The Timeline For My Book: STARFIRE

Things are getting exciting for STARFIRE, book one in THE GUARDIAN HERD series. Soon I will be able to reveal the cover, but while I'm waiting, I thought it might be interesting to detail the timeline of events that have led to today. A LOT goes into making a book, read on and you'll see!

Timeline for the production of STARFIRE

01/21/13: The acquisition of the series by HarperCollins is announced in Publishers Weekly

03/19/13: I sign the publishing contract

04/16/13: I receive a broad scope editorial letter from my editor, Karen Chaplin

05/28/13: I complete the structural edits and return book one, STARFIRE, to Karen

Mid-June 2013: Jacquie (my agent), Karen, and myself collaborate on titles for the series and for book one. I obsess madly over this for two weeks. We use google docs to work together and build off one another's ideas. One day I will write a post about all the titles we considered! It was a blast.

07/02/13: The Guardian Herd: Starfire is agreed upon by all as the title!

August 2013: My author photo and an author questionnaire are requested and completed

09/30/13: Editing round two--the marked-up manuscript arrives in my mailbox accompanied by another detailed letter

I google "Editing shorthand" on same day since half of Karen's symbols are completely foreign to me. Meanwhile, as I absorb Karen's suggestions, I realize she is absolutely brilliant, and I dub her "the book whisperer"

10/07/13: I complete the suggested line-edits for STARFIRE and return the manuscript to Karen

10/18/13: Karen sends the jacket copy for STARFIRE to me for input

10/30/13: Karen requests a map of Anok from me 

11/01/13: I happen to have already drawn a map! I re-draw it, scan it, and email it to her 

11/05/13: I receive the surprise of my life and Karen emails Jacquie and I a preview of the COVER IMAGE! We are blown away...

11/19/13: Editing round three begins--tweaking the little stuff using "track changes" in Word 

I google "How to use track changes" on same day

11/20/13: I complete the last of the minor tweaks to STARFIRE and return the manuscript to Karen 

11/26/13: Yay! The book goes to the copyeditor 

12/19/13: The manuscript comes back to me after being reviewed by several people, just in time for Christmas!!

12/28/13: At this point I'm correcting microscopic inconsistencies discovered by the copyeditor, but they are of key importance! I return the manuscript

Yay again! The book is complete, but not "done". The manuscript will be bound into a book and then read by me, my editor, my agent, and others AGAIN--a final time--as a book. It will be our last chance to make any changes (I think). 

Somewhere in this whole process there is a typesetter, an interior book designer, an art department, and a marketing department, setting the text, choosing the fonts, and crafting the look and feel of the series. It's so important we get book one just right, because the rest of the series will be subject to the decisions made on book one. 

01/15/14: Book Two is due and the process will start over again… (and that date is not a typo, book two is due NEXT WEEK. So while I've been managing the above, I've also been writing and editing the second manuscript, which is good because book three is due in September 2014, just nine months from now. This is the author life :)

So what's next for book one?

The cover reveal for STARFIRE is this month!

This is the first glimpse of the BABY, and I can't wait to share it with you.

Stay tuned and thank you for reading!
Release date: 09/23/14