As the Novel Approaches

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! I hope you are all having an excellent time with your families, and enjoying some hearty food, too. Today’s post is just a very brief update on what’s going on in my writing world. In particular, I have some news about my upcoming novel, which I discussed briefly at the beginning of October.

Let’s start with the good news: I’m making solid progress on the manuscript. The first draft has been underway for a very long time, and now, after so many starts and stops over the years, I am on the cusp of finishing it. At last count, I’d reached 106,000 words; my target is around 120,000. Given my hectic pace this past month, I stand a realistic chance of having it finished within the first or second week of December. This would bode very well for the timeline I had set:

December 31, 2024: Complete Draft #1. I’m actually ahead of schedule here.
January 31, 2025: Complete Draft #2, and send it to my first round of beta readers (you know who you are!). Already, I have a decent idea of how I’ll tighten things up for this draft. In its current state, the novel has a bit of a bloat problem, which liberal application of the “Delete” key should help resolve.
March 15, 2025: Complete Draft #3 for my second round of beta readers.
April 10, 2025: Complete Draft #4 for my third and final round of beta readers.
May 15, 2025: Finish line edits and general polishing. By this point, I need to commit to a final draft, so that I only have to worry about formatting for publication.
July 15, 2025: My novel goes live on Amazon. To smashing success, hopefully.

So, all of that looks good from here, given where I am with the text itself. I think I can absolutely publish by next July. My main concern, though, is with the cover art. In my October update, I promised a cover reveal/title announcement in January, but it looks like I’ll have to push that back to March. This is an area where I absolutely refuse to cut corners, which means I’ll need more time to find an artist I’m satisfied with. The search remains very much underway.

A while back, I did actually commission some artwork from a Ukrainian I met on Twitter. He had the advantage of charging very low prices. Unfortunately, while he produced some striking images, he never quite hit the level of quality I was looking for. Take a look for yourself:

The second cover. I’m still not going to say anything about my novel’s premise, but you can probably piece it together by now.

These are loads of fun, don’t get me wrong. But they can’t compete with what you’d get from traditionally published sci-fi—and for better or for worse, that’s where I’m setting the bar. Other self-published authors may skimp on covers in the name of keeping costs down. I choose otherwise. When I do release this book, you’ll see no stock photos, no generic sci-fi spaceships, and no AI-generated backgrounds. This release is going to be gorgeous, dammit, and I don’t care how much of a hole that puts in my bank account. Money is temporary; artistic vision is eternal.

So that’s why my announcement will be delayed, if not the actual release of the novel. In March, then, you’ll finally get to see what this project is all about. I promise it will be worth the wait.

A design for a back cover, based on this photo of a Soviet rocket launch. I might still use it for marketing purposes.

One final note before I go: I would like to apologize for missing last weekend’s blog post. My Let’s Get Off This Rock Already! posting schedule is one of many things in my life that have recently gone pear-shaped. I’m getting back on top of it, though. There won’t be an update on Sunday, December 1, but I’ll have something for y’all on December 8.

I will see you then! Have a great Thanksgiving. I, for one, am thankful for my 63 awesome subscribers.