Publication Transparency

So, now I'm a couple months into this process, it's time to talk a little about what this process has been.

First of all, there was a big gap between me finding out that I had sold Thorn of Dentonhill and A Murder of Mages.  I learned mid-December, but with the full understanding that the process of putting together the contract coupled with the holiday break meant it would be about a month before everything was squared away and I could shout the news to the world.

Indeed, it took a month, though my experience in that regard should be considered atypical.  It was an aspect of the timing coinciding with the holidays.

Once I received the contracts, I printed them out on legal-sized paper*, signed them and shipped them back to the folks at DAW.  Once that was squared away, I could make the announcement.

So, what happened next?  For one, I decided that was cause enough to start work on Thorn II, which is now well underway.  My goal, on a writing level, is to keep myself ahead of the game.  Once books start to come out, I don't want to leave my readership hanging for too long.

Next, I had a long talk with my editor on Thorn, over the phone.  I took copious notes of things to address in the changes I needed to make.  I also put together my maps and sent those off.

Now, I have to confess-- if you've been following this blog for any amount of time, you know I'm a bit of a map geek and have done a fair amount of work along those lines.   But in sending my maps to my editor-- a woman whose career is centered on the publication of fantasy novels-- there was still a part of my brain that went into nerd-shame mode.  Like, "They're going to think you're such a dork when they look at this."  Crazy, no?  I suppose that stuff is pretty internalized.  Swallow it and move on.

So, got to work on edits, as well as sending a few miscellaneous documents: a two-paragraph description of Thorn (modified from my query letters of old), a bio and some descriptive guidelines for the cover artist, whoever that will be.

Once edits are done and sent in, I presume we'll get to work on the same process for Murder of Mages.

That's where we are right now.  Any questions?  I'll answer them as best as I can.



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*- Oddly enough, for no real reason, I had legal sized paper on hand.  I don't think it had been used for years, but that's how our home office is.