Matters of craft learned the hard way
Had some good news from Kerry about The Last Track this morning. December 11th is the delivery date for her final polish, which means it’s going to be down to the wire for getting the manuscript back to the agent before leaving for Moscow.
That’s all right, though. I’m up to the task.
It will happen.
Late Saturday night I finished implementing all the edits from the beginning to end read-through, before sending the manuscript back to Kerry for a second pass. At this point The Last Track is in her able hands. Though I’m not sure exactly when she might finish, a matter my instructions no doubt greatly frustrated, unless Divine Intervention smites me, the agent will have the manuscript for further consideration before I leave for Moscow in late December.
The nicest thing about finishing up is that I can work on something else. And oh man, do I need to disappear in a new project. God damn. It’s been nearly four years since I started the novel once known as Velocity, the sequel to an unfinished manuscript I walked away from to protect my sanity. Yeah, I don’t feel old reading the previous sentence, I swear.
And now a beer before bed…or I’ll have dreams of Kerry’s pen dicing the pages like this:
While tending shop at work recently, in the last hour of the day an unexpected proposition came by the phone. Last April my boss sold a non-fiction project for a six-figure advance to a major publisher, and it’s shipping in March. Now is the time to think about promotion, because one thing I learned from Editor person, after release a book has three weeks to grow legs and walk away or the publisher loses interest and yanks publicity–if there was ever a publicity plan in the first place. The corollary to that: the fate of a marketing effort is determined 90 days before a title ships. In other words, the battle is won or lost before the first sword is drawn. Very Sun Tzu, these publishers.
Anyway, the conversation went something like…
“We’re looking for someone to grow the online awareness of the book, and get it blogged about. Know anyone that can do this?”
To which I answered, “Let me sleep on that and get back to you.”
And right now, I’m about to sleep on it and make a decision.
A few things before a proper post tomorrow.
1) Painting: Project Eclipse Navajo White continues. Painting the apartment is halfway done, with the bedroom and office finished. Saturday, the kitchen! And then onto the living room.
2) Moscow beckons. My visa came through without a hitch, I need only pick up my passport from the travel agent. Another step closer to Russia in December.
3) Edits. Before emailing the novel to Kerry for a last polish, I started a page one to page end read-through. This experience was affirmative as it was enlightening, because I now unreservedly concur with the agent who passed while extolling, “…it’s 90 percent there…” Between my efforts and Kerry’s I’m confident we can get damn close to nailing that last 10 percent. I’ll finish my end by Monday; the baton then passes to Kerry. Right now, I have 44 more pages of reviewing.
Look for a more substantial post on Thursday…
UPDATE: As of 10:49PM, Thursday, November 15th, nearly half the read through edits are implemented. Roughly 220 pages left.