My latest book: Mirror Gates – Peril in the Mirror Worlds
I’ll keep readers up to date with the publication process here, while giving occasional insights (and extracts) about the book on the These are my Books page.
Production updates
1 Copy editing of my new book is complete now (See here to find out what this entails).
2 I’ve spent some time looking for images for the book. I want one under each chapter heading, so I’m using stock images bought from https://stock.adobe.com/. By keeping to very basic black/white images I keep the cost down. You can’t always get exactly what you want so some images just give a general idea rather than a specific scene.
3 Images finalised. I managed to get Troubador’s illustrations people to do a small bit of basic editing on some of the images. Now these will be resized and inserted below each chapter heading in the Text Style Proof – this is the next stage. It is likely to take a few weeks. Meanwhile I can do some work on the sequel.
4 Text Style Proof completed (or it is, except for a missing image in one chapter heading) and good enough to go to next stage – proof reading. I’m using a professional proof reader but will be checking the text myself as a back up. The Text Style, which I’ve approved shows how the book will look when printed. Here’s a sample: Mirror Gates C1
5 I paid for a professional to proofread my book. Returned now, marked up where they think changes/corrections are needed. I have the final say and I’d already gone through the book myself to look for things that might be missed. I’m going to have one last run through the text, then I’ll return a merged group of corrections. Shaping up nicely now.
6a Proofs returned along with file of author corrections. These include typos missed by proofreader as well as the file for the missing image. I also added a number of changes to the text, more to do with consistency in the story than actual spelling or grammar errors. Fortunately I could fix these with small changes as it’s a big deal (and more expensive) to change large chunks of text at this stage.
6b June now and final corrected proofs arrived for my approval. Found 6 corrections, few enough so that I took screenshots and marked them up – and sent these to my publisher by email. I figured that would be quicker than post. As soon as these are acknowledged, I can sign the Pass for Press form so that the book can begin to be set up for printing.
7 I’m replacing the old cover image. I’ve completed proofreading so now the exact size of the book is known and I now have a front-spine-back cover. Here it is:
8 Now my proofs are ready to go to the printers, the eBook edition can now go into production. My previous eBook didn’t have many (barely had a few) sales, however it’s still useful as it can be made available multiple times to NetGalley (as an ARC copy) for reviews. These can be helpful in promoting the book.
My published book
I self-published a mystery/adventure tale for children aged 9-11 (August 2023).
I’ve removed the text about this previous book. I’ve put it into a PDF document which can be accessed here. My first published book
Please Note
Links can be found at the top of this page (above the site title) to other pages of this site: What this is All About, How is it Done?, Some Odd Favourites, These are my Books.
To prevent things from being boring while you wait (and after) I’ll put up articles/reviews on children’s stories, authors and notes on writing from time to time. I’ll also keep this site updated on the progress of the book’s production which may be of interest to anyone thinking of writing their own stories.
My Tales for Kids 