So I’m up to my eyeballs in revisions. I’ve put in my “think time” and I’m writing actual words at this point. I’m just past the halfway point of the novel, with three major scene rewrites still ahead of me and a number of small revisions left to make. I’ve informed the editor of my progress and scheduled a tentative delivery date of this first round of revisions. (We may go through several rounds.)
But guess what! The manuscript is not the only thing I have to deliver!
I also have to come up with a title, a series title, and cover ideas.
Fortunately, the editor likes the current title of the novel, Assassin’s Gambit, so it stays. Cross that one off the list!
Series title? I have no idea! I have to come up with one! It’s due by the end of next week.
As for cover, this is not entirely my job, but one of the things I love about working with NAL is that they work closely with their authors on cover design. This is a way better situation than some publishers who just slap a cover on the novel and if the author doesn’t like it, too bad. So they want input from me, and that means I need to do a lot of thinking about what I want the cover to look like.
I know lots of writers have envisioned the covers of their novels from the very beginning, but I am not one of those writers. I am not a visual writer at all. I am an auditory writer, the kind who cares a great deal about things like the rhythm of the dialogue and the mouth feel of names and titles. If you look up photos of celebrities to serve as models for your characters, you are a visual writer. If you rehearse your characters’ dialogue endlessly as you are walking about the house, you are an auditory writer. And if you are an auditory writer, you have probably not thought a whole lot about your novel’s cover art.
So I’m thinking about it now, because cover art is important. Good covers sell books, and this is something that deserves a great deal of thought. Even though I have 185 pages of revisions still to go…
Amy Raby 
Good luck! I can just imagine how hard this is. Maybe you’ll dream about it. Weirder things have happened.
So are they going to publish Assassin’s Gambit before SSVS? Isn’t that doing it backwards? Although, I guess if you bill SSVS as a flashback of sorts, that would work.
Thanks! Yes, Assassin’s Gambit will be published first, and SSV will be published as a prequel. Because each book has a complete story arc, I think they don’t need to be strictly chronological.
My sympathies on all you have to do, but I know you’ll get there. I’ll be noodling Series titles…
Thanks! I’m making progress on series titles (I have to admit, most of the ideas have come from my CPs!) and feeling much better about that Friday deadline.
I know I’m late to the party….but congrats once again. Cover design, and series title–>so much fun, but a little stressful too. Plus the series title needs to be something that spans and connects all the books. Good luck! I’m glad to hear Soldier, Sage and Vagabond is getting published too,
Thanks! Got cover and series title taken care of (from my end; the cover people at the publisher are now doing their part). So now I’m supposed to be working on an author bio. Which is easier than cover and series title, at least.