This is just an update in regards to where exactly my book is in the process. As you all know, I wrote about being scammed by fake amazon agents and how that slowed the publication down A LOT. But by God’s grace, I’m back on track. The cover and the back of the book are finished and I’m super excited to be finally sharing them. Another thing I’m glad to share because I know there are other fellow writers out there going through similar things: is a bit of my process in the final steps to publishing. 

Final story edits:

Working 2 jobs doesn’t exactly allot a girl a bunch of time to write, but I’m making the most of the time. One of the common misconceptions about authors is that we’re all Stephanie Meyer or J.K Rowling, not exactly true–most of the time we can’t quit our day job and we write because we love it. Not to get rich. I do love writing, so I’ve been hard at the grindstone while balancing work/life. The main ball in my court right now is going through the final read of my manuscript. I’ve made the largest developmental changes in the story but those took some time. This is just to give other people aspiring to write a book, or who have interest in the process and insight into how it looks as well as being transparent in regards to how I feel about the whole undertaking. A developmental edit means something different in the storyline regarding plot, characters, world, significant dialogue etc.  The thing about that is, when you make one small change (if your story is consistent) that changes the course of everything else tied to that plot thread or point throughout the book. It’s like removing one domino from the middle of a long row: everything won’t fall into place like it’s supposed to. That’s tedious but I’ve fixed most of those issues in the story and now I’m just  ensuring there’s consistency throughout the storyline.         

Final proofread:                

Now that I’ve fixed story, world, plot and character issues it’s on to the proof read. Basically I print the most recent draft of the book, and treat it as a pleasure read. If at any point I have to stop, mark something or make a correction then I know there are still some errors to be fixed. The same goes for the dialogue and the story. If I ever have to pump the breaks on my reading enjoyment then there’s still things to be addressed. Now granted, this is subjective and much of what writers want to change is creative license and personal ownership. If I think an ending to a scene falls flat, or a line throws me off–I stop and make a note of it. As always, I’ve talked about how it’s inevitable that you’ll make decisions for a book or a series that down the road you’ll look back and view differently. But we can’t help that–we only know what we know at that time and not all ideas and solutions come to us at once. If you can read through your book without having your experience or enjoyment hindered, call it good. 

All the red tape:

So many people ask me if I’m excited for my book to come out, but the truth is I’m too busy working to refine it right now. It’s like asking a chef sweating bullets in the kitchen over a perfect meal if they’re excited for people to try their finished work. The chef is too busy making sure everything is just right  to be excited. I assure you they don’t relax until someone tries the first bite and releases a contented sigh. When the book is out, and I’m done working on it–then I can enjoy the finality of it more. Because I’ll know I’ve worked it out to the wire and the last detail. There is excitement for me–don’t misunderstand–but it’s buried under all the edits, emails, notes, proofreading, etc. I want to enjoy the publishing process because I know it only happens once for my first novel, but the details of line editing, reading the same scenes over and over, grammar checking and everything else that comes along in the book's final stages are the least engaging part to me. I loved writing and experiencing the story–everything that goes into the publication side is something like a necessary evil in order to get a book on the shelf so others can experience it too. That being said, the anticipation is welling up for me as we come to the final stages.

All in God’s hands:

As always the final outcome is not in my power but in whatever plans God has for this manuscript and my journey as a writer. This was the most spontaneous book I’ve ever written, and as I’ve shared before I had attempted to force inspiration for a children’s book in the past and scrapped the whole thing. It had no personal significance and was just checking boxes of what a middle grade fun fantasy should be. This story came to me after scrapping that script and I decided to run with it. The world, storyline, and characters followed and now here we are. This book promises to be the first in a series so if the Lord blesses and allows me to keep writing, there should be many more. But like I said earlier, I don’t write to be rich or famous. I write because I love it. And books have always been my preferred means of communicating emotions and experiences worth writing down. 

So that’s it for now. Continue to find inspiration in everything around you, and don’t be afraid to put it on paper. 

Write on.

-Jubilee