Quick update. My contemporary romance, Lucifer’s Lover, just hit print.  It looks gorgeous!  Especially with that cover.  And it’s a long novel, so it’s a pretty hefty tome, too.  You can pick up a copy directly from Createspace right now, or wait a few days for the print page to populate over at Amazon.

And The Royal Talisman, my erotic historical romantic suspense, has popped up at Barnes & Noble.com for all you Nook readers.  Although, as usual, no sign of a blurb, excerpt or author information, despite faithfully filing all that guff when I uploaded…  So I’m directing you to the book’s page here, first, then you can click through to B&N…

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Last time around, for working notes, I had skipped over two books, and had to back track.

This time, I don’t have a book to talk about at all, because of another phenomenon of the indie publishing industry:  doing it yourself means actually doing it all yourself.  Everything.  The formatting, uploading, releasing, technical un-hitching, acquiring of ISBN numbers, the lot.

For the last week, since I finished with Lucifer’s Lover, I thought I would be able to dive right back into the second book of the Beloved Bloody Time series (and it is about bloody time, too – I’m dying to get back to it).  Ha!

Hoisted by my own petard, as they say.

Fact is (was…still is, as I write this), I wasn’t quite finished with formatting and creating  and releasing versions of Lucifer’s Lover, and technically difficulties mean that here I am, a week later, still struggling with getting the last two versions out the door.

One of the primary difficulties was simply a matter of time:  I’m also smack dab in the middle of the book tour for Bannockburn Binding, and I have to keep up with that, as well.  And as luck would have it, all my scheduled posts for my blog ran out at the same time.  So, I suddenly had to drop a few higher priorities in order to address a few urgent ones:  posts for this blog, guest posts for the blog tour…I figure you would like to read something interesting when you visit here and there, no?

Then, and only then, could I get back to formatting and uploading the last two versions of Lucifer – namely, Smashwords, and Createspace.  (Createspace is the print version – and feeds the Amazon print page, too.)

So for my “snippet” of my current work today, I thought I would give you a sample of the list of steps I go through to get a book out there, along with some notations.  I don’t always follow every single step, because some books are re-releases, for example, or for some other reason I might leave off steps.  But this is a standard, all-inclusive checklist for self-publishing a book, if you’re not paying for a lot of external processes like editing, formatting, distribution, etc.  I do everything myself but design the cover—but I have magazine editing experience.

First draft:  Write the book.  Pretty obvious, but just finishing a book is a milestone and should always be celebrated.

Final title for book.  A book`s title can change during the writing.  The final title is a marketing decision, weighed up with a careful eye toward reader appeal, with a dozen different criteria guiding the selection, including length, the initial letter of the title, the use or overuse of certain words and more.

Spell check and grammar check draft manuscript, then put book away to freeze.  (Get on with another book) I drift between not-very-good to terrible at following this step.  Oh, I spell check and grammar check the nuts off a script, no problems.  But putting it away and letting it freeze?  Yeah…not so good on that one.  But I do try, because I know how much more of a book’s strengths and weaknesses I will spot if I get just a little more distance from it.

Write blurb  This is a pretty standard duty for authors, but for me, there isn’t an editor or marketing department standing over my shoulder telling me if the blurb works or not.  So I sweat this task out, working and re-working the blurb, comparing it to best-selling books in my genre, tweaking until I think the blurb has the necessary come-hither quality.

Create book page on website and update site for upcoming book, etc. Again, another chore that was always mine.

Complete cover art questionnaire and send to cover designer.  Most authors get to fill in art questionnaires for their publishers, but I’m betting none of them have to provide the designer with printer’s specifications, spine width, trim allowances, bleed information, paper width and variations, the price of the book (which I have to figure out on my own, too), and more technical and graphic specifications of this sort.  I provide all this, along with the hero’s eye colour and the heroine’s full lips and pouty expression…

Read through book as a reader for impressions.  Mark up as necessary.  Here is where leaving the book alone for a while pays off.  I get to read it with relatively fresh eyes, and enjoy the read.  But often, if I haven’t left the book alone long enough, I’m reading and mentally editing as I go.  Still, I try to read like a reader…

Edit carefully.  Then spell check and grammar check.  Round two of the editing/checking/line editing/checking, typo-filtering process.  It’s here that I slide in professional editing or line-editing services if the book warrants it (it’s not a re-release, has never been edited before, or other circumstances).

Create Master manuscript with front and end matter.  It’s here that the publishing process really starts to depart from a normal author’s lot.  All the front and end matter that appears in a book I get to create myself, instead of the publisher doing it for me, because I am the publisher.  And I don’t get to invent it…it all means something.  This is where the acquiring of ISBNs (International Standard Book Numbers) comes into play, one for each version of the book – the Amazon, Smashwords, All Romance eBooks and Createspace version each have to have their own ISBN.  Then each have their own front copyright pages and copyright requirements.  Plus I’m also creating a “pretty” version as an Advanced Reader Copy.

Pour into Createspace template and format for page count.  This gets even more technical.  This is the two-page internal page layout for the print version, complete with bleeds, trim lines, folios (what you, the reader, calls a page number, but the printing industry gives a different name just to fool you), special fonts for the title page, justified text, kerning tweaks, and more.  This file determines how many physical pages will be in the print edition, which drives the price of the print edition, and also the spine width, which the cover designer needs to know to finish the cover.

Upload to Createspace.  The interior of the book gets uploaded to Createspace and waits for the final artwork, so I can hit the “publish” button on the print version and order a proof.

Create Amazon version from Master file and upload to Amazon.  Now I’m into full publication mode.  This task sounds simple enough, but there’s a lot of formatting involved to meet Amazon’s technical specifications, plus I have to resupply the same basic information all over again (Title, author, blurb, price, category, genre, tags, keywords, ISBN, bio).  Usually, each distribution platform wants the cover art formatted to their specific sizing, too, calling for a tweak of the original art files.

Format file for Smashwords and upload.  I admit I tend to procrastinate about Smashwords, because it’s technically the most fussy and difficult to meet the technical requirements.  They’re demanding, although they’re getting better.  Just like Amazon, I end up re-supplying the same basic information, re-shaped to Smashword’s specifications.

Format file for All About Romance and upload.  The fourth distribution outlet, and one of the easiest to deal with (except I usually end up forgetting to rename all my file formats and having to go back and re-do my book page anyway).

Send out requests for review and/or blog tour.  If the book is an Author Edition, or a re-release, I don’t do a blog tour.  If it has a huge number of glowing reviews already (like Lucifer’s Lover), I don’t even bother with the review requests.  Asking for reviews is a semi-new task for me.  Ellora’s Cave used to send out all their titles to a pre-set list of review sites, saving me the bother, until I built a list of other review sites that I liked and approached on my own.  Now, as an indie author, I have to find sites that will deal with indie published romances at all, and then do my own asking.

Update my site.  The book is officially released now, so there’s a ton of changes that have to be made on my website to reflect that fact.  Links, cover art, book page updates, widgets in sidebars, and more.  I also upload a copy of the book’s cover into my Facebook page.

Blog post about the release.  And then, finally, after all that, I get to tell you about the release.  Talk about the tip of the iceberg, huh?

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I don’t think I’ve ever hidden the fact that I write posts ahead of time and schedule them to appear here on the appointed day.  Most bloggers do this.   It’s a survival mechanism:  We’d all be in straight-jackets by week four if we had to manually post each and every post on the appointed day and time.  Life is too complicated and we all usually have other lives as well as our demanding blogs.

But this habit of posting ahead of time put me into a sort of leap-frog position, and I may even have leapt clear over two whole lillypads, too.

Me relaxing at ringside before the show. Taken five minutes after I wrote this post.

TV crew's equipment and scaffolding.

In these working notes, I like to talk about the current book I’m working on.  Right now as I type this note, I’m sitting in the Edmonton wrestling arena while the Monster Pro Wrestling crew are setting up for tonight’s show (which is in the past as you read this).  And right at this moment in time, I’m smack in the middle of formatting and uploading Lucifer’s Lover and releasing onto an unsuspecting public:  You.

Last minute training for some of the MPW wrestlers

Tomorrow, Mark goes on the road for a wrestling show in Moose Jaw.  The adage in our household is “While the wrestler’s away, the writer writes,” so there’s a pretty good chance I’ll get all the formatting completed.  (Except my daughter, who moved out of the house a week or so ago, invited me to go with her to see the second Sherlock Holmes movie, and you know me and Sherlock Holmes, so…)

Mark and his heel buddies, during the live show.

I already have the cover for Lucifer.  It arrived this afternoon, and I got it on my cellphone…it’s gorgeous, divine and I’m over the moon.  I can’t wait to reach a wi-fi network so I can tell Dar Albert how much in love I am with the cover.

And that’s my problem.

I’ve got short odds on getting Lucifer finished tomorrow.

In between this Working Notes post and the last one, I also finished and released The Royal Talisman.

There’s my two lillypads.  There’s the two books you missed out on.  Because if what I’m predicting comes true, then by the time you read this, then what I’ll be working on will in fact be Byzantine Heartbreak, the second book in the Beloved Bloody Time series.

But let’s pretend I’m still working on Lucifer’s Lover and that it hasn’t been officially released yet, and you’re not staring at the lush cover to the right there in the column.

Because I know just the snippet I want to tease you with today:

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Lucifer's Lover by Tracy

An Excerpt From: LUCIFER’S LOVER
Copyright © TRACY COOPER-POSEY, 2012
All Rights Reserved.

She was still trembling when she got behind the wheel of the car to drive home but it was a heady mix of elation and relief, not the undiluted fear she had been feeling before. She tried to push the key home twice and failed.

Luke’s hand rested on hers a moment. “I’ll drive,” he said. “You relax and recover.”

No one had ever driven her car before except her but she silently climbed out and moved around to the passenger side, handing Luke the keys as they passed in front of the hood.

The drive to Luke’s place was silent and in the silence and the warmth from the car’s heater, she felt her body relax, her mind quiet and her nerves go off-line. By the time he halted the car in front of his apartment block, she was actually sleepy, tiredness gnawing at her.

“It’s nice,” she said, as he turned the engine off.

“What is?”

“You know how to be silent. And when. I didn’t realize that until tonight. You always seemed to be running off at the mouth whenever I saw you before.”

“Thanks. I think.” He handed her the keys. “It’s nerves,” he added.

“What is?”

“When I run off at the mouth.”

“You? Nervous?”

He shrugged. “As unlikely as it sounds.” He went to get out and paused, his hand on the door handle. “Is it true, about your father?”

“You mean the rocket scientist bit?”

He smiled. “Yes.”

“It’s true. He’s retired now. He makes furniture for charities.”

“That’s quite a change.”

“According to my father, building and creating things is more profound than physics, which merely describes the things he builds. I believe him. He gets very involved with his projects.”

He opened the door and Lindsay shivered at the cold rush of air. She opened her own door and went around to the driver’s side. Luke was already a few paces away, preparing to leave.

“Well…” he said. “It’s been an interesting date.”

“I’m glad you got your money’s worth.”

He put his hands in his coat pocket. “I don’t think I’m the only one who did that,” he said, his breath fogging the air.

True.

The impulse struck her suddenly, without warning. She crossed the crisp snow to stand in front of him and reached up to grasp his lapels. She felt him pull his hands out of his pockets and thought for a moment he was going to push her away but he laid them on top of hers. His eyes were completely black in the light.

She tugged a little, trying to pull herself up and him down.

“You don’t have to do this,” he said.

“I know.”

“It wasn’t a real date. Not in the proper sense. I tricked you into it. You know that.”

“I know.” She pulled a little harder.

“Just so we’re perfectly clear on this. This isn’t part of the fake date thing, is it? Or is it some sort of thank you?”

“No.”

“It’s just that I wouldn’t want to take it the wrong way. That could lead to all sorts of ugly complications—”

“Luke, you’re running off at the mouth again.”

“God, yes,” he said, his voice low.

She pulled again and this time he let her. She kissed him, exploring his taste, the shape of his mouth, the novelty of the kiss. Then, from an unknown quarter, an intense, heavy, sweet wave of pleasure spilled through her and all the intellectual curiosity about the kiss washed away beneath it. She was drawn into it, coherent thought scattered to the four winds.

She lost sense of time. When the kiss ended, it was very much like she was reviving from a drug-induced haze. Her lips were swollen and her whole body throbbed with unfulfilled tension. Luke’s arms were around her, holding her up, lifting her to his lips.

She held her breath for a second, then pushed it out with a heavy sigh.

“What happened?” she asked.

“You kissed me.”

“Is that what it was?”

“I think so.”

She licked her swollen lips, tasting his lingering flavor just a little. Sense was beginning to return. “I have to go.”

He nodded. His hands cupped her face and his fingers smoothed their way down her cheek, caressing it. His eyes were very dark. Unrevealing.

“We’ll freeze,” she said.

“I’m not cold.”

Neither am I, she thought.

She stepped back. His hands reluctantly dropped from her face.

“’Night.”

“Yes.”

She climbed back into the car and tried to fit the key back into the slot and failed again. Her hands felt big, clumsy and heavy. She concentrated and slid the key in and started the car.

Luke was still standing there and watched her leave.

Now what? she wondered, exploring her lips with her fingertips as she drove.

The kiss changed everything.

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I just released Lucifer’s Lover on All Romance eBooks, and on Amazon, and over the next few days will be formatting and uploading to the other distributors — Smashwords, Createspace (print).  So it’s official, Lucifer’s Lover is published.

This may come as a surprise to you because I didn’t really given anyone a heads up about this one.  It’s one of my Author Edition titles, which I’m not releasing with as much fanfare as I would a brand new title, like Bannockburn Binding, as they’ve already been published elsewhere.

But neither are these Author Editions simply regurgitated re-releases with new covers.  I’m reworking all of them and adding additional features.  The Royal Talisman, for instance, became its own stand-alone title by the time I’d finished with it, and it used to be only a novella, when it was first released.

Ditto with Lucifer’s Lover, although I didn’t extend the story nearly as much as I did with Talisman.  Lucifer’s Lover was already very long, so I tightened up and cleaned up as much as I added…I’ve learned a thing or two since the book was first published back in 2006.

The nicest thing about this second edition of Lucifer’s Lover is the cover, which is just amazing.  Dar Albert does it again.  If you have a small monitor, or have this window crunched down, then double-click on the image to the left so you can see it at full size.  It’s really something else.  There’s a whole history about the cover that I explain in the book, too.

You can pick up Lucifer’s Lover in all the popular formats at All Romance eBooks, and in the next twelve to twenty-four hours, the page will build itself at Amazon, too.

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