I’ve made my decision. I’ve decided on a release date for Thanmir War.
I’ve set my release date as November 5th, 2013. Why November 5th?
- It’s a Tuesday, and traditional book releases take place on Tuesday
- The baby is due late September, but may arrive early October
- It’s before the holidays
This gives me three months to take care of those pesky little odds and ends I have yet to finish. I’ve already been in business talks (ooh, sounds so professional) with a colleague about starting our own publishing company. I’ve written the script and chosen the music for my trailer, and have conscripted my best friend’s husband to help me with animation. I have my cover, know what I need to fix with formatting, and finally decided on an editor.
I’ve been in contact with ten different editors. Believe it or not, three of them failed my first test, which is quite simple. Spell my name correctly in the reply. Ah those two fateful words that have killed off three potential business ventures… Hello Lori.
*Screech!!*
Thank you for your response, but clearly you lack the attention to detail I’d expect from an editor.
Alright, so maybe I’m a bit touchy about being called Lori. It may stem from having a maiden name that was also four letters and ended with -ori. Really people! It’s an “N” in my first name. From preschool on, I’ve dealt with people misreading and misspelling my name. It’s quite humorous placing a fast food order and telling them my name is Loni, and seeing what they write. I’ve seen Lani, Lonnie, Lonny, Lanie, among others, and my favorite: Lawny. Yes, I’m grassy like that.
So when an editor calls me by the wrong name, you can bet that’s an auto reject. Editors, in my opinion, are supposed to fix problems, not create them.
Ranting aside, I’ve decided on a particular editor and have chosen to move forward with her. I enjoy her tone and attitude in her communication, I like her clarity, and her price, though not the least expensive, is within my budget. We have set a completion date of October 25th. *Deep breath* We can do this!
This does put a bit of a damper on my current critique partner relationships. I was quite torn. Do I wait? Or do I proceed? But I won’t get anything done unless I get started.
Three months. Three months to get everything squared away. I should start advertising. They say waiting until the book is released is waiting too long. Unfortunately, I don’t know squat about marketing. So, if you know someone who might be interested in Thanmir War, please spread the word. It’s going to be available on November 5th, 2013.
Now to find one of those countdown tickers…
Thank goodness I never misspelled your name. 0_0
😛
Congratulations! I’m so excited for you!!!
You bet I’ll spread the word. In fact, you’ve got blog time for your cover reveal and release tour if you want it. 🙂
Thank you!
I don’t know the first thing about blog tours. Guess it’s research time. But can I still do a cover reveal if I’ve already revealed my cover?
Ugh. I’ve gotten all sorts of variations. Even our neighbour gets it wrong. I tend to roll with it, except for one that I haven’t been able to stand since I was eleven.
The editor my publisher used spelled by characters names wrong a few times. Fortunately, only in the comments. One was obvious, another … I’m still wondering about it.
Out of curiosity, who did you choose?
I had wondered how your editing would go. There’s a girl in our local facebook writing group that was published through the same company, and she’d told me they had to fire her first editor and get a new one.
I decided on H.E. Saunders. I found her through a Thumbtack.com query. This is her website: http://write-edit-read.blogspot.com/
Mmm. They seemed more upset about the profanity (most of which I was fine with removing or altering) than other things.
Although, I did bristle at their insistence that I was using archaic and modern usages together. I refuse to believe a spelling usage that’s still being taught in our schools right now is archaic. It just defies the very definition of archaic.
Archaic? Like what words? You don’t suppose it’s the difference between US and UK spelling, do you? I wonder which dictionary they’re using.
Leant was one. I told them it was part of the whole UK British spelling deal and they sent me to the Online Oxford Dictionary … where it does not say it’s archaic.
In fact, it says right at the top for lean: (past and past participle leaned /lēnd/ or chiefly British leant /lent/)
Ah well, I ignored all the archaic comments they gave me anyway. If they query it again, I can point them to that very page. ^_^