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John is on the job, and editing has been in my possession for months now. No, for over a year! My publisher is calling again and it's time to get this book done! I am seriously shocked with myself that I have sat on this for an entire year.  O_o

Well, I had lost my way and needed to find a way to get the book illustrated.  I debated, had people suggest new artists, student artists, etc. But to me,  it didn't feel right. Destiny brought me to John and I decided to give him a chance. He has been in touch and has started on the sketches and I hope to see him soon. We set up a contract and I paid a portion to get started, I will pay a portion upon delivery of the sketches, and I will pay the final portion upon completion. He seems dedicated in everything he does, so I am hopeful it will work out.

As far as editing I have been dragging my feet. I did edit and address the editors comments months ago, but waited to send it back. I still find it is good to let things sit awhile with writing. I did get back to it today after getting yet one more message from my publisher. So, I re-reviewed and sent it in! It has one more editing cycle and then they shift me to the people who assist with the layout.

The marketing department called me last week from the publisher too which I think was quite nice. When I get closer to release they will coach me and assist in doing some things I am not, so as not to duplicate but to assist. They have big marketing packages, but since this is all out of my pocket anyway, I am going to take the best advice and leave it to faith, my friends, and any followers I may develop along the way.

I spoke with a CPA too about how to be able to take a loss before I make a profit. Again. I want the profit to go to charity and hope I can at least make back what I have put into it.

I also used a local company to help me design a logo for the book series/company.  I have sat on their suggestions lately too. So I plan to get back to that and will share that with you all once I decide on the best design. Deciding is the hardest part. For now though, I have set things back in motion with the universe. 

Today upon reading my email when getting home I discovered that my manuscript had been returned from the editor! Yeah! It's just like Christmas, or maybe more like a first date. Did they like it? How many comments did they make? When I open it will I be utterly deflated as a writer, or will I be disappointed that maybe they didn't put their heart into it?

I opened it, after having to download a free unzip program because my WinZip trial had expired. (I'm not paying for a simple thing I can get for free.) And, I was not disappointed! I think they gave it a fair review. Good productive comments and some atta girl comments too for certain parts! Especially the ending! They love the ending! So I am so excited and motivated to really critique it with regard to their comments and well, you can see a bit for yourself my cover letter and pages one and two. Page three is hidden behind. Not all the red is bad. As I said they also included positive comments too. I am pleased with Author House so far.

Just for your reading pleasure, and because I am so excited here is an excerpt from their cover letter to me:

It has been my pleasure to assist in the Developmental Edit of your manuscript, Beatrice and Raymond. It’s a beautiful story, and I’m confident it will reassure young readers that change is something to embrace instead of fear. 

Helena has been taking such wonderful steps to move things forward with the project, I felt it was time for me to do something on my end to keep the momentum moving forward. I have researched trademarking and believe that I will pursue that soon. But what I really needed to dive into is the world of self publishing. I needed to educate myself more on the process, the services, the types of publishers, and figure out what is really right for me, for Helena and I, and for this project to be successful.  Success is not the only key, but to also have the outcome we want, and for us to be in control.

My vision is one I want to make come true and start on this journey having the end product most represent this vision. Not that I could even convince a top end publishing house to be interested in my stories yet, but they will hand the story over to an editor whom has their own vision based on what they read. They may not be versed in the background, and may not convey the original intent with the right style illustrations, colors, sense, feelings, or overall package. So this is part of the reason why I intended to self publish first. To, 1) have control, and 2) Because the odds are against someone who is not yet established in the market. And I have a day job, and young kids, and no time to spend sending thousands of query letters to prospective publishing houses. And 3) Because the market is rapidly changing. E-book sales beat out paperback this last year for the first time ever. More self publishing companies are offering conversions to e-books like Kindle and iPad in their publishing packages or as add-ons.

So, the first night I found a few companies. Some offered free newsletters or publishing guides and asked for some brief information. To my surprise the next day 2 companies were knocking on my door. Now I fully understand that publishers are putting their own money into the production, while self publishers want to sell you their services. But I was still shocked at the immediate response. One company really seemed like they were just trying to sell me something. Wanting me to call them back and wanting to know if I wanted more information or was ready to sign up. But I still needed to know more. The other company's publishing consultant took the time to answer my questions, send me the contract upfront for review, explain to me the packages, the options and learn from me what I was looking for without sounding like a telemarketer. They took the time to build my trust.  They offered a great discount and shared much advice with me.  I spent the last week searching and researching many more companies, but still really feeling comfortable with this one until I found some complaints about them. The complaints did seem to sound like they came from others whom may not have done their research so well or didn't fully understand the contract they entered. I questioned the company and they calmly and rationally explained the reasons for the complaints and in many cases websites set up by competing companies, and honestly just plain stupidity of some people to not comprehend that your book is not necessarily going to sell. You have to market it. And if they didn't for example take the time to get it professionally edited, that could also be a reason why it was not selling.

Some self-publishing companies are called vanity presses. This one was referred to as such, but is not that way today. This is where you publish and have to pay for a certain amount of books like 1000 to be printed and delivered to you, but they do not get distributed, and you have to sell and store them.

Others are called Print-On-Demand or POD publishers. These publishers print on demand when someone orders the book from a site like Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.com. However most of these companies also offer editing, distribution to wholesalers to be printed or ordered, list you in the Library of Congress, and so basically

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