The average amount of time to write and self-publish a novel is approximately five years.
I can add a couple more years to that, since I wrote the first half of Mark of the Champion between 2007-2008. Then work, college, other creative projects, and my husband’s brain cancer brought my momentum to a screeching halt.
After a decade of recuperating from Fred’s tumor removal and rebuilding after giving up the studio, I got back on the novel writing train. I’ve written about this often, so I won’t repeat the details.
But after all those years — with the new, unfamiliar steps I had to take, the folks I had to contact when I was a bundle of nerves, all the revisions, analysis, critiques, edits, and proofreads I commissioned — I am on the verge of publishing my first novel.
My experience with Adobe InDesign has served me well for over two decades. But most of the projects I work on at my day job typically have from four to thirty pages. Mark of the Champion has a total of 622 pages in the paperback edition. I arrived at this figure after making the files for each individual chapter, interlude, and front and back matter. I watched several videos on how to build a book in InDesign, often playing them over and over to make sure the instruction soaked in.
I started what I thought was easy book formatting. I began after the prologue at Chapter One, and immediately ran into a disaster.
After the files were placed, I started what I thought was easy book formatting. I began after the prologue at Chapter One, and immediately ran into a disaster. I’d formatted the margins on the first of my chapter files, and thought I had made enough copies with identical measurements for the rest of the chapters. But when I opened the second chapter, it had completely different margins that threw the entire book out of whack. For a week and a half, I had to correct the margins for each section and chapter, and experiment over and over to find the right point size and leading, so that the type wouldn’t add or reduce the amount of pages.
I’d already submitted the page count to Ingram Spark to generate the cover art template, so I absolutely had to have all the pages equal 622.
I’m happy to report that everything is in place, with the correct margins, the correct fonts, and the correct spacing. All that’s left is some back matter sections (like the author bio I still have to write) and I’ll finally be ready to submit Mark of the Champion to Ingram Spark!
The Wilder Life
Despite the occasional Santa Ana winds and surprise rain showers, Fred is moving ahead with completing two separate work benches for the micro-studio. The first is a woodworking bench, which he’ll use for making large, heavier projects. The second is a jeweler’s bench, which Fred will use for his fine detailed work, including the puppets and scenery that he’ll use to complete his feature film, Das Puppets.
Fred is also doing research for his next artistic endeavor — a series of artworks that include sea stars, urchins, sea cucumbers, and other echinoderms. They’ll be the basis for various artworks, including paintings and ceramic sculptures.
Writing and Business News
Checklist Update:
Continue outlining Book Two in the Unified Realms series
Rewrite script for MOTC Book Trailer
Finalize book blurb
Renew our DBA and make a new DBA for our publishing imprint
Enter receipts for taxes
Apply for Real ID (both of us)
Apply for new business license after receiving updated IDs
The Real ID for Fred will soon be a reality! We finally received the updated, modern version of Fred’s birth certificate, and that was the final bit of paperwork required by the DMV for Fred to obtain a new ID card. After that we can apply to renew our business license, and register our DBAs.
I removed the bullet point about the prologue and the first three chapters, because although I could post them on my site, I realized the type was too small and I would need to find an alternate way to post the excerpts. When I replace the chapters with a more legible version, I will send out a special notice.
Highlight of the Month
THREE SECONDS FROM ETERNITY (1979)
Photographs by Robert Doisneau
Robert Doisneau was a French photographer who created images for various magazines such as Vogue, and several advertising campaigns. He also liked to experiment, using a Speedgraphic camera to warp the Eiffel Tower, for example, as well as a twisted dancing couple, several decades before Photoshop was a glimmer in the eyes of the Knoll brothers.
The majority of photographs in Three Seconds from Eternity capture the lives, emotions, and celebrations of the French, from intimate portraits of Parisian families, to gala dinners, to a lonely printer at his press. There is also a lot of absurdity in Doisneau’s photos, including a gaping mouth forming an archway, about to chomp down on a French policeman, and a photo of Pablo Picasso with croissants for hands.
Filmmaker Wes Anderson was inspired by Doisneau — several of his movies feature near-still photos of a congregation of characters, staring as if they can see the audience in the theatre. The photos in Three Seconds likewise suggest that many years into the future, the Parisians are looking forward at us, unblinking, marveling at our own absurdities. Highly recommended for any photography enthusiast.
Thank you for reading!
You can learn more about me and my works in progress, including a character gallery, biography, and the Prologue and chapters 1-3 of Mark of the Champion at my author website, candyglynnwilder.com.
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