Frustrations and surprises

I'm feeling a little frustrated lately. If you follow this blog at all, even occasionally, you'll know that I finished working on a manuscript near the end of last year. That's a great feeling, a sense of accomplishment. And then comes the waiting.

The publishing industry is glacially slow. Right now my manuscript is being reviewed, and that takes time. We're only at stage 1. After this initial review, many more people will read it, changes will no doubt be requested, submitted and re-reviewed -- and if all of that goes well, the art department, the copy editor, the typesetter and several other people have to do their thing.

The thought that this process could, and probably will, last for the next year or so is a hard pill to swallow. In the meantime I'm working on a new idea, but the serious delay between finishing the manuscript and actually seeing it become a book can get you down.

On the upside, people appear to still be buying Lucifer, which is nice. I've been told repeatedly that the amazon rankings are not supposed to be used as a gauge for your overall sales, but it's all I've got. Today it "shot up" into the 65,000 range, which it hasn't seen in about a year. Not quite a best seller, I know, but any sales are good, especially for a no-name author with a year and a half old book.