It's been a busy few weeks. Between the books, the garden, and the girls (my small flock of egg-layers), I haven't had a lot of spare time for blogging. But here's a quick update on A Wilder Rose, which will be published in October.
If you've been following this saga, you know that I've been working on this novel for a couple of years. In February, I decided to author-publish it. That meant that I needed to set up a small publishing house. I have some other writing, in various genres, that I'd like to make available online, so it makes sense to handle it that way. I named it Persevero Press: Latin for "I persevere," which is my mantra. The website is up and you can peek, but Peggy (my webmistress) and I have more work to do on it.
The first task was to get the manuscript copyedited, a job that Berkley (my usual publisher) takes care of with no input from me. But since I'm publishing the book, I get to choose the copyeditor (a woman I worked with on my two University of Texas books). She's finishing her work now, and in a couple of weeks, I'll have a manuscript that's ready to be formatted, converted, and uploaded. It could be published then, too, but I'm holding it for October publication in order to get pre-pub reviews.
The next major task was to create a cover. There, I was lucky, since Sherry Wachter, one of our Story Circle members, is an accomplished, experienced cover artist/designer. I had some fairly clear ideas about what I wanted, and Sherry used those to come up with four sample covers. It was hard to decide among them, so we had an online contest. It wasn't even close: the white cover was a huge favorite. (The drawing winners are posted on the contest page.)
The third task was to put up the book's website. We're still working on it--when it's ready for readers, we'll let you know
Whew. In betwixt/between all this, I finished Death Come Quickly, China Bayles 2014 book. Widow's Tears is out there now, and I've been getting notes from readers who have enjoyed it. I've also come up with an idea for a spinoff from this novel, and will let you know more about it as the details are firmed up. I'll be doing that with Berkley.
Which reminds me to repeat that I am not forsaking traditional/legacy publishing. I've enjoyed my two-decades' association with Berkley and look forward to continuing our work together. But I'm also looking forward to author-publishing A Wilder Rose. The process has already taught me a lot about the publishing business that I didn't know. And I do love to learn new stuff!
Garden report. I lost the first planting of tomatoes and peppers to a late freeze, but the second planting looks very good (Roma, Porter, Sweet Million). I built a new trellis for the peas, and I'll be planting beans (Kentucky Wonder, McCaslan, both pole beans) today. All six of the girls are laying, so we're enjoying plenty of quiche, omelets, deviled eggs, and egg salad. Yum!
Reading note: “Starting your book is only the first five miles of a twenty-six-mile marathon that’s one-third of a triathlon (authoring, publishing, and entrepreneuring).”--Guy Kawasaki