Working with my copy editors

This morning I went through the work of my copy editors, a second time for the editor handling my story “The Death of David Pickett” and just once for the editor going over my latest column. I’m still analog when it comes to the final pass, revision, or edit. Plus I love the tactile nature of real pen and ink on real paper.

Lure of writing the Great American Novel

I read through my story “The Death of David Pickett” one last time yesterday before I sent the manuscript off to my copy editor. Once the text is corrected, this is the next step before I format it into a digital “book” (ebook and pdf). TDDP will be a bit of swag, a promotional item given away for free, a well written prequel to my novel 1% Free full of links encouraging readers of the story to buy the book.

This project came out of efforts to develop one of my completed longish short stories into something approaching another novel in length. My novel production is not prodigious, which is why I tend toward the kitchen sink approach in writing 400+ page books crammed with everything under the sun. I’m never sure when, or if, I will manage to write another. Once the copyediting of TDDP is done, I’ll return to this approach with the three potential science fiction candidates in my archive.

I also have a longstanding idea for a novel-length story that isn’t science fiction. Set in 1967-68, it focuses on a Spanish graduate student at the National Autonomous University of Mexico who is suspended for a prank, travels around the world participating in some of the heady events of “the year that shook the world,” and returns to UNAM in time to witness the Tlatelolco massacre in Mexico City on October 2, 1968. This is also about my fascination with the time in my life that formed my politics, and I have about 30 pages, 8,000 words, and a bare outline to work with from when I first considered the idea. But unlike my novelettes/novellas I hope to expand into novels, this is a novel that still needs to be written. It will require some discipline and maybe a writing group or two to get it started. I’ve already begun collecting material and sources for this potential book.

Brilliant cover art almost done

Jon Hunt’s latest version of the cover for my free digital book “The Death of David Pickett.” He’ll do the drone logos and damage, plus the title and byline. I’m looking forward to the black-and-white hopefully noirish contrasts. This is gorgeous. And almost done.

Meditations on death

I’ve written another MRR column. This one is about why I light candles for the dead, how I came to write “The Death of David Pickett,” dead rock and rollers, and meditating on death to feel more alive. Many rewrites will follow before I submit the text to my copyeditor by the middle of the month, and the manuscript to MRR’s columns coordinator at the end of the month. The column will be printed in July and on newsstands by August.

Next step to a great story cover graphic

Here’s the next provocative sketch toward designing the perfect cover for the digital book of my story “The Death of David Pickett” by illustrator Jon Hunt. The character’s hair needs to be a little more curly and his face a little more distressed at the prospect of being shot. The drone’s proposed swiveling gun turrets can replace the fang-like ones right next to them and then blended in with the UAV’s overall design. But otherwise, excellent. Plenty of space for some “live” action. One thing I worry about is the empty space below my author byline. Will it count as negative space that might unnecessarily draw away the viewer’s eye? But I think I can rely on Jon’s artistic skills to solve that problem. There are even inner and outer guidelines representing alternately 5.5×8.5″ and 6×9″ cover sizes for different cover bleeds. This is really shaping up!

Designing a killer drone

Jon Hunt then sent me 6 different sketches, 6 potential versions of a homicidal drone for use in my cover illustration.

I liked the overall design of #2 with perhaps the potential gun turret flexibility of #6. #2 has the surface area for a couple of partial logos, plus the surface area to show damage from being attacked.

Working with my illustrator: the initial rough sketches

The writing, editing, and rewriting of my story “The Death of David Pickett” is finished. Now I’m working with my illustrator Jon Hunt. I sent him an email describing the project and its various elements (background, drone, main character, his t-shirt, action sequence). He sent me back the following two rough sketches. I chose #2, then emailed him back the marked-up sketch plus my revisions: larger drone, larger character, and my author byline under the title. Can’t wait to see the finished graphic.

The Plan For Publishing

My original project was to take a finished novelette-sized fiction piece, expand it into a novella, and publish it as a digital book. I joined a Finishing School group of fellow writers to work on it, only to realize that progress was going excruciatingly slow and I might not be done by the end of the year. So I switched over to another completed fiction piece, a longish short story called “The Death of David Pickett” (TDDP), with the idea of converting it into a prequel to my near-future science fiction novel and giving it away for free as a digital book. By doing so I’m hoping to get a “two-for,” perhaps a “three-for,” in that I want to complete a long fallow piece of fiction, dovetail it with my novel both thematically and promotionally, and thereby expand my impact as an author.

To that end, I first sent TDDP to a few readers to evaluate its impact and problems. Then I hired a developmental/line editor for a more thorough evaluation of my manuscript. The fully edited text comes back around April 15, and I’m giving myself 2 luxurious months to rewrite TDDP. Along the way I’ll approach my illustrator to do a snappy cover for the digital book, and as soon as I’m done with the rewrite I’ll hire my copyeditor/proofreader for the final touches. Running parallel to this will be lots and lots of research into the best ebook software to use; the possibility of doing an audio ebook, how to do a mixtape soundtrack; how to make pdfs audio; the various SF FB groups I belong to and what they allow re distributing pdfs/ebooks; other social media distribution possibilities, the potential digital publishing platforms for free publishing and distribution; compiling and augmenting my mailing lists; potential Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews promotions; vetting document downloads for email and digital distribution; creating a secure download site, etc. etc. Only after all this do I actually design, create, and distribute TDDP as a digital book.

One minor problem. I use two word processing programs, LibreOffice for mundane everyday work like letter writing and scheduling, and Scrivener for my creative writing. Together, they do what I need them to do. My editor for TDDP uses Microsoft Word, of course. MS Word has robust and, in my opinion, overly complicated editing and tracking features. Unfortunately, Scrivener doesn’t import edits and comments from MS Word, and LibreOffice allows me to see only the edits, not the comments from MS Word. So I need access to an MS Office 365 license to do a compilation of my editor’s work, accepting, rejecting, or modifying her edits through Word’s Track Changes software. Once I have my editor’s final notes then, I’ll purchase an Office 365 license as a a 30-day trial “rental” and run my edited manuscript through the MS Word meat grinder. The Office 365 installation is nearly 8 gigs, which fortunately my old computer can still handle. I’ll schedule the first half of my planned rewrite to process the edits and comments, then cancel my Microsoft subscription.

Which gives me the following tentative schedule for publishing TDDP:

APRIL 9—JUNE 15: RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
APRIL 15—MAY 15: PROCESS EDITS & REWRITE
MAY 15—JUNE 15: FINAL REWRITE
JUNE 15—JULY 31: CREATE ALL DIGITAL MEDIA
AUGUST 1: PUBLICATION DEADLINE

Once in the editor’s hands

3-23-18
Last week, I sent the “The Death of David Pickett” manuscript to several readers, one professional and a couple of friends. I used their feedback to rewrite it, at the same time I researched editors for an extensive developmental and line edit. Today, I committed to one editor, signed the service agreement, and sent off the deposit. Things are moving along.

3-24-18
I’m not good at editing my own writing. At the same time, I’m an inveterate tinkerer, always rereading and rewriting my work, changing a word here and a sentence there. So when I sent off “The Death of David Pickett” to the editor I just hired, I was at a loss. The editor insisted on “version control” where “[c]lient shall not make any revisions to the manuscript” once I’ve submitted it for editing. So now what do I do? Why, write something else, of course.