The Path to Solomon's Grave, Part 1
Well, the gears are beginning to turn over at Dragon Moon Press, as they begin the process of preparing my first novel, Solomon's Grave, for its upcoming release in 2009. Now, I've gone through this process twice before with the book, first with its Italian publisher in 2006 then with editor Michael Krug of Otherworld Verlag in Germany. But this time around, as the book will become available here in the US for the first time, I thought I'd keep you posted as to the process from the beginning to the final release.
Special shout-out to my editor at DM, Gabrielle Harbowy, who has begun the process of going through the novel, line by line, and making suggestions. Every editor has their own methods, and in this case Gabrielle prefers to work within MS Word using the track-changes feature. I was glad to hear this, because it's what I'm used to - it's how my two agents made suggestions and the past two editors - though for the most part since the book was translated at the same time as edited I didn't see the galleys (pre-pub proof copy). This time I will. And one of my oft-proofreaders, Michelle Pendergrass, likes to use MS Word's track-changes feature, and I've learned how to use it (and appreciate it).
So, Gabrielle will mark it up, send it to me for yays or nays. This should be much the same process as the original three proofreaders of the book from way, way back: my wife Janet (who marked her changes on printouts), Fran Bellerive (same, only with really bright pens) and Mark Lowell (who used email sometimes, othertimes simply sat me down and told me what he liked/didn't like).
Next, publisher Gwen Gades has been working on some cover mock-ups. So far, looks like we're going to follow the concept of #1 below, because it fits more with the overall plot, but I show #2 as an example of how different cover concepts could be. I like the looks and the color of #2, it just didn't work with the story itself. But I'd love to see any comments folks have on either. Be honest. As we refine the cover, I'll post more mock-ups here:
Concept #1 (click on images for larger version):
Well, what do you think?
Special shout-out to my editor at DM, Gabrielle Harbowy, who has begun the process of going through the novel, line by line, and making suggestions. Every editor has their own methods, and in this case Gabrielle prefers to work within MS Word using the track-changes feature. I was glad to hear this, because it's what I'm used to - it's how my two agents made suggestions and the past two editors - though for the most part since the book was translated at the same time as edited I didn't see the galleys (pre-pub proof copy). This time I will. And one of my oft-proofreaders, Michelle Pendergrass, likes to use MS Word's track-changes feature, and I've learned how to use it (and appreciate it).
So, Gabrielle will mark it up, send it to me for yays or nays. This should be much the same process as the original three proofreaders of the book from way, way back: my wife Janet (who marked her changes on printouts), Fran Bellerive (same, only with really bright pens) and Mark Lowell (who used email sometimes, othertimes simply sat me down and told me what he liked/didn't like).
Next, publisher Gwen Gades has been working on some cover mock-ups. So far, looks like we're going to follow the concept of #1 below, because it fits more with the overall plot, but I show #2 as an example of how different cover concepts could be. I like the looks and the color of #2, it just didn't work with the story itself. But I'd love to see any comments folks have on either. Be honest. As we refine the cover, I'll post more mock-ups here:
Concept #1 (click on images for larger version):
Concept #2:
Well, what do you think?
Comments
(and the "some damn text" ;)
(I'll be sure not to let that slip through, when the time comes!)