Writing “The End” on Your Manuscript – Then What?

Labyrinth-Quest-3D-Promo smallIt never gets old, does it – writing “The End” (actually or otherwise) on that current manuscript? Most of us have mixed feelings about it: elation, sense of accomplishment, relief – and letdown, or sadness. I’ve learned that these ambiguous reactions are common among writers.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I did this for the fourth time. I finally finished the first draft of my new novel. I’m a slow writer. It takes me about two years to publish each book, and this one was over 18 months in the writing. While I know many authors are much more productive, I’ve heard that even those who put out many more books than I do face those same feelings.

Aside from not wishing to say goodbye to our characters, there are other triggers for the more negative emotions. We know there is much more to do before we press that “publish” button. In my case I have about three more months before I can take that final step. Continue reading “Writing “The End” on Your Manuscript – Then What?”

And the Publishing Process Survey Says: Part 5

Book Production Process SurveyIn previous posts I covered the parts of the survey that are part of the publishing process, taking your book from initial draft to publication. However, I threw in a few questions not directly related to this process. In this final post I’ll discuss those questions and what, if anything, they might (or might not) tell us.

Reading the disclaimer in the original survey results post before proceeding is highly recommended. Continue reading “And the Publishing Process Survey Says: Part 5”

Publishing Process Survey Says: Part 4

Book Production Process SurveyIn Part 3 of this series, I talked about cover design and content editing, what our recent survey showed about the process used by the IU readership, along with the financial implications of the various choices. This article will continue in the same vein, looking at other pieces of the process until I get up to 125-150% of my word limit. Let’s see how much we cover. Continue reading “Publishing Process Survey Says: Part 4”

Publishing Process Survey Says: Part 3

Book Production Process Survey

In my last post I said I was going to milk this survey for as many posts as I could. Maybe we should start a pool on what that number will be. The first post has some disclaimers, cautioning against reading too much into a survey such as this (click here to refresh your memory). I also discussed the overall costs the respondents reported incurring in the production of their most recent self published book. Using the same method as I discussed then (assuming the actual cost to be the midpoint of the dollar range chosen on the survey), I’ve drilled down on each of the potential production steps to explore the costs using various possible methods. This post will cover two: Content editing and creation of the book cover. Continue reading “Publishing Process Survey Says: Part 3”