About Books

  • The bookmarks are here …

    Guess what I got in the mail? The bookmarks for Web of Lies. Huzzah!

    And believe me when I say that these are some pretty nice bookmarks. They’re 2-by-8 inches on thick, sturdy, glossy paper. Kudos go out once again to Kelley and the other folks at Iconix, the company that prints my bookmarks. They really do put out a quality product.

    As always, the bookmarks are free to readers, librarians, bookstores, or whomever wants a couple. However, I do ask folks to send me a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) to get the bookmarks. This helps me out with postage costs.

    So if you want to get some bookmarks, send me an e-mail at jennifer@jenniferestep.com, and I’ll tell you where to send your SASE. I’ll also be getting bookmarks made for Venom later on during the summer when the cover art is finalized.

    In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy the boomark goodness! 😉

  • ·

    Timelines …

    So I’ve talked about copy edits and page proofs, and now, I thought I would share a rough timeline of when I get them in regards to when the book is published. So here’s an example of a rough timeline of a book based on Web of Lies, which comes out on May 25.

    When I turned the book in: Winter/spring 2009, or about one year before the publication date.

    Revisions from editor: These arrived about two months after I turned the book in.

    Copy edits: Arrived about six months before the publication date.

    Page proofs: About four months before the publication date.

    Confirmation pages: About two months before the publication date. Note: Not all publishers send confirmation pages to authors. A lot of publishers just send the page proofs, and that’s the last time the author sees the book before it goes to press.

    Final book: Usually, the finished book goes to press about a month or so before the actual on-sale date, so my publisher will actually start printing copies of Web of Lies around the last week of April. Books will start shipping out to store usually about two weeks before the on-sale date.

    The publication date: This is when I’ll see the finished book for the first time, either by going to the local bookstore and finding it on the shelves or getting my author copies in the mail. I don’t usually get any early copies.

    People often wonder why it takes so long for books to be published. Well, this is part of the reason why. Each one of these steps takes about two months, which includes giving me time to do my part of the process and mail the book back before my editor sends it on to the next step. So even if I don’t have a book hitting shelves, I’m working on something all the time, even if it is all this behind-the-scenes stuff.

    So there you have it. A little bit about publishing timelines. Got questions? I’ll answer what I can in the comments.

  • Page proofs …

    In addition to working on copy edits for Venom, I also finished up page proofs for Web of Lies this past weekend. So here’s a little bit about what page proofs are:

    So after I sent my copy edits back, a few weeks later I’ll get what are known as page proofs — or the typeset version of the manuscript. The pages are what the book will actually look like when it is bound and put on the shelf.

    Basically, during the page proof stage, I’m just reading through the book looking for typos and punctuation errors. At this point, I can only make relatively small, minor changes to the book — no adding big chunks of text or anything like that. You don’t want the publisher to have to typeset your book again because you added 20 pages to it — that’s a big no-no.

    After I’m done with the page proofs, I mail them back to my editor. A few weeks later, some publishers will then send out what are called confirmation pages — or one final proof of the book before it goes to press. The point of the confirmation pages is to make sure that all the page proof changes made it into the book. For example, I got confirmation pages for Web of Lies and discovered that a couple of commas hadn’t made it in where they were supposed to go and a word had been misspelled. So they really are handy.

    I don’t mind doing page proofs so much because they go a lot quicker than the copy edits — and it’s exciting to see the book typeset for the first time. Getting page proofs always means that the book is getting close to hitting stores and that you guys will be able to read it soon. 😉

    Got questions? I’ll answer what I can in the comments.

  • The copy edits are here, the copy edits are here …

    Since I just finished up the copy edits for Venom, I thought that I would talk a little bit about what the heck copy edits are in the first place. Here goes:

    Basically, a manuscript goes through a couple of different stages as it is turned into a book. First, I turn my manuscript in, and my editor reads it and sends me a letter with revision requests. I do the revisions and send it back to her.

    Then, if the revisions are kosher, a couple of months later I get what’s known as copy edits — or my manuscript pages that have been marked up in red ink by a copy editor. The copy editor includes notes about everything from typos to what words should be italicized to where the chapter heads and scene breaks go. The copy editor’s job is basically to get the manuscript ready to be typeset (which is the next step in the process).

    My job is to go through the manuscript page by page and answer any questions that the copy editor has. For example, if she doesn’t understand how part of the magic system works, then I go in and add a couple of paragraphs to explain it better. I don’t have to make every change that the copy editor suggests, but I usually follow her advice the majority of the time.

    I usually get about three weeks to do the copy edits and send them back to my editor. I won’t lie to you — it’s not my favorite thing to do. It’s a long, painstaking process made even more so by my obsessive tendencies. The copy edit stage is the last chance that I have to make substantial changes to the book, and I tend to really agonize over every little thing at this point in the process just because I want to make sure that the book is perfect as it can be. Alas, I know that it will not be perfect, but I do the best that I can.

    So there you have it — a little bit about copy edits. Up next, I’ll talk about the next stage in the process — page proofs.

    Got questions? I’ll answer what I can in the comments.

  • ·

    10 things …

    4 Comments

    The folks over at All About Romance did a cool post about 10 Things I’d Like to Tell Publishers. I agree with a lot of their comments, especially the one about the cheesy romance book titles. (Seriously, I think someone has a lot of fun coming up with some of those groaners).

    Inspired by them, I thought that I’d do a post about 10 Things I’d Like to Tell Readers. Here goes:

    1. I have very little input/control when it comes to the cover art for my books. If you think the covers suck, there’s nothing I can do about it. (And yes, I know the covers for the mass market versions of the Bigtime books suck — they suck out loud, especially the one for Karma Girl. Believe me, I know and have spent many hours bemoaning that fact.)

    2. I do not know everything there is to know about publishing. I cannot find a cover artist for your book, or a copy editor, or tell you why no one wants to publish the annotated history of your belly lint. Well, I could on that last one, but you probably wouldn’t like what I had to say about it. I get a lot of questions about publishing and writing, and I’m happy to help when and as I can — but I can’t get your book published for you. Only you can do that. And yes, it is much harder than it looks.

    3. Fake even a little bit of interest in my work, and I will sign books until my fingers bleed and smile for photos until my face hurts for you. Buy one of my books, and I will shower you with all the bookmarks and goodies that I have on hand. Tell me that you read and enjoyed one of my books, and I will wish you joy and happiness for all of your days. 😉

    4. I look at reviews for my books. Good ones make me happy, bad ones make me sad. Reviews where folks call my books the worst things ever written after reading all of two pages of said books and never finishing them bring out my inner Hulk, who can only be controlled by eating massive amounts of strawberry cheesecake ice cream. Or to sum up, authors have feelings too, folks.

    5. Getting asked where the bathroom is while I’m doing a book signing is depressing. Pop! Did you hear that? That was the sound of you just deflating my ego. Now, I want to crawl under the table and whimper while I eat a candy bar — or three.

    6. I don’t care what format you buy my book in. Paper copy, e-copy, heck, I don’t even care if you get a copy from the used bookstore. All I ask is that if you like the book, you tell your friends about it — and maybe take a minute or two to send me an e-mail about it (see 10). If you don’t like my book, that’s okay too — just be polite about it. Different strokes for different folks, and all that.

    7. I’m a reader too, and I’m just as happy to talk about other authors’ books as I am about my own. I can prattle on and on and on about my favorite authors and books all day long. Seriously, I can make your ears bleed, folks. My significant other knows better than to get me started waxing poetic about my favorite books. Everyone else, you have been warned. 😉

    8. Yeah, I know that my books are not perfect. There are typos and continuity errors and sometimes I repeat phrases in books. But you know what? It’s hard coming up with 100,000 words that create a coherent story, and it’s even harder to ensure that every single one of those words is perfect. Manuscripts go through a lot of editors as they are turned into books, and we all do our very best to catch all the mistakes. But we’re human, and some errors are going to creep in. It’s not because I don’t work hard on my books — that’s just life.

    9. My inner fangirl squees with delight every time I see my book on the shelf at the bookstore. That weird woman you see taking photos in at Walmart? That’s me, ogling my book on the shelf for about the hundredth time.

    10. A positive e-mail from a reader telling me that she liked my books really does make my day (see 6). Knowing that people enjoy my books makes all the hard work and long hours in front of my computer worthwhile.

    So there you have it. Some of my (hopefully amusing) thoughts that I’d like to share with readers. What about you guys? What are some of the things you’d like to tell authors or publishers? Share in the comments. And keep it polite, please.