Blood’s Force: The Quest On The Horizon
(Cover art by Chris Howard)
I can hardly believe it! I’ve balled up the manuscript for Blood’s Force, the first of the Sword and Starship books, to hand to my editor, RJ Blain.
I’ve been performing my own editing and rewriting pass, with significant feedback from my spouse, since February. In that time, Dame Jessamine’s quest has undergone drastic improvement. The manuscript lost a few thousand words, gained them back, and lost them again: 88,000 words across 22 chapters at the moment.
September marks the beginning of the second major editing pass! After I’ve acted on RJ’s feedback, I’ll perform an additional “sanity” pass or two- actually printing out the whole darn thing at least once- before declaring the manuscript ready for publishing. Given this is my first novel, and I’ve yet to experience the full spectrum of quirks regarding ebook generation and uploading to vendors, I don’t want to commit to a solid release date. I still hope to publish the ebook by late 2014, or early 2015. A paperback version may take longer, but is also something I intend to do via Amazon’s CreateSpace service.
Join the quest- read this book for FREE! Click here and provide your email address. I’ll give you an advance review copy of the ebook once it’s ready!
In the sliver of time between now and September, I’ve been tackling a few side projects:
- A short story (I’m targeting 6-8,000 words) to introduce the Sword and Starship universe. Blood’s Force editing takes precedence, so there’s no ETA for this story. Whenever it’s ready, I’ll make it available for free.
- Retooling the CSS and HTML for my main website. It looks prettier, and uses HTML5! That may not mean much to you, but I can’t describe how awesome it is to start over with files that aren’t cluttered with seventeen custom DIV classes. My next order of business is to make the site friendlier for small screens- although early feedback indicates the site looks good as-is on some mobile devices.
- Studying up on the kind of front- and backmatter an ebook novel should have, and where. For instance, a table of contents at the front seems obvious, right? Well, many ebook makers throw the TOC at the end, so that the book sample Amazon, B&N, etc. shows the customer has more actual story in it.
- Learning how to write good marketing copy and blurbs. This is so outside my skillset, but critical to get right! I’ll be working at it for years to come, I’m sure.
That’s where I stand currently. I hope you’re as glad to hear about this milestone as I am to reach it!
Any words of advice or encouragement? Feel free to drop me a line in the comments!
6 thoughts on “Blood’s Force: The Quest On The Horizon”
I’m self-publishing my first novel with CreateSpace – so far it’s been a good experience. I get my manuscript back from editor on Thursday – the first round of edits. It should be available from Amazon in October.
That’s so exciting, Karen! Congratulations! :D
Out of curiosity, how are you handling cover creation and the ISBN in CreateSpace? I know they have guides for doing it yourself, have they been helpful?
Overall, I am very happy with the service from CreateSpace. A friend of mine recommended it as a one-stop shopping way to self-publish. I worked with my salesperson on developing a package that included: two rounds of editing, cover art development with two rounds of editing, interior book design, promotional marketing materials, ISBN, Kirkus review, and Kindle upload. The price was $3400, and had to be negotiated and paid upfront. This seemed to be a fair price. I did price having an independent editor and cover art designer, but that proved to be very pricey here in Los Angeles.
I had a pretty clear vision of how I wanted the cover and marketing pieces to look. I was able to have a phone conversation with the designer, and he produced two really good options for the cover, based on our talk. The way CreateSpace works, is that they send you drafts, you revise, and they send you updated proofs. I did pay for the Premium Design service which allows for additional editing.
I let them take care of the ISBN. I was confused about the different types of ISBN, their rep explained that paying additional money didn’t exactly give you the greatest control or freedom to sell your work. My choice allows my book to be sold on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or by any independent bookseller. I paid for the simple Kindle upload because my book doesn’t have much artwork – only one map inside the book. I am looking into uploading my book on Smashbooks after it’s been released on Kindle – I’ve heard it is a good platform overseas.
I hope I’ve answered your questions, let me know if you have any others. Happy to discuss this further/offline if you like.
My book, THE PARTY LINE, is a YA thriller set in Tehran in the 1970s. It’s told from the POV of a teenage girl who, through happenstance, becomes a central figure in the Iranian Revolution.
Thanks for all this info, Karen! I’m glad your experience has been good so far. Having paid for editing and cover design elsewhere, I’m planning to cobble together a cover/PDF to drop into CreateSpace once it’s ready :) A little work on my end to understand all the requirements, but I don’t mind!
Tehran- no way!! My mom is from Tehran, and emigrated to the US when the Revolution occurred! My dad is American- so half of my family is in the US, and the other half is in Iran. I will definitely want to read your book when it’s done!
Thanks so much – I’ll keep you posted when I get a publishing date. I think you’ll appreciate reading about Tehran. The story is based on my family’s experience when we lived there 1977-78. I loved my time there and it has influenced my life in so many ways.
That would be awesome, Karen! Thank you and good luck! :)