Manuscript: Charlie is done. At least, it’s as done as it can be right now.

205,000 words, which is actually shorter than I thought it would turn out.

I wrote an entirely new section over the weekend that was intended to be 1,500 words. It came out at 2,500. I’d like to trim that down, but I think I need a bit of separation from revising for the moment.

I might send the last three chapters to my editor for her to read over. That was the part of the book that needed the most new content, rather than just straight revisions, and I’m not going to feel comfortable calling it complete until someone else looks at it.

Preferably someone with intimate knowledge of the entire story, and she’s all I got!

I haven’t fully planned my final read-throughs yet. They will probably depend on what my editor says about the bolstered ending.

Either way, though, it’s time to start looking beyond writing and revising.

The Business of Publishing

It’s weird to start thinking of finalizing my story. I’ve been working on this thing for four years, and it’s been in my head longer than that. And in a couple of months, I’m just not going to be working on it or thinking about it every day.

Instead, I’ll be thinking/stressing about the logistics of running our shiny new publishing imprint!

Actually…

Evening Satellite Publishing has existed as a business for almost a year. PW and I filed our taxes over the weekend, and because I have a business registered in the state of Maryland and with the IRS, I had to file my business’s taxes for 2017.

Evening Satellite Publishing earned no income in 2017, but we also didn’t lose any money, so we’ve got that going for us, which is nice.

Now, however, I need to start really running this thing. Paying for services, tracking receipts and invoices, making way too many budgeting spreadsheets and data reports that no one except me will ever look at…

This is honestly the first time it’s actually felt like I’m running a business. I suppose filing taxes will do that. But it’s nice to feel like we’re going somewhere, because I think we are. I just don’t know where that is yet.

Steve D