I just finished the last chunk of editing on DEVIL IN THE DETAIL, the second SCOTT CULLEN book, and it’s away to go to my three lovely editors. I’m on track for it to be published on October 14, 2012. It will be £2.99 and $3.99, so be warned now!
The last bit I did was my “bad words” list – I started this during the final stages of GHOST IN THE MACHINE – and I’m surprised at how many unconscious errors I make. I used the word “seem” 150+ times – SHOW DON’T TELL – and countless others. I find that the chunk of text in DEVIL that pre-exists finishing GHOST was pretty bad for that – I’ve obviously learned a lot of lessons.
Comma use is one of the hardest things for a mathematician like me to master – I think too much in clauses and brackets and nested IF() statements – but I think I’m getting there.
By the looks of things, it looks like it’s taken me from the 29th May to 16th August to write and edit the book. If I can keep this up, I may be able to get more of my Cullen ideas on the page – we’ll see how it goes with DYED IN THE WOOL as that’s starting from scratch.
All I’ve got to do now is:
- Edit GHOST IN THE MACHINE for some typos and minor continuity errors and republish to Kindle
- Redo the artwork for GHOST IN THE MACHINE using the new designs for my books (watch this space)
- Publish GHOST IN THE MACHINE to createspace for the paperback version
- Plot out DYED IN THE WOOL – distill all those mad ideas into a coherent plot
- Redraft WHISKY IN THE JAR for publishing
- Plot out and write ALL IN A NAME for publishing
Nothing like being busy. But for now, I’m going to cook a roast chicken (the weather here in Scotland is decidedly Autumnal – not sure what Americans call that, Fall-al?), drink some red wine, walk the dogs and have the next three days off anything to do with Scott Cullen.
Thanks again for everyone who has bought a copy of GHOST IN THE MACHINE and left a review on Amazon or send me lovely messages here or on Twitter – it has kept my motivation levels up throughout this. I am in a good place just now.
— Ed
Congratulations on finishing. Must be a wonderful feeling. And I completely understand the bad words. I tend to overuse them, too.
It’s a bit of a nightmare – not that difficult to fix, though!
— Ed
Hi Ed,
I’m interested in how you made the pricing decision for Devil in the Detail. On the face of it, it sounds a little high for a self published eBook.
Hi mate –
It’s becoming the standard price for such books. If you read around the blogs of indie authors a lot, the 99p or £1.99 price point is getting associated with poor quality books and isn’t selling anything. There’s a plague of free books and these prices seem to get lost in the mix.
Point noted – would be interested to know what other readers think!
— Ed
Hi Ed,
As I say, just curious. Obviously, if you can get good sales at that price point, that’s good for you.
It’s been interesting to watch what happens to eBook pricing, what with the agency pricing model, which looks a bit anti-competitive. I’ve always felt that eBooks should be cheaper than physical books, not only because they’re cheaper to produce and distribute, but also because of how many people will read each copy. Probably with an eBook it’s 1 or 2 at the most, whereas I reckon with a physical book it must be 10+, with people passing them on and giving them to charity shops.
Jeff