Another week has passed, and we have some more progress to report on! Every day, the release feels a little closer. We are getting close to some of the final big moments, one of which is just around the corner… but we have a method here, so let’s start with the update graphic:
Now for the breakdown!
The First Edit is Complete!
It took some time to come up with an editing process that seemed to work well, but once we got it dialed in, the work flowed quickly. The editor ran through everything and made her changes, then the two of us discussed them. By that, I mean “she explained it to me in small words I could understand,” and “I explained why I broke all those rules in that sentence, which is important to setting up events later.” A lot of the time, my intent in the wording didn’t come through as clearly as I’d hoped. That’s one of her superpowers- puzzling out what I MEANT to say and then helping me to say it more clearly.
I’d say… 95% or so of the changes she suggested have gone in, and the 5% that didn’t go in were because the edit broke continuity for some future event yet to be written. That’s the sign of an absolutely God-Tier editor, I think. At least in my book. Literally. (Get used to it. My sense of humor sucks.)
After we incorporated her changes, I went through and did a rough read of the book, recording it as an “audiobook.” I had been doing this for the folks on the Beacon Field Discord even back while I was still writing the book- back then, I would record the stuff I’d written a couple of weeks previously, for example, recording Chapter 3 while I was writing Chapter 8. I was also editing and re-editing as I went, which helped in some ways, but also *severely* hurt my output and added a lot of extra strain. I think the book came out better in the long run, with less need for editing on the back side, but I won’t do that again.
One of the things I learned is that I do better when I focus on discrete phases. For the next book, I’m going to just write the rough draft. No editing, no re-writing; just get the thing out onto the page and THEN go back and start cutting it apart. I want to see if that process works more smoothly for me. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. I’m still a novice at all of this, obviously!
(Side note, my lovely wife takes great joy in calling me “her author husband,” but I reject that energy still! Once The Ocypete is published, then it counts. Writing a book that lives in a drawer is not the same, you know?)
The Hunt for Beta Readers
We’re on the hunt for Beta Readers! Ideally, I’d find 5 or so folks who want to beta-read the book in its entirety and provide me their thoughts and feedback to help me tune it (or totally re-write it) before release. We have a couple selected already, but we need more.
If you want to be a beta reader, swing on by The Beacon Field discord server and let me know!
My hope is to get the book out to some/all of the Beta Readers at the end of the month before I take a break, then get their feedback a month or so later. Then another month to rewrite if needed aaaaaand we’re up to a possible release date!
Cover Art Concept Chosen!
The cover artist came up with three amazing concepts this week, and we spent a ton of time going over them and discussing. After sleeping on it for a night (the best practice for any important decision IMO) we made our choice and gave the go-ahead to proceed with one of the designs. I can’t WAIT to be able to show it off later; I’m beyond excited. I used the rough art to make a few sample covers and actually got giddy seeing a REAL cover on the book! (I like the little AI placeholder I made, but it’s always been just that- a placeholder.)
Surprise for Reading to the End!
I’m also really excited to announce… A NEW PROJECT!
Really!
I decided that it would be neat to have a short story to go along with the book as a soft intro. I’m in the planning stages of that, but the short story will come out when The Ocypete’s release is imminent. It’ll be a little fella, 20-30 pages, I think, and will just give a little insight into a pair of characters in the main book, as well as a little extra context for some events that unfold. It won’t be required for the main story at all… think of it as a little treat!
I plan to release that story on Kindle for the lowest price I can set. which is either “Free“ or “$0.99.“ Depending on the specifics, I may also just put it up here; I’m still weighing the options there. (Even if it’s on Amazon for a price, I will ABSOLUTELY run a free period promo on it so you all can get it for no charge – this little story is a gift to those of you who’ve been here since the beginning!)
More to come on this as we get closer to release. 🙂
As always, I hope you have a sweet weekend and thank you for being here, reading my tripe.
<3
