As of a few minutes ago, I submitted the completed (draft) manuscript for Human Resources to Inkshares. I've been working on this full-time throughout January and it is a huge relief to have made this milestone.
From here, the formal editing process begins. There are three stages of editing with Inkshares; developmental, copy, and then proof-reading.
The developmental edit is structural:
The developmental edit should take about three months.
The copy edit is technical. It focuses primarily on grammar and spelling, helping make the writing as clean as possible. This edit takes about one month.
Proof reading is the final step, fresh eyes are given the completed manuscript to read cover to cover and provide feedback. When working on the previous two editing stages, you can lose perspective by spending so much time working on specific details. This stage helps make sure the novel "works." This stage takes about one month.
In parallel to the editing, the publisher will have designers working on cover designs etc. I've been told who will be working on Human Resources and I'm excited about it. I'm waiting for confirmation as to whether it is something I can announce — stay tuned...
If you would like more details about the publishing process with Inkshares, and what will happen at each stage, the company recently released a post about it here.
The novel page on Inkshares has several excerpts available to read from the first part of the book. Their platform enables readers to highlight sections they like, and add comments to discuss with other readers and the author. Up until now, I've left these excerpts alone as much as possible. I've received some great engagement from the community, with a lot of comments and interactions on the excerpts. However, with the second draft finished, I needed to update these excerpts with newer versions. This is now done, so don't be thrown if all the comments have disappeared. Hopefully, you'll all agree the new versions are an improvement.
I've started an author mailing list and will be sending out a monthly newsletter to people who subscribe. The newsletter will include some of my short stories, blog articles on writing, and information on other projects I become involved in. You can sign up here (and obviously unsubscribe any time if you find it isn't for you).
I wanted to take an opportunity to highlight some other interesting projects currently funding on Inkshares: