It’s Christmas eve as I write this week’s newsletter. It’s scheduled to go out early Friday morning. And I won’t send another one until January 9th. So let me take this opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
I really appreciate your support and words of encouragement. It helps me know I’m not shouting into the darkness.
And speaking of darkness…
It's been a quiet week in Coupeville.
Quiet but for the howling windstorms that swept over the island last week.
Quiet but for the cracking of limbs and the falling of trees.
Quiet because of a power outage that lasted for nearly 100 hours.
No appliances running, no computer fans spinning, no furnace quietly blowing. None of the background noises that fill the silence of modern life. Just empty quiet.
Well, empty except for the sound of near-constant coughing day and night. All three of us at the house spent our week in the dark also fighting chest colds.
Between the cold, the dark, and the prospect of trying to type a few thousand words on my phone with only my thumbs, meant it wasn’t a great week for creating content. A stronger soul than mine might have shifted to more traditional tools of the trade, like the mighty pencil and paper. But I just didn't have it in me. Not this time.
The saving grace is that the main story is in a cool down period. I have no expectations of making progress on it until January. So, while the week was a wash for productivity, at least the timing was good.
As we approach the end of the year, it’s a good time to take a fresh look at the map and see where the novel is headed in 2026. Here are the major milestones as I see them:
Editing, round one
I start major revisions in January. This phase should take eight to twelve weeks, depending on the shape of the manuscript. I’ll outline my process for the first round of editing in the next newsletter.Alpha readers
By early spring, the draft should be ready for its first outside eyes. I have a small group lined up. Each reader will focus on specific elements such as cohesion, voice, and syntax. I expect this stage to take six to eight weeks.Editing, round two
Once I have the alpha feedback, I’ll work through their notes. I’m planning about six weeks for these revisions.Beta readers
At this point, the manuscript should be close to finished. A second group will read it to catch anything I might have missed.Editing, round three
This round should be brief, aimed at addressing any minor issues the beta readers find.Copyediting
A trusted writer friend will go through the manuscript to catch grammar problems and small mechanical errors.Editing, round four
I will make all final corrections based on the copyedit.
Those steps should bring me to a completed manuscript, perhaps as soon as late summer. But that's not all that needs to be done. Here's a partial punchlist:
Cover design
This is more than just the image; I also need a title and a blurb.ISBN
Every book needs an official number, so I need to get and assign one.Establish an imprint
Taleena and I have each weighed the comparative merits of traditional publishing vs. self-publishing and have decided on the DIY solution. I'll dive into our reasoning in a future newsletter. But as part of the process, we intend to establish our own publishing house and that takes some effort.Manuscript preparation
For each edition and format of a book, there are different layout and size requirements. It's more than just uploading a Word document and hitting the "go!" button. At this point, I'm targeting eBook, paperback, and hardback versions.Publishing
While Amazon is the market king, it's not the only game in town. There are other publishing tools we can use make our works available to traditional bookstores and libraries. We're both exploring those options in addition to Amazon.Marketing
This is a hard one. Establishing this newsletter was an early step, and I'm trying to grow the readership. (Hint: pass this newsletter along to anyone you think might be interested.) We're also exploring our connections with the local library system and local bookstores to get our books in the community. There’s more research to do in this area.
It's a long way to go from putting a random idea on the page to getting a finished book out the door, but I think I know the way.
Thanks for following along so far. Let's see if I can get it all done in 2026.
“Books aren't written, they're rewritten.”