Haleigh sent the manuscript back Saturday night, we were both up and texting again at the end of this round. I was on Atlas Obscura trying to see how many places from Brooklyn I recognized from my research. Turns out, it was only one, and it’s not even exact. Still neat, though.
This specific part of her email has me cracking up though. Haleigh sent me a COUNT of how many times I (over)used a few words, and wow. I really need to buy a thesaurus, I think. Or use the online one more. I have told Haleigh that I’m going to find a place to use “guffaw” specifically, because we were joking about different laughter words. The only one that’s not going to get used is “chortle” because neither of us like it. This issue will absolutely get fixed this week, it’s my goal to get these copy edits incorporated and hand it over to Vin to get formatted by Thursday. We’ll see what happens, but that’s the current plan.
Honestly my brief scroll-through on Sunday afternoon showed there’s really not a lot to adjust or fix, just a little sentence structure and changing some of those overused words I mentioned. I try not to dive too deeply into the manuscript when I first get it back, I like doing that first glance and picking out what seem to be the biggest things that need to be focused on. I’m writing this blog post Sunday night, and I know I’ll definitely dive into it once I’m done at the FLC on Monday.
We’re so close to the end now that it feels a bit unreal. I feel like there’s so much more to do, and there kind of is, but good gracious the list is almost entirely checked off. Once we get the cover size template off to the artist, the physical book is one step closer to existing. Then there will be TWO books on display at BHP headquarters! Incredible! We do need to sit down and run through the checklist again. I know I have to go bother Sinead about having her write some things out for us. Her handwriting is very neat and old-fashioned, so we’ve asked her to write out some of Clara’s things to put in the book. There’s also some little fussy things like the copyright page, a dedication page Leo wanted to add in, things that could fall through the cracks unless we prop them up. Well, I hope we don’t let the copyright page of all things fall through the cracks. That’s Vincent’s job so it won’t. So many tiny little details, and the book is looking like it’s going to be about 500 pages at the trim size we chose.
(Screenshot from Atticus)
We decided to go with a classic romance novel purse/pocket size for this, and no hardcover. Clara will be paperback and eBook only. We felt, and Leo felt, that this style of book would work best for the genre it’s in, and as a callback to all the romance novels that have come before. Plus in Sinead’s words: “they just feel nice to hold.” And she’s right. The entire Regulus series will be the same. It’s going to be so lovely to see them all lined up on the shelf together.
So yes, we’re nearing the finish line now. It’s a breath of relief and a mounting horror all at the same time. But we’ve done it once and we’ll do it again, and again, and again… And all will be well. Keep moving forward.
Keep an eye on our socials this week, VERY fun things to come. Hint hint.