Update on my forthcoming novel The Last Good Man

One of the challenging things, for me, about publishing a novel under my own imprint is maintaining my confidence throughout the process. In traditional publishing an author can always fall back on the fact that a professional editor thought enough of their book to pay an advance and to dedicate a chunk of the corporation’s financial resources toward publication, publicity, and distribution. That’s part of the reason writers — especially new writers — talk about the “validation” of traditional publishing. After all, if someone experienced in a for-profit business thinks money can be made off your work, then it is, by definition, worth something. Right?

But when I shift from writer to publisher, I lose the validation of that third-party professional opinion. It’s all on me to decide if the manuscript is ready, if the cover will work, if I’m justified in sending it off to reviewers and pro-writers… That’s when it helps to remember all the positive responses The Last Good Man has picked up along the way.

So where am I in the publication process? I’ve continued to send out review copies and, since there is a small demand for it, I’ve created a print ARC (advance reader copy). Those are still being printed, but I should have them in hand by the end of the month.

The manuscript is presently with the copyeditor. When I get it back I’ll need to input corrections to my master manuscript and when that’s done, I get to create the ebook and the print edition all over again. ::sigh:: 🙁 There are always a lot of chores in this business.

So, the big news: The cover art is done! One of my tasks for the upcoming week is setting up the cover reveal.

More soon…

I have an original story in Cosmic Powers: The Saga Anthology of Far-Away Galaxies, edited by John Joseph Adams and due to be released next month. You might be able to get an early look at the anthology if you enter the GoodReads ARC giveaway.

For those not familiar with the inner world of publishing, ARC stands for “Advance Reader’s Copy.” It’s the almost-but-not-quite final edition of the book.

Here’s the anthology’s description:

A collection of original, epic science fiction stories by some of today’s best writers — for fans who want a little less science and a lot more action — and edited by two-time Hugo Award winner John Joseph Adams.

Inspired by movies like The Guardians of the Galaxy and Star Wars, this anthology features brand-new stories from some of science fiction’s best authors including Dan Abnett, Jack Campbell, Linda Nagata, Seanan McGuire, Alan Dean Foster, Charlie Jane Anders, Kameron Hurley, and many others.

Click here to enter the GoodReads Giveaway.

This website is in danger of turning into a ghost town, so I thought I’d post a brief progress report.

I’d like to say that I’ve been writing, but it isn’t true. Since at least the beginning of the year my efforts have focused on getting my forthcoming novel, The Last Good Man, ready for publication while working on promotional strategies for all of my books.

So what’s the status of The Last Good Man? The pre-copyedit draft is done. I coded the manuscript to create ebooks for advance readers and I’ve begun to send out review copies. I also did a quick and dirty print layout to determine the likely page count and price of the print edition. And cover art is on the way! We’ve agreed on the rough design, and now await the finished illustration.

Promotion continues, as you’ve probably noticed from the events I’ve been participating in. I’m working on connecting with more new-to-me readers by encouraging people to sign up for my email newsletter.

By the way, if you already subscribe to my newsletter, do be sure to check your spam folders and if you find one of my newsletters there, please whitelist it. I’ll have a new story out in an anthology next month, I have several promotions coming up, and of course The Last Good Man will be released in June, so there will be a lot of news!

One thing I’ve learned is that book promotion really is a full-time job — and most of that work falls on the author, regardless of whether the novel is traditionally published or indie published. So, onward!

“Write it and they will come” is a philosophy that works only rarely — very rarely. Writing a novel is only step one in creating a viable writing career. The really hard part is connecting with the potential audience for that book. So I’ve been working hard to expand my potential audience, and Sci-Fi Bridge is my newest strategy.

Sci-Fi Bridge is author-created. Read about the three founders here. It’s a massive book giveaway designed to encourage you to signup for the Sci-Fi Bridge email list. What do you get in return? Free ebooks in this first round, just for signing up, and a chance to win a haul of print and ebooks, plus you’ll start to receive a newsletter with information on science fiction authors and their upcoming publications — because if you don’t know we wrote it, how will you ever have the chance to read it?

Here’s the official description:

Sci-Fi Bridge is a brand new platform dedicated to bringing you the best in Sci-Fi books from around the world. In order to celebrate their launch, its Captains are excited to bring you the 1st of 4 massive book giveaways! There are FREE prizes available for all who enter between February 20-27, plus the chance for 5 winners to receive 20+ ebooks from Sci-Fi authors from every background. 1 lucky grand prize winner will also receive a package of 17 signed books, including full series by Jay Allan, Jamie Mcfarlane, Steve Konkoly, Myke Cole and more! Enter here: scifibridge.com

Do it! Sign up! Let’s make this happen.

A few days ago, for the first time, I printed out a copy of The Last Good Man. It’s 499 manuscript pages.

I used to always keep an up-to-date printed copy of a novel as I worked on it, but that habit faded away and these days I don’t print anything out until the end. Then, as the last step in the process**, I read straight through the printed copy from beginning to end, ALOUD. I listen for clumsy bits and look for errors, fixing them (by hand) along the way.

It’s amazing how many little problem spots I still find. But simply viewing the novel in a different context — in this case printed, instead of on-screen — causes the brain to see/hear issues that were invisible before. Reading aloud means it’s going to be slow, but for me it’s an essential step. And the end is in sight!

Today I reached page 422 of 499. I should finish tomorrow. Then I get to enter all the handwritten fixes into the master file. After that the manuscript will be ready to go off to reviewers.

If you’re a book reviewer and you’d like a copy please send me an email at linda at mythicisland dot com, letting me know who you are, where you review, and whether you prefer an epub or mobi (Kindle) ebook file.

I’m planning to publish The Last Good Man in June.

I HOPE YOU LIKE IT!

** more accurately, the last step before sending the manuscript out to reviewers and to the copyeditor. Once I get it back from the copyeditor, I’ll have one more round of edits.

Look what showed up in the mail today!

This is the German-language edition of The Red, translated by Helga Parmiter and published by Amigo Grafik. Translations of The Trials and Going Dark will follow.

The Red is also available in Polish and Italian editions.

It seemed timely, so I posted this snippet from THE TRIALS, book 2 of The Red trilogy on Twitter a couple of days ago, and now I’ll repost it here:

I loved this novel.

Summit is what I like to call a literary thriller — adventure, conflict, brave deeds, beautifully written, filled with philosophy and politics, and not formulaic. It’s the debut effort of Harry Farthing who, from his website, is a British businessman, world traveler, and adventurer. I listened to the audio edition, which was read by the author. He has an excellent voice and I greatly enjoyed his performance.

The summit referred to in the title is Mount Everest, highest peak on Earth. The mountain is central to the dual stories of two European mountaineers — one modern, one pre-World War II. In both settings, Farthing pays respectful attention to the Sherpa, who are well-rounded characters with stories of their own. The author is in no hurry to bring the two principle story threads together, but that’s all right, because both plot lines are fascinating and well told.

There is also a timeliness to Summit as it explores the politics and atrocities of Nazi Germany alongside the dangerous modern-day resurgence of European fascism.

If you love tales of adventure and mountaineering, backed with historic detail, and featuring believable, sympathetic characters, then give Summit a try — and let me know what you think!

Two or three years ago I wrote a short story called “The Martian Obelisk.” I finished it, but I didn’t feel happy with the result. It was grim, and I didn’t want to write grim. I was further discouraged by well-meant critique comments. Nevertheless, I worked on the story for a few more days. But my doubts persisted, and in the end I self-rejected the story. I stopped working on it, and never sent it to any market.

This past December I decided to take another look at “The Martian Obelisk” and much to my surprise, the story was far better than I remembered. It still had issues, but enough time had passed that I could see them with fresh eyes. So I devoted more hours to revising it. Then I emailed Ellen Datlow, who acquires stories for Tor.com, to ask if she would like to see it. I explained its history and mentioned that it felt more appropriate now, in the context of our grim present times, than when I had first drafted it.

Much to my surprise and delight, Ellen accepted the story. “The Martian Obelisk” is scheduled for publication on July 19.

I’ve often lectured others on not self-rejecting. It’s good advice. 😉

In the summer of 2012 I was lucky enough to attend Launch Pad, a week-long, wide-ranging crash course on current astronomy put on by Mike Brotherton, Professor of Astronomy at the University of Wyoming. Launch Pad was created for writers, editors, and people in film and other media, with the goal of improving the scientific accuracy of our stories and promoting a culture of science.

The sessions are a lot of fun! And the time is now to get your application in for this year’s session.

Find more information here at Launchpad’s website.

Check out the list of past attendees!