Yesterday, I finished the second draft of Incarnation: Wandering Stars Volume One.  And while this is exciting, there are many more things that need to be done before the novel is available to readers.

Over the next several days, I will be sending copies of my manuscript out to beta-readers and copy-editors.  This part of the process will take several weeks.  In the meantime, I’ll be working on the interior artwork (maps, diagrams), the glossary, and other miscellaneous things. I will also be meeting with a creative team to brainstorm ideas for the cover artwork for the whole series, as well as this first volume. I already had something in the works for this, but I had to change directions. I’ll probably post more details about this later.  Once a concept is identified, I’ll need to determine who is going to do the artwork (this depends on the style and direction I need to go). Then, the artwork has to be created. In a perfect world, this would all happen while the manuscript is being edited, but this is probably not realistic.

When I get the edit copies back, I’ll need to incorporate the feedback. This will certainly involve fixing typos, but may also include more extensive writing. Then, the publication process begins. I’ll need to format my manuscript as an ebook, with the proper font, line spacing, content layout, images, and all the associated hyperlinks between related content within the book.

When all that is done, I’ll be ready to upload the content to Amazon. Their process takes about 48 hours before the book shows up in their online stores. Then, I’m planning to publish directly through Barnes & Noble and Apple for the Nook and iPad versions. Lastly, I’ll go through Smashwords for all the other outlets. Whew! It’s a lot of work. But I wanted to give you all an idea of what’s involved so you understand why I can’t make the book available immediately. Thanks everyone for hanging in there. I can’t wait for you to read the book, and I hope you consider it worth the wait!