Daughters updates
I cannot be appreciative enough of the indie author community and the help that they’ve given me in these past few weeks after the abrupt closure of the press that was to handle the printing and distributing of my book.
Quick recap: When I emailed to check-in with the press that had accepted my submission back in September, I received devastating news so close to my scheduled release date. They were wrapping print and distribution of all current books in-house, then switching their focus to helping those authors either taken on their own books as full indies, or get them settled with a new publisher. I was supposed to be notified of this in late November when the decision was made, but I slipped through their cracks somehow. Which meant that my relief that my book was running just a bit ahead of schedule for final submission to them, was squashed. And I was left on a raft in the middle of an ocean somewhere.
(I should also note that the official contract was not going to be signed until submission day, so there was nothing binding. Also, as someone who works in print, I completely get why they had to make the choice they made in this digital world. I wasn’t mad then, and I’m not mad now. I’m just STRESSED OUT.)
After some screaming at my computer through my formatting process (thank goodness I have the programs and the skill from my day job with that), I got my book laid out and submitted through the on-demand printers and digital distributors I plan to use in my effort to keep my book release wide and not limited.
The indies I’ve connected with told me to read my formatted book on an tablet or Kindle, and get the print proof. Whew, so happy I did both. First, because of all the things that slipped through that I caught (TYPOS!). Secondly, because I realized, no, I don’t want my book to be that size. It’s clunky and awkward.
The final printed paperback will be 430 pages and in the 6×9 format. It rests easier in the hands than the 5×8 did. Hardcover will also be 6×9 format. Digital page count depends on what your reader size is.
AND! The official release date is *drum roll* April 16.
Book Two news
In the process of developmental edits, the second book in this series didn’t change its shape all that much. It was still going to be a four book series, and follow the same rough lines, and the characters involved in book two had been set between POV and more background ‘helpers’ as I call them.
Somewhere in the span of time between giving Daughters back to my editor for line edits and receiving it back to make changes, I not only lost a book, but I lost a title.
Book three was scrapped completely as the story shifted and became something that didn’t need that third book before the conclusion. Just as the title for book two no longer fit.
Not because the story changed that much, because the reality is – it’s still the same, just a shift in my POV characters. Some of them came, banging on my mind, demanding a seat at the table for this story. It was needed because it makes the story move and flow better that way having parts told from their eyes.
Once Daughters had gone off to my alphas, I was overtaken by the now untitled WIP. I hammered out 30k words in the span of time it was with the alphas, and later betas. While I waited for my deadline to my editor for developmentals, I added another 20k words. But then it just… sat there. I realized I needed to wait to see how much more shape that first book took in developmental edits, and to be honest, I was a bit burnt out on my own story.
I still loved it, needed to tell it. Needed to share it.
But I needed a break.
Although I scribbled down new scene outlines, notes about POV shifts, etc in my trusty notebook, I hadn’t sat down and truly worked on it since November.
Until this week. The fire is burning again and my characters are spending their days shouting at me, having their conversations with one another that I need to frantically write down in notes apps or in my notebook because I’m not at my computer, or new scenes are unfolding that are key to moving this story forward.
Now… I just need to think of a new title. And that’s always the hardest part.
H.S. Sillivan 