Book title: The Absolute Contingency
Available now on: Amazon Kindle and Kindle apps
Available soon on: Barnes & Noble Nook and Nook apps, paperback
A whole lot has happened during the course of this week, and all of it involving massive progress on the book front. The first thing I want to tell you is that it’s actually out there RIGHT NOW. I know, it wasn’t supposed to be released until the 18th, but I found time to finish the editing and to get the eBook version out to the masses. I’m very excited about finishing that portion, but I still have a lot to do, namely finishing the final proofreading and making the book available in paperback format! By the end of this week that should be a reality, and I’ll let you know when it’s available to purchase online in that format.
Back to the Cutting Room Floor…
One of the hardest tasks this week was dealing with cover design and implementation. Now, for the writer who self-publishes, there are two distinct routes to go when considering what’s going to appear on your book cover. You can either get someone else to design your cover, someone who is knowledgeable about that sort of thing, for a fee, or you can design it all yourself. When you do the former, your primary job is to make sure they do their job on time, and that the cover reflects what you want to convey with your book. However, doing the latter is a true labor of love because you have to get familiar with art manipulation programs to create your perfect cover.
I gave both avenues due consideration before publishing my first novel, Detours, and I made a decision that I wanted my books to have a personal feel and a personal touch to them. So, with that book, and indeed also with The Absolute Contingency, I used one of my own photographs as the basis and worked around it to come up with a finished product. I’m proud to say that as the new novel is set in Utica, NY, its cover also comes from a photograph I took in that very city.
Other tasks I accomplished this week:
- Final formatting on the novel’s interior
- Updating of my Amazon author page
- Construction of the book summary
- Finished the book and cover layout
As usual with any novel, quite a few paragraphs, and even pages, were left on the cutting room floor because either they didn’t fit in with the flow of the work, they didn’t enhance the plot, or they were character profiles that really didn’t have a place. It was sad to see every single one of those paragraphs and pages hit that floor, but each one was necessary. Besides, who knows, any one of those could make an appearance somewhere at some point. That’s probably the worst part of editing my own work, being honest and leaving some things behind for the good of the final product.
Thank you for sharing the journey with me to get to this point. I’ll let you know the links to all the editions of the novel when they’re available, and until then read the preview on Amazon. You won’t be disappointed! Back to work!
Sam
Sam's Online Journal 