Finished! Kind of...

[Note: I have two giveaways going at the moment. Click here to enter the Blood Bound ARC giveaway (you must be 16+ to enter) and here for details on how to enter to win Raised by Wolves and Trial by Fire (by Jennifer Lynn Barnes) along with your choice of any one signed Rachel Vincent book.]

In case the busted word count meter isn’t clear, on Monday I finished the first draft of the SHADOW BOUND manuscript! And I got to celebrate for about twelve hours before I got sick. Nice timing, huh? I spent my only day off in the doctor’s office, then running errands in spite of illness. But at least I didn’t get sick until after I finished the manuscript, which I definitely consider a blessing. The first draft wrapped up in 410 pages, 120, 300+ words. But it will get much tighter in the rewrites.

Today, I start rewriting the manuscript. For those who don’t know how this process works (and it’s a little different for every author), here’s what happens with my books after the first draft is written: I write the second draft. This draft gets sent one chapter at a time (usually several per day) to my awesome critique partner (CP) Rinda.

Rinda will read the chapters at least once each and write down everything that sticks out for her. This includes everything from nitty-gritty technical details (grammatical errors, missing words, clunky phrasing, etc…) to more story-centric stuff like world-building inconsistencies, unsympathetic characters, inconsistent behavior for established characters, plot holes, and cardboard dialogue. Also, compliments. If I’ve done something she loves, she’s usually good enough to tell me.

This involves a lot of red ink. Or rather, red text, because we do critiques online, using the Track Changes and the Comments features in Word. Though, if memory serves, Rinda actually prints the chapters to read first. This is one of the areas where our working routines vary from each other. I only print receipts and contracts that have to be signed and returned. And the occasional short story copy edits that have to be sent in in hard copy. I haven’t printed a manuscript since 2007.

Anyway, Rinda then sends me back the dissected chapters and I rewrite them again. Then I send that third draft to my editor.

Third drafts still suck. Mine do, anyway. Don’t believe me? Ask my editor, her assistant, my copy editor, or the proofreader. Books are a LOT of work to write, and even more work to polish. After I turn in the third draft, the book will go through at least one round of revisions (so far, If I Die is the only book that had two rounds of revisions), line edits, copy edits, galleys (my publisher calls them Author Alterations) and proofreading. And that’s just the editorial side. There’s also cover design, typesetting, marketing, promotion, printing, shipping, and probably another dozen parts of the process I’ve forgotten.

And that is why it takes a year after it’s been written (in most cases) for a book to hit the shelf.

If you’re interested in the numbers, here are a couple of specifics. I turned in Blood Bound on Jan 1, 2011. It’s a September 2011 release. That’s an 8 month turnaround, which is faster than normal.

I turned in If I Die on October 1, 2010. It’s an October 2011 release. That’s a normal turnaround, but we had to rush parts of the process in order to have ARCs ready for BEA this year.

I will turn in SHADOW BOUND on July 1, 2011, and it’s a Summer 2012 release. As is BEFORE I WAKE. Which I haven’t started yet. Obviously, the production of BIW will have to be faster than for SB. That’s what I get for having back-to-back releases. Again.

Make sense?