Alia Luria's Blog - Posts Tagged "compendium"

This week, I have been writhing in pain, first from some sort of stomach virus and then from a migraine that may have been brought on by dehydration from the stomach virus. Either way, it has not been pleasant. Nonetheless, we are still making forward momentum on the release of Compendium. Without further whining, here are this week’s updates:

Copy Edit: I received Compendium back from editor, Angela Brown, just today. She’s done a very thorough job, and I’m very impressed. It will probably take me about a week to go through and make all of her suggested changes. At that point, I will turn it back to her for a final proofing, and Compendium will be finalized! This means that I will start to post excerpts of the final novel here on this site and begin submitting it for reviews, so stay tuned!

Blog Tour: Candace Robinson at CBB Book Promotions has been working hard to get my blog tour organized and launched. The banner above is for the sign-up process for the blog tour. I am nervous but excited and hope that she gets a good response from bloggers. If you are interested in doing a Compendium book review, interview or excerpt for your blog, please go on over and sign up here. She has been a delight to work with, and I’m excited for the blog tour to get here! It’s officially scheduled from May 4th to the 15th, and I will post stops and further information as I get it.

I hope everyone had a great week this week! Mine was exhausting, as I finished up the final edit for Compendium, posted Chapter One for everyone to enjoy, kicked off the Goodreads Giveaway, and made progress on several other fronts as well. The featured image for this post is an artsy Waterlogue version of my first draft of Compendiumprinted out and ready for ravaging, er, editing I mean. It’s hard to believe that I have been through four version and almost an additional year’s worth of work since then. I’m starting to get nostalgic, and the book isn’t even out yet! Anyway, onto the news.

Chapter One Excerpt: For those who would like to read Chapter One of Compendium, it is now available on alialuria.com to read for free, in its finally edited (but not proofed) version. You can find it on the book page for Compendium or get to it directly by clicking here.

Copy Edit: I spent a good number of my evenings (who are we kidding, nights) going through Compendium and doing a final edit. As of Wednesday, it has been turned back to Angela for proofing. Once that proof read is done and any fixes incorporated, I will be ready to submit Compendium in ebook form to Amazon, Publishers Weekly, and any bloggers requesting the ebook for review. I will also be able to prepare the final print interior and order print proofs for Compendium. I am very excited to hold it in my hands and make sure the cover lines up properly and the formatting is correct. Once the print version is proofed, I will be ordering advance copies for Goodreads Giveaway winners and any bloggers who have requested a review copy.

Goodreads Giveaway: Speaking of the Goodreads Giveaway, I’m excited to announce that Compendium was requested over 550 times in the first twenty-four hours (this is better than all but two other Goodreads Giveaways launching on the same day). As of day three, we are currently at 790 requests. There is still plenty of time to enter, so if you are Goodreads users, click here to request a free autographed copy of Compendium arriving a month before the public release date. I wish I could provide a copy for everyone who entered, but unfortunately, even at author my rate, that would be prohibitively expensive for me. I am always willing to provide a copy to those willing to read it and provide honest reviews on Goodreads and Amazon, so please get in touch via the links on my press page if you are interested in reviewing Compendium. Please also note that I have opened the Goodreads Giveaway to residents of Canada and Great Britain in addition to the United States. I love international readers, so I hope at least a few international readers win!

I was also incredibly relieved and gratified to receive three reviews this week from Readers’ Favorite. You can check them all out at Readers’ Favorite by clicking here. Two of them were glowing five star reviews, and the third was a positive four star review. Here is an excerpt from Samantha Coville’s 5-star review:

If you have plans for the next few days, do not pick up this book. I repeat: do not start unless you are willing to read for hours on end, gripped by the racing story line and breathtaking intrigue that fills the pages. I cannot wait for the next book to come out and I hope the series continues for many more books after that. I’m bookmarking this author because I know I will fall in love with every word she writes. Wow. -- Readers' Favorite

That quote made me feel excellent! I conceived of the basic idea for Compendium in the summer of 2013 and started writing it in August of that year. After almost two years of work and four revisions, it’s very hard to maintain perspective on my work. I don’t know if this is true for all authors, but I stopped having an emotional reaction when I read a book I’ve revised four times. I still feel that thrill with new material, including the chapters of Ocularum I am working on now, but it’s validating to know that others might read Compendium and enjoy it, especially since my brain is tired of looking at it! I know not everyone will love it or even like it, but knowing that some people do is incredibly motivating as a writer.

In other news... Editing is done! My amazingly awesome editor, Angela Brown, turned back the proofed version of Compendium to me on Tuesday. Having not yet acquired my corneal abrasion and despite my blurry right eye, I incorporated all of her proofed changes and formatted the book for ebook that same night. On Wednesday, despite my newly acquired corneal abrasion, I formatted the book for print. The ebook looks great on my phone in the Kindle app, and it looks great on my Kindle as well (although the cover isn’t showing up on the Kindle, probably because I emailed it to myself instead of downloading it from the Kindle store). I’m REALLY excited for everyone to get to see it. After a proofing mishap with the print version, I have some proofs on preorder for that as well. They should arrive Tuesday of next week. It looks like I might need one more round of print proofing, as Day has expressed dissatisfaction with the amount of bleed on the cover via the online proofing tool. We will see! I will post pictures of the actual book as soon as it’s ready for public consumption!

Many congratulations to the winners of my Goodreads giveaway for one of 20 signed copies of Compendium. I'm very excited for all of you to receive your copies, and I will be mailing them off in the next couple days. Those of you in Florida (particularly Orlando - I can't believe an Orlando resident won one - I'm sure it would be creepy to do hand delivery, so please expect yours in the mail), will likely receive yours very quickly. For those of you in Great Britain who won, it may take a little longer for them to make their way across the pond, but rest assured, they will be dispatched in the greatest haste.

To all of the lovely people who entered but did not win, I will be posting future giveaways to celebrate the book launch. There will also be opportunities to win a copy by signing up for my e-mail list during the April virtual convention right here on Goodreads. If you can't wait, you can preorder a signed copy for yourself on my website, here.

Today is the last day to get Compendium on ebook at 99 cents / 99 pence before it starts climbing back up to its usual price.

Click here to get it!

Thanks to everyone who has supported me by buying my book, or by reading and reviewing it!

I appreciate every single one of you!