Questions I hear a lot about books, mine or others. Usually others. 😉 Not too many foaming at the mouth over mine yet.

Why does it take so long…

Why can’t we get them sooner?

Can you write faster?

One answer to all three is edits. Getting a book from written to on the stands is a time consuming process.

Last year, I turned in my manuscript of Through the Veil.

Towards the end of December, I got the galley edits for the book. At this time, I’ve got a couple of weeks to go through and do any needed rewrites, clarifications, or address any issues the editor has.

I mail them back.

On Monday Feb 18, I got the first pass edits. This basically is my last chance to look through the book before it’s put into print. No rewrites here. This is line editing, making sure I dotted my I’s, crossed my T’s (so to speak) and remembered to use all those little words like do, and, the, be…words I don’t always remember in the heat of writing.

I’ve got until the beginning of March, three months before the book releases, to get these done and sent back in. From then, I assume it goes to printer, gets printed, bound, etc, etc, etc. Then shipping and all that jazz.

Writing isn’t always the time consuming part. But getting the book from written to edited to printed to shipped to released can be.