Wow!  It’s nearly the end of July and I am still editing “Funeral Singer” to get it ready for publication.  I’ve had it out to my second round of beta readers and have gotten some great feedback on it.  I am hoping to see a little more in the next few days.   I am still making some changes as I go through and make spelling and punctuation corrections.

It definitely pays to have other eyes on the manuscript because I managed to miss quite a few things in the last two edits I did on the book.  It is so easy for your brain to just correct or ignore the mistakes you make in your own writing.  I took a class on proofreading once where the advice from the teacher was to read your work backward.  This takes away the familiarity with the project and you are more likely to catch the errors.  Other suggestions from writers are:   1) Change the font type and size so it doesn’t look the same.  2) Print the entire manuscript out and read through it with a highlighter, marking the errors.  3) Read it out loud a few times.  This also helps with hearing the dialog and if it sounds natural.  4) Use an automated reader program to have it read the book to you so you can listen for odd phrasing, omissions and other errors.  This one is really strange to listen to since there is no inflection in the reading.

In a few more days, I will be ordering my first Proof copy of the book so I can read through it to make sure I caught everything.  Once I feel comfortable that I’ve done everything I can do to get out a clean copy, it’ll be time to finalize it and release the book.  Right now, I am targeting mid-September for the release, but it won’t fly until it’s ready.

One of the things that took a little time was writing the book blurb.  These are the back pages of the book where you give a little synopsis of the story to give the potential reader an idea of what the story is about.  This is an art and a tricky skill to develop. You have to wonder how much is enough?  How much is too much?  Have I put in any spoilers?  Will this be enough to entice someone to read it?

I am excited to get my first novel out in the world and I hope that it is well-received by those who choose to read it.  No matter how you look at it, it will be an adventure.  Look for release information to come up next month.