Submitting the Files

arlier in the week I put the finishing touches on the hardcover and paperback files of Goddess of Carnage and on Thursday night I uploaded them to CreateSpace and Lulu respectively. Friday I got the email that everything was prepared so, by Monday morning everything will be set.

I’d like to say that I’m not even a little bit nervous, but that would be untrue and also ridiculous. Perhaps I’m not quite as nervous as I was for book one, or maybe it’s a different kind of nervous, because now there’s expectations. Anybody who has read book one probably had an opinion about it, good or bad and I sincerely hope that all the extra work and everything I’ve done to make this book as good as I can possibly get it, will have paid off in the end. On top of everything else, I’m also excited, and hopeful for book 2 and I’ll be glad when it’s finally out and I can stop talking about it almost being here.

Meanwhile, I’ve actually been doing a bit of work on the final novel, which is currently almost 25k words in, unimpressive to say the least, but, considering how difficult it’s been getting there I’m happy all the same. Of course, I still have at least a hundred thousand more words to go before I’m satisfied, but I do find it amusing that less than two books ago 25k was a halfway mark. When all was said and done Bridge of Memories ended up being less than 54k words which while 4k more than my goal, is pretty short in comparison to Goddess of Carnage which clocks in at 80,100 (or thereabouts). Which is about 26-27k more words than book 1, and longer than I ever imagined I would be able to make a book. Interestingly thus far my books have come out longer after edits than they started. In fact, after one round of edits my final word count slipped to 71k (from 75k) then in another round skyrocketed to 80k. Considering the upward trend, of roughly 5 thousand words, the final novel may end up around 130 when all is said and done, a far cry from my original goal of 200k, but still better than I imagined it would be.

For some people word counts don’t matter, what matters is whether or not the words were put to good use, and I agree, a long book does not necessarily equal a good book, there are many books that are proof of this fact (I won’t name names but you get my drift). That said, I like the challenge that having a word count in mind brings to me, whether or not the book ultimately ends up higher or lower is irrelevant, the point is being able to say I made it to that word count. At least for me.