Andrew Gates's Blog, page 20

Final Editing Finalized

I am confident enough to say that my book is now edited to a stage I am satisfied with. It’s been a long time, basically two years since I started this project, but I do believe I am finally finished with the text of the book. Yaaaaaaay!!

As I wrote about in another post, my editing process looked like this: First stage editing involved reading two chapters at a time and making large changes, mainly cutting stuff. Second stage editing involved reading those same chapters again and making smaller changers, mainly sentence structure. Third stage editing involved reading the whole book through again and changing very minor things, like grammar and commas.

I have been debating hiring a copy editor. In fact, I’ve even put out an ad for one and gotten several promising responses. However, the cost to hire a quality copy editor is higher than I initially anticipated. Part of me feels like my third stage editing already accomplished what a copy editor would normally do anyway. Perhaps a copy editor is not needed. If anyone reading has an opinion on the subject, I’d love to hear your points.

So what’s next for me?

Well… assuming I decide to get a copy editor, it’ll take me a while to get it thoroughly edited.

Assuming I don’t want a copy editor, the next step is to re-format my book to look good. Right now it’s a big word document. Word pages are designed for regular printer paper which is typically 8½ inches wide and 11 inches long. I need my text to be bigger and also organized on a smaller size, perhaps a paper around 5½ wide and 8½ inches long (the size of regular paper folded in half). Though re-formatting sounds like it might not be too difficult, I feel like it will come with its own set of unforeseen challenges.

After that I need to get cover art. I’ve already got someone lined up for that, so that much is set. However, our discussions so far have only been hypothetical. I really need to sit down the artist and talk about this for real.

Last thing to do would be to publish it. I’m almost 100% sure I’ll take the self-publishing route.

In an ideal but unlikely world, I’d love to make enough profit off this book to live. Ha ha! But I know that’s unrealistic. In fact, I’m still looking for a job. But hey, in the unlikely chance this is a mega-hit, I certainly won’t hesitate to prioritize this book above all else.

So for now I’m going take a break and give myself some time to relax. I’m proud of where I’ve come and eager to see where this project takes me.

June Update – Altered Timeline

If you’ve read my previous posts (looong ago) you know that my initial plan was to have Iris done and out to the public around now.

That’s not happening.

My timeline has been pushed back, though I don’t anticipate it being pushed back very far. I should still be able to get things finished fairly soon.

I’ve been too busy to edit and when I haven’t been busy, I’ve spent my time doing other things. I’ve recently discovered that when you have very little free time, you spend it differently than when you have a lot. In any case, I’m about 50% of the way through my third stage editing. I should ideally have it done sometime next month.

In fact, I will do some more editing once I am done writing this post.

Thanks for being patient!