Energematrice6

The latest episode in the saga of writing and publishing Brightstar has been by far the most stressful, though the ending was more than satisfactory. (You have to read, or at least scroll, to the end to see the final cover!)

Part of that stress came from communication issues with an editor, bringing me right up against a deadline I couldn’t afford to miss (now resolved). Part of it came from the headache of getting together a book cover I liked (which is the subject of this post).

The initial plan

The cover design process started back in June when I had my all-important meeting with the folks from Morgan James and they assured me their design team would be able to create something satisfactory even though they don’t employ (or generally contract with) an illustrator. That should have been a warning sign for me, but I’m an optimist and I gave them the benefit of the doubt.

Weeks passed after that call, during which I was told I should be getting cover proofs any time. They never appeared.

With the third week (in which we were supposed to be completing the cover) drawing to a close, I mentioned the situation to my friend Greg (who has always had an artistic bent).

Eleventh-hour art

Greg immediately offered to work on a cover for me, and what he came up with was truly impressive.

Starting with the AI-generated concept art I showed in Midjourney Magic, he created this:

Frankly, I was more than happy with the art. It’s better than anything I could have done myself.

The discussion at this point was complicated by the current legal status of AI-generated images. The folks at Morgan James were understandably concerned that I might have a problem with commercial rights because the original image (and some small parts of this version) were AI-generated.

I have commercial rights to every image I generate with Midjourney because I’m a paid subscriber. Their Terms of Service is legally binding, and it grants me full commercial rights, but there is still some concern. AI-generated images are subject to litigation right now that may threaten the companies responsible for the algorithms with bankruptcy (because the images they used to train their machine learning models are subject to intellectual property rights).

As an end-user, I should be protected from that litigation, especially with the image above being so drastically different from the original, AI-generated concept. This is still a legal gray area, though (even if barely).

The Morgan James team agreed that this art was better than anything they could have provided, and we made the decision to move forward. Two weeks later, I started getting final cover concepts from Morgan James. (Keep in mind, we were already behind the hoped-for schedule, though my contact there assures me it’s only a guideline.)

Of all the concepts we came up with, I think my favorite was this one:

I was pretty happy with our progress. I had only one minor adjustment I wanted to make.

Then, when I thought I was finally reaching a conclusion, the plot twisted yet again!

Eleventh-And-A-Half-Hour Art

While I was waiting for a final proof, my family was visiting my cousin Ben and his wife Sarah for the weekend. I showed her the proposed cover (along with giving vent to some stress-induced grumbling about the delays).

Sarah is a professional graphic designer and artist, so her opinion on the subject carries significant weight. After a thoughtful pause, she asked if she could take a stab at it, a proposal I was only too happy to agree to.

Barely a day after we got home, Sarah proved she was both a professional and something of a miracle worker, asking for my opinion on a cover she’d made from scratch in the intervening day. The next morning, after a bit of detail work, I sent her counter-proposal to Morgan James and it was quickly approved as the final cover.

My Thoughts

I know, I shouldn’t have been stressing over it. God’s got me in the palm of His hand. He’s proven it over and over.

I also have some truly amazing folks around me. Both Greg and Sarah showed up at a level that leaves me forever grateful.

I can only imagine how much I’ve already irritated the people working with me on the project (at Morgan James and elsewhere) but what we’re coming up with is going to be truly excellent, and the stress and frustration is totally worth it.

Thank you, God. Thank you, friends. Thank you, future readers!

First, I have to give a disclaimer: This could change. It could change *A LOT* if things go wrong.

That said, since my last update I’ve cut the original manuscript in half, as I explained here and sent it off to a professional editor (another term of my agreement with Morgan James).

We’re well on the way to having a fully-edited manuscript now, and, provided that step doesn’t take more than another month or two, Brightstar should be on bookstore shelves (as well as being available in all the other normal online venues) sometime next April!

A specific release date is to follow, but Morgan James isn’t just any publisher. I’ll have copies I can personally sell as soon as October or November!

The Details

The production process for the book goes something like this:
First, we design the front cover (while we finish the editing process). This takes around a month.
Next, the layout team tackles the inside of the book (once a complete manuscript is ready). That takes roughly another month.
Then, we take on the back cover and spine (the cover wrap)–another two weeks.
Finally, Morgan James does a printer’s proof of Brightstar (they get a physical copy to check out.)

A few weeks after that, we’ll have the first print run in hand and I can order author copies from the publisher.

The Plan

I’m told that the best way to sell a book is word of mouth (and frankly I’m a lousy salesman). That means I’ll be trying to quickly get as many copies as I can to anybody who’s interested in reading it.

I’ll tell you up front, I can’t afford to give away copies of the book (I have to pay for them myself, after all) but I’ll be offering them for a reduced price to anyone who wants to get an early copy for a period of time before presale opens. (I’ll get you more details on how to get one as soon as I can.)

I have my publisher’s full support in this, and they’re as anxious as I am to get the book in peoples’ hands and get the word out!

More to follow when I have more to share!

I’m told it’s incredibly rare to find a publisher quickly or easily as a first-time author.

I personally know people who have tried for years even to get an agent interested in their work.

I was warned over and over that the number of people trying to write books is still more than the market has room for.

Even J.K. Rowling had to try multiple times before she found a publisher for Harry Potter.

That just makes me all the more humbled and thankful to have signed a contract this week with Morgan James Publishing for my first novel, which still has the working title of Brightstar.

God’s Provision

By pointing to J.K. Rowling’s difficulties with Harry Potter, I’m specifically making a point. This acceptance isn’t based on my own merit. If the most popular author of my lifetime got rejected (more than once), that says that the only way I’m where I am is because of God’s provision.

Over and over since last year when I started this book, God has provided what I need to get to the next step. Over and over, the doors have opened, and I can claim no credit.

I’m deeply thankful, first to God and then to everybody else who has helped me get this far. From my college friend Jacinta, who gave me an overview of what publishing looked like to all the beta readers and friends who have encouraged me along the way, I say: Thank You.

And I’m afraid I’m going to be calling on you even more before this is over, because this is where the hard part begins.

What’s Next

Morgan James is unusual. They never take ownership of their authors’ intellectual property. I will retain the copyright to my book.

The one caveat to our agreement is that I divide Brightstar into two books (or at least one and change). The original manuscript was too long for its target market (YA fiction).

This is not an issue for me. I wrote the book episodically and stopped when I had what I thought of as a full-length manuscript. The character arc for the main character will need a little tweaking, but I think a week of work should suffice for that.

Once that’s done, I have to find a professional editor, mostly for the purpose of copyediting. Morgan James’s analysis of Brightstar showed no structural problems with the first part of the book. That means it should be comparatively easy to submit a finished manuscript (if editing can ever be considered easy).

Those are my next steps, but that’s just the beginning.

The Publishing Process

I’ve now learned that bookstores buy their books in three seasons and that getting Brightstar onto bookshelves is going to take a minimum of 8 months (maybe 10). That may seem like a long time, but bookstores are the publisher’s only customer, and industry standards are essentially written in stone.

During that time, however, I have a tremendous amount of work to do.

The way my contact put it to me, publishers get the book on the shelf, but the author has to get it off the shelf again. Morgan James will help teach me how to market my book, but I, as the author, am responsible for the marketing.

Morgan James involves authors in the whole publishing process, from details like cover art to the price the book will have on the shelf, and they take care of the expenses for most of those details.

So What’s The Hard Part?

In a word, marketing.

Fiction authors sell books based on their name recognition and word of mouth more than any other factor. I could spend a million dollars on a book launch and only sell a handful of books (because nobody knows my name). Or, I could spend no money and sell a million books (because people love the book and they tell everybody how much they love it).

The reality’s going to be somewhere in the middle. I don’t have a lot of money to spend on advertising or a book tour, but I know Brightstar is a good book.

That means that I need help from every single person who has read this far into this post (because let’s face it, you probably know me personally if you’ve bothered).

Your life is busy and I genuinely appreciate you taking an interest in what I’m doing. Thank YOU too.

In the near future (probably four or five months, but deadlines are still fluid for now) I’ll be able to start sending out review copies of the book (which I will have to pay for).

When that time comes, I will need all the help I can get, first to read the book and hopefully review it, then to tell people you know who might be interested.

In the mean time, stay tuned. I do have other announcements in the works (including a short story I’ll soon be dropping on this website as an intro to the novel and the Energematrice6 world).