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A much needed novel update
Well.....I can tell you now, the book is undoubtedly a few weeks behind schedule.
Before I offer the explanation, I want to extend my apologies FIRST. I apologize that we will likely not be able to make the March 31 deadline. I will widely distribute the new print date as soon as I speak with my printer today.
March 31 was the day I estimated that the novel would be ready from the printer based on a lot of factors, including finances, internal design, and cover design. Surprisingly enough, the finances were there! Although the pre-order sale was not nearly as successful as I wanted it to be, I got enough pre-orders to fund part of the production costs of the novel. One hundred percent of the pre-orders went to paying the printer. No profit so far. But it's all good, because that's the point of self-publishing (for me) -- I'm not trying to get rich, I am trying to start a career.
The internal design took a weeeee bit longer than I had hoped, mostly because I was typesetting it myself and at the last minute, realized that I didn't have all of the necessary software. I obtained it though, and that maybe only put me a few days behind schedule.
The big problem was cover design. Neil, my cover designer, whom I love and is a great friend, is a first-time cover designer. And that's fine, because I am a first time novelist. We had some major problems with the cover, y'all. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't have cut it so close to the deadline -- there were times that I wasn't putting pressure on Neil like I should have -- time where it would have helped if he knew what kind of pressure I was under, but because I was so busy, I just let things be. Another thing that hurt us was Neil's travel schedule -- I'd asked me before to let me know when he would be out of town, or else I would assume he was available. So, sometimes when I needed him, he'd be away for days and days and I'd just be stuck. And the man is in Japan, so we're already on a huge time difference.
BUT, everything is done now. The cover is done (unless the printer tells me otherwise), the ISBN number is ready, the bar code is ready, all the internal info is ready, it just needs to be physically printed, and that takes time. I do have a few concerns with the current levels of communication with my printer, but I am confident in them. They've really been working with me.
Again, once I have a firm date from the printer today, I will widely distribute the final date.
Just wanted to give you all an update! LAZARUS will still happen!
Posted by Rashid on March 17, 2005 7:07 AM