Do you know my favorite part of writing a book?

Aside from the initial concept, where my imagination runs wild… Aside from that first flowing sentence… Aside from the last sentence when I finally get to write, The End… Aside from designing the cover—all those pretty colors and cats!… Aside from having my editor and beta reader tell me how much they like it…

My very favorite part of writing a new book is when I download everything to the publisher and order my proof copy.

Tyler checking a proof of Cat Winter. KDP proof copies are designated with a gray band across the cover.

A proof copy is simply a single copy of an unpublished book. For all intents and purposes, the proof copy looks and feels exactly like a real book, and in fact it is a real book. When I receive it in the mail in the next few days, I’ll finally get to see the culmination of the work. The cover art and back blurb on its glossy paper, the formatting and font of the text. I’ll get to hold it in my hand, turn the pages, read as if it were someone else’s book, and I, the intrepid reader.

Then I’ll take up my red pen and begin the real work. By the time I’ve finished with the proof, its pages will be filled with red lines, comments, notes exclamation points, and possibly a few mild curses.

Tinkerbelle oversees the red-pen edit.

One would think that after three drafts with numerous revisions, a read-aloud of a computer-printed copy, a beta reader, and a couple of passes by the editor the book would be perfect. And one would be wrong, at least in my case. There is something about holding a printed book in one’s hand that makes it simple to spot errors—not just typos but continuity, plot holes, and duplications. For the most part though, what I revise has to do with wording. Better words, better story.

Can you guess how many times I revised this blogpost?

 I could go on editing forever, but eventually I have to buckle down and call it done. And to that end:

Ghost Cat from Ocean Cove has a launch date—August 17^th, National Black Cat Day 2021! Preorders will be up soon.