8 Days to Publication

Made it!! Today I sent back the galley and other paperwork involved in the publication process. I feel a sense of accomplishment. Now it is up to the publisher to get the rest done by August 1.


I will receive an ARC (advanced reader copy) before then.

11 Days to Publication

Okay, I've just received the galley, which is the final thing I have to work on for Legend's Cipher to make it's August 1 publication date. I have to go over the manuscript line by line to catch all those pesky little errors. Karen B. did a really great job as line editor and caught many things I missed, like different spellings of a character's name. So I guess I'll be busy for the weekend. I want this back to Wings on Sunday night.

13 Days to Publication

I had a problem with the cover's dpi density and had to fix those and send front, back, and spine artwork back to the art department. There are always glitches that need fixing.

15 Days to Publication Update

Finished edits tonight at 8:30 EST. Whew!!

It really paid to go over the manuscript and make trackable changes earlier in the month.

15 Days to Publication

I received the edits this morning, but the file wouldn't open. Thank you, Microsoft for making different Word version documents incompatible. That problem has been straightened out and I've gone through twenty pages of the manuscript (out of 126 pages). Going through the version earlier is making this process much easier and faster.

I follow my editor's recommendation closely. They read a manuscript with fresh eyes; however, I never just accept the editor's recommendations without reading the entire manuscript. No one is infallible, and typos are easy to miss. In the end, I am responsible for the content of this story. That's why in this crunch time frame I reread the manuscript ahead of edits so I could find changes I thought needed to be made.

Got to get back to work. I'd like this to be emailed back tomorrow!

16 Days to Publication

Yikes! No edits to go through yet. Glad I've already gone through the manuscript and can do a comparison.

27 Days to Publication

Today the final on the cover was accepted. Pretty much what the rough draft showed, but a little more refined. Half way through my edits of the manuscript.

28 Days to Publication

I learned today my editor from my previous books is editing Legend's Cipher. Leslie Hodges is an excellent editor, and I'm as pleased as punch to know she is working on one of my stories again. She emailed me she'd have the edits by the end of the week. This is going much smoother than I assumed. Oh-oh, did I say that? The pessimist in me says I'm tempting fate. NO, No, no! I'm going to be positive! This process is going to go as smooth as silk.

I'm also going through the anthology to catch errors. It's embarrassing what I missed! However, I know this is very common. When you're writing your eye and mind are closely connected. When you reread something your eyes see what your mind thinks is there. Now with several months passed since I last saw the manuscript, I can see what is actually there. Now I can compare what Leslie catches with what I've caught allowing me to be fairly sure of a clean manuscript.

Taking off today to go to Traverse City, see the Cherry Festival and tonight's fireworks. Happy 4th of July!

32 Days to Publication

Once an author receives notification of a contract, there is usually a long period before they hear from an editor. I'm sure within the next three weeks I'll hear, but I'm not waiting. I've gone ahead and started proofing my manuscript yet again. It's always amazing to find the things I've overlooked.

On the other hand, the book's promotion goes ahead. I've heard from the Wings representative about participating in author interviews so plan to get that taken care of ahead of time. Also, I have to make sure all my obligations for blog posts are scheduled ahead so I can concentrate on my manuscript when it comes.