Welcome to a new edition of Friday… Day! As you might have heard earlier this week, I’m in need of a change-up. This series will officially focus on my publishing efforts, even though that’s essentially what I’ve been trying to do for weeks.

On to the updates!

I finally feel like I’ve made real progress. I haven’t started a read-through of WoEM  in earnest, but I’ve made headway in other areas.

• I’ve replaced en-dashes with em-dashes where appropriate — this took a while…
• I’ve made italicized words consistent
• I checked the spelling/usage of certain words or terms
• I even started sorting through and replacing overused vocabulary (wide-eyed, smirk, grimace, and half– were repeat offenders). The dozens of occurrences of “smirk” still need some work.

My glossary still needs work, but that will come once I actually begin my read-throughs. Speaking of which, once I’ve made some of these simpler Ctrl+F changes to my manuscript, I’m going to print the thing out to read through for narration, consistency, plot, character… all of the non-grammar things. And if I happen to catch grammar and spelling errors along the way, all the better.

I just cannot concentrate sitting in front of my computer and… reading. Reading on a computer screen is not enjoyable for me, so a hard copy is the way to go, methinks.

What about Publishing?!

You’re right, internet reader. I do need to make some moves towards actually publishing.

I heard back from grand total of three book design services last week. One sent me an estimate for my project — very helpful, but too expensive.

Another replied in the least helpful way possible. I had given them the details of my book and some of the things I was looking for and asked for an estimate of cost and duration of the project. They told me that their base price for book design was $800.

Hey, thanks for the info there Waton, but you didn’t actually answer any of my questions! They did not merit a reply from yours truly.

The third book designer told me exactly what I’d be paying for, and how much, and laid out his basic process. He even gave me a tentative start date: April 2.

Okay, that’s waaayyy too soon, so I pushed it to April 16, and he should have it finished in about three weeks. I need to send him the deposit to lock in my spot, but I’m excited to work with this guy. And his pricing is just right for my budget. That means I need to read through my manuscript and make all the little fixes by April 15. I have 23 days.

I also contacted my book cover illustrator and asked if he could draw me a map… he said yes! He’s also interested in developing an “interactive map”, I’m guessing online, which would be just incredible. If anyone is looking for a diligent, friendly, and helpful illustrator, I cannot recommend Sergey Velisser enough.

So that’s how this week has gone: some real progress on my manuscript, a fantasy map on the way, and a start date (mostly) locked in with a book designer.

I’ve still been a bit stressed this week, but this forward movement is helping. A large portion of the stress is honestly coming from outside of my publishing efforts. The main difference this week is that I got pissed, so I’m forging ahead in spite of everything else.

Goals for 3/30:

1. Wake up early… I can’t figure out if this is a cause of the stress or a side-effect, but it has got to stop.
2. Finish pre-read-through edit to WoEM and print it out.
3. Begin read-throughs, make solid progress.
4. Pay the deposit to my book designer and lock in our project start date.
5. Look into next steps for publishing.