The production process has started for grydscaen: alliance. This book is one of the shorter books that explores the Packrat culture as it progresses the plot. Faid Callen, the leader of the Packrats plays a prominent role in the story as Lino’s knight and the head of the Packrat hackers. I wanted to explore the Packrat culture more, and this book allows me to do that.
About a week and a half ago, I sent the manuscript, cover illustration, author photo, bio and book blurb to the publisher. It took about a week and a few days to get the manuscript into galley format for review. Also the cover illustration had to be incorporated into the cover design which fit with the brand and all the previous books. Luckily I did not have to get an artist for the cover, I already had illustrated the image that would go on the cover. This image I did on the first try. In the past I have had to draw the cover image multiple times in some cases until it is perfect.
Before I sent the manuscript in, I had proofread it three times and edited it once. I usually don’t find I have to rewrite a lot during the editing stage. Maybe I am lucking in that fact. Since I was a technical writer before I was an author or a software engineer, I have a little bit of a background in writing for business. I was able to use some of this in the editing stages. Now, I am no grammar king but I can write pretty decently. I have written multiple proposals, briefs, strategy papers, white papers, training manuals, essays, and a Bachelors thesis, as well as a Masters thesis. So I think I have a little sense about it.
The galleys arrived two days ago and I have since been able to go over the interior once and am on the second pass from a proofreading standpoint. We are past editing at this point.
Regarding the cover, the first draft didn’t fit the brand, which is the layout of the cover. The illustration was perfect, it was just the construction of the cover was done incorrectly. I had to deal harshly with the production department that they needed to follow the instructions that I gave them on the cover. They did agree to go back and follow the instructions to the letter and the second go around came closer to the desired layout that fit the brand. Luckily I was able to consult with a marketing consultant that agreed with me that there is a brand to grydscaen since we have released 5 books with the same overall design just different illustrations on the cover. This book needed to fit that brand or we would mess with the message.
Some people wonder about the self-publishing process, sure I have a publisher and you can fight about traditional publisher, versus vanity, versus indie or small press, versus self publishing. For me traditional was too far off. I was not waiting years to release my message having to write hundreds of query letters to just get rejected or paying an agent an exorbitant amount, or a traditional publisher owning the rights to my work and asking me to change things. I wanted to do it when I was ready and my way. Sure I have many more books in the series to publish and I will not say how many there are at this time, but this is an epic with a solid conclusion so we will be publishing books in the grydscaen series until we get to the end.
When I wrote the first book, I set out to write one book not many. When I came to the end of that book, there was just more writing to do. Now we are onto this book which is the sixth in the grydscaen series and volume 3 in the saga.
Production is going smoothly and I will most likely take a third proofreading pass then onto fixing the minor issues with the cover design. The illustration rocks. I think of all the covers this one stands out, and might even be my favorite.
The grydscaen series was written to help people and show strong role models in the gay, bisexual, trans, non binary and asexual world we live in. I wanted to show strong LGBT characters thriving to send messages to young teens that being different does not mean you are weird. You are just as good as anyone else, it is okay to be different.
At this time two counseling centers are using grydscaen and the associated manga to promote self esteem amongst troubled teens. That is more than I could have hoped for. The message of hope in the scifi cyberpunk stories was written because I want no one to go through what I went through as a young 16 year old in college. I wanted to provide role models for people to look up to.
So I digress, we were talking about production. More proofing, a little tweaking and then we will have a book in about 2 months time. I am looking forward to it actually. Can’t wait to do a cover reveal and hold the book in my hands.
