed, and the placement and size of the title on the cover has been corrected. Unless something really unexpected shows up in this copy, I should be hitting the publish button on the print edition late next week.

I'm confident enough in this draft that I'm now moving on to working on the ebook version. Now it's time to play with the vagaries of ebook formatting. I always love this part (not!). Trying to figure out why it puts spaces between paragraphs when your document doesn't have those...trying to figure out why the third link in your active table of contents doesn't work...trying to figure out why it decides to put a page break where you didn't put a page break...and generally by the end of it I'm trying to figure out why I didn't just become a plumber instead.

Oh well, it is what it is...and I'm almost done. Besides, I really like this story. Hitting that publish button is going to sorta be like saying goodbye. I'll kind of miss these characters. They were fun.

Anyways, it's coming soon.

Why We Order Proofs

My second author's proof for Dead Stop came in the mail today, and I can already see the need for a third.

I felt the title and name were a little too small on the first proof, so I had them enlarged so they would be more visible in a thumbnail. The result was the cover in the post below this one. I think the enlargement itself was an improvement, but once the actual author's proof arrived in the mail I could see there was a problem. As can be seen in the photo above, the alteration also brought the title right up against the bottom of the cover. That wasn't so evident when just looking at it on the Createspace preview.

So that's no good.

The lesson here is never trust what the preview on your computer says it's going to look like. Always order a physical copy and see what the real deal is going to be.

I will be raising the title part and uploading it again. Then I'll have to order a third proof to find out for sure what the outcome will be. I will also give the interior manuscript another go over as well. It's coming soon, but it has to be right!

Polish, polish, polish!!!

Tweaks and Corrections

I have just uploaded a corrected manuscript of Dead Stop to Createspace. Lots of words were cut, lots of apostrophes were added (one of my proofreaders asked me if I had some kind of moral aversion to apostrophes) and some misspellings were fixed.  Overall, the manuscript is almost there. Once I get this author's proof back, I'm hoping it will pass a full inspection.

 I also intend to upload a slightly altered cover (above) as well. It's pretty much the same thing, except the title and author part has been enlarged. This is to help it be more visible and clear on thumbnails. It does seem to be an improvement.

So far, that September deadline still looks eminently doable.

Last of all, an author named Dean Wesley Smith demonstrates a rather novel idea on his blog. He is making print copies of single short stories. I have a few of those laying around. Hmmm.....