Terry Fallis - Best Laid Plans

It’s been very interesting to learn about the various steps in the publishing process.  I’ve just reviewed and tweaked the copy the team at iUniverse proposes to put on the front and back covers of the novel.  When it comes to the description of the book on the back, it’s a balancing act.  We need to provide enough description to entice the reader, without telling the whole story and spoiling the few surprises along the way.  Here’s the result after my very minor tweaking:

Thirty-something Daniel Addison is jaded and burned out from his Parliament Hill job as a speechwriter for the Liberal Leader of the Opposition. After a bad breakup with his girlfriend, Daniel is eager to escape the duplicitous world of Canadian politics, so he accepts a faculty position with the University of Ottawa’s English Department. He soon moves into a boathouse apartment in nearby Cumberland owned by Angus McLintock, a cranky engineering professor in his sixties who is mourning the recent loss of his wife.

Both Angus and Daniel intend to retreat from the world for a while, but fate won’t have it. Angus is desperate to avoid teaching English to first-year engineering students yet again.  Daniel, as penance for abandoning his party on the eve of an election, must find a local Liberal candidate to run against the incumbent Conservative MP, who just happens to be the most popular Finance Minister in Canadian history. In an unlikely alliance, Angus consents to stand as the in-name-only, certain-to-lose Liberal candidate, and in return, Daniel agrees to take Angus’s English class.

Everything is going according to plan until the voters are suddenly forced to take a closer look at Angus. The once guaranteed Liberal loss is now thrown into doubt. Scrambling to deal with this unexpected development, Angus and Daniel land in the middle of a hilarious political maelstrom that tests not only their friendship but their beliefs in government and democracy.

It seems a tad long to me, particularly if there’s to be space left for the complimentary quotations provided by Allan Rock, Paddy Torsney, and Mike Tanner.  We’ll see what unfolds.

While we’re polishing up the cover copy, the designers at iUniverse are considering whether they’re happy with the cover design I submitted or will propose a different approach.  Stay tuned…

The publishing ball is currently in iUniverse’s court. By earning the Editor’s Choice designation, iUniverse gives me free professional art direction for my book cover design. While I’ll certainly consider what they come up with, I really like the cover design already created and submitted to iUniverse by my friend and colleague Steve Palmer at 76Design, the graphic and web design arm of Thornley Fallis.

I’m also trying to decide whether I want to fork out the dough to have the whole manuscript professionally proofread. It’ll add another couple of thousand dollars to the price tag but on the other hand, I really don’t want any typos slipping through. Alternatively, I could try to proofread it myself or have a friend do it. Decisions, decisions.

I also had my twin brother Tim, a solid photographer in his spare time, take another author photo that will appear in the published novel somewhere.

I’ll keep you posted as the journey continues…

I’ve just received the manuscript back from the iUniverse copy editor and I’m very impressed. Every page is like the one above. Dozens of tiny little formatting and style errors on every page! I can understand now why this part of the process took nearly five weeks. It’s a ton of work. I’m now reviewing each change, (yep, each one) and either approving or rejecting it. I’m finding myself accepting 99 percent of the proposed edits, recognizing that I’m no expert in publishing formating and style. I’m so glad I opted for the copy editing process. It’s well worth the dough, and TBLP will be a better read for it. I have 14 days to process the copy edits before the manuscript is resubmitted and we’re on to layout and cover.

In some senses, I suppose self-publishing is a supreme act of self-indulgence. Nevertheless, I actually thought it might be helpful for other budding writers, whose books might not neatly align with what mainstream publishers are looking for (like satirical novels of Canadian politics for instance), to tag along on my little self-publishing journey, such as it is. So periodically, I’ll provide these little updates on where I am in the process.

Earlier this week, I received my official Editorial Evaluation from iUniverse, the publishing house I’m using through Chapters.Indigo.ca. The publishing package I chose included a professional review of my manuscript from a seasoned editor. As you might imagine, my stomach was not quite feeling like my own as I clicked open the evaluation. With eyes squinted and face clenched, I whipped through the evaluation. How do you spell RELIEF?

All was well. I found it to be a very thoughtful and insightful review of the novel. The editor clearly read it carefully, all the way through. I believe the editor was American but only through the spelling in the evaluation not because anything written revealed any lack of understanding of Canadian politics. There were only two minor suggestions for changes and I have taken them to heart… mostly. Firstly, I have shortened the Prologue somewhat so that the pace is sustained. Secondly, the editor suggested I give consideration to eliminating the Angus diary entries that conclude most chapters so that his character emerges only through Daniel’s eyes. Interesting idea and I understand the editor’s rationale. Having said that, I feel quite attached to Angus’s point of view and the shades of his personality and character that are revealed to the reader, but not necessarily to Daniel, in these brief entries. Based on my own thoughts and the views of a small circle of friends who have read the manuscript (thank you, thank you, thank you) I’ve decided to go part way, recognizing that my proximity to the novel likely compromises my perspective somewhat. I have shortened the diary entries to ease the interruptions in Daniel’s narrative, but they’re staying in the story. As always, your thoughts on this would be appreciated.

One milestone survived in the long road to print. Next stop, professional copy editing for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and syntax… (not inexpensive, but worth every penny I figure.)

I leave you with a couple of the summary comments made by the iUniverse editor in the official Editorial Evaluation of The Best Laid Plans:

“The story moves along at an enjoyable pace throughout. The energy of Daniel, Angus and the other characters flows off the page and readers will become quite attached to these characters. Most of all, though, the voice the book is written in is original and engaging — just the perfect amounts of earnestness and cynicism mixed together.”

“The quality of the writing is high. The writer goes beyond merely giving an account of the action and enhances it describing it and commenting on it in clever ways (”The Chief of Staff’s left eyebrow lifted in a Spockian arch.” etc.).”

Breathing easier now…