Almost a book ...
As I write this, my ebook about Cuba, entitled Vultures Overhead, is with the copy editor.
But by the time this post is published on the Authors Electric blog, I'll have the manuscript back and know the worst - or the best.
The first time I let a copy editor loose on anything I bit my nails and wept into my pillow as I waited for it to come back. Would she like it? Not like it? Would it be so covered with alterations my words would be unrecognisable? (All those days waiting for exam results came flooding back.)
I think I'm a little more sanguine now. For it doesn't matter whether the copy editor likes it or not - as long as she does her job. I know I can be a bit dash-happy, and she'll sort some of those. She'll find any mis-spelled place names (I'm ashamed how many of those I send her). She'll stumble over clunkiness because she'll see what I've actually written and not what I think I've written.
Even so, these are waiting days. I've no idea how long it will take to go through her edits, to make sure the format is ebook-friendly (I think it is, but I've thought that before). To write the opening pages and the closing credits and get the whole thing washed and dressed and ready to go.
But I can't let this opportunity go by without giving you a sneak at the cover:
And, for those of you who might not know what it's about, here is the blurb:
I wish I could give you a publication date - but I'd rather leave that hanging than promise a date and it's not ready. But I'll be shouting about it on Facebook and Twitter when the time comes, and there will be links on my website here.
But I wonder how other people fill these waiting days. Writing other stuff? Sitting in the garden with a book? Walking across hills? Watching cricket? ...
But by the time this post is published on the Authors Electric blog, I'll have the manuscript back and know the worst - or the best.
The first time I let a copy editor loose on anything I bit my nails and wept into my pillow as I waited for it to come back. Would she like it? Not like it? Would it be so covered with alterations my words would be unrecognisable? (All those days waiting for exam results came flooding back.)
I think I'm a little more sanguine now. For it doesn't matter whether the copy editor likes it or not - as long as she does her job. I know I can be a bit dash-happy, and she'll sort some of those. She'll find any mis-spelled place names (I'm ashamed how many of those I send her). She'll stumble over clunkiness because she'll see what I've actually written and not what I think I've written.
Even so, these are waiting days. I've no idea how long it will take to go through her edits, to make sure the format is ebook-friendly (I think it is, but I've thought that before). To write the opening pages and the closing credits and get the whole thing washed and dressed and ready to go.
But I can't let this opportunity go by without giving you a sneak at the cover:
And, for those of you who might not know what it's about, here is the blurb:
It’s time for JO CARROLL to pack her rucksack again, and this time she’s heading west, to Cuba.
Everyone, it seems, has been to Cuba, or wants to go to Cuba, or knows about it. Cuba, they insist, is on the brink of change. A market economy will finally see off the old cars and rationing. They’ve been saying that for decades. But what face does Cuba present to a tourist in 2014?
She finds salsa, of course, and cigars, and wonderful coffee. But what surprises wait for her when the music stops?
I wish I could give you a publication date - but I'd rather leave that hanging than promise a date and it's not ready. But I'll be shouting about it on Facebook and Twitter when the time comes, and there will be links on my website here.
But I wonder how other people fill these waiting days. Writing other stuff? Sitting in the garden with a book? Walking across hills? Watching cricket? ...
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