Unediting and Appendices

(Reposted from 10/01/08)

In a mad-dash attempt to get our book published before Christmas, KL and I have been working to finish editing the first book. While it's rewarding to see the book become a much better product, it's also hard to keep up the break-neck pace we've been setting. I think at some point KL said that she didn't know if we were improving the book so much as making it different. -_-*

We've been debating whether or not to push our deadline past Christmas to give SFA more attention. I think it might be a good idea, as I'd like to put the book away for awhile and look at it later with a new perspective. I want to be very meticulous with editing so that SFA will be as perfect as we can make it, but having to look so closely at the text for grammatical or continuity errors is seriously giving me a headache.

Enough about editing.

I've been working on sprucing up and filling out our Guide to the World, a set of documents that describes our world and the people in it in more detail. This is one of those areas where KL and I vastly differ, as she's more of a big-picture person while I enjoy random details (for instance, Wisteria's middle name or the full student registry of Eastridge). Being a perfectionist makes me enjoy organizing, and instead of organizing my room or my office even, I organize things like...comprehensive lists of rune characteristics and character details.

KL and I hope to include our Guide to the World as a set of appendices in the back of our published book so we can share our Book of Runes and our Student Registry with people who would be interested in such information. Also, hopefully, we'll be able to put it up on the website for all to admire (well, mainly me to admire, really)!

Ah, so much work, and so little time...

Best,

JLY

Favorite Quotation of the Week (or month, I suppose):

As KL has said, "You like to keep meticulous details of every rune we've ever used, while I like to create new ones without telling you."

Massive Rewrites, You Say? Why Yes, We've Got Those.

(Reposted from 09/25/08)

As you might know, JLY and I finished writing Book 1 on 7/7/08. And then, began editing it. That means we've been editing for over two months now. Two months. Of editing.

If you've read JLY's blog at all, you know she's the perfectionist. She likes it when things are perfect. Me, on the other hand? I like it when things are done.

Which is why editing is painful for me. I wanted to power through it and finish it and submit the book so I can put a big metaphorical DONE stamp on SFA Book 1... But luckily, JLY and KM Ricker (amongst other people) have talked sense into me... So it looks like we might delay publishing until we can go over the entire book again and make it... better...

Sometimes, with editing, I get the feeling that I'm not making things better, I'm just making things different. I hate that feeling... It seems unproductive.

But, JLY and I did have a good round of editing lately, where we rolled up our sleeves and cleaned up some of the Annalise sub-plot (which gets a little messy at times)... Hopefully, what we're doing is making it better, and not just different.

After some discussion, JLY and I decided to share one of the changes-- an added scene, in this case-- for the update last week. This scene is in rough-draft (and by that, I mean it hasn't been gone through any rounds of editing yet). If you read it, I hope you liked seeing what we've been bashing our heads against for the past two months or so... The process of ripping open the story and then putting it back together. So to speak.

Oh, to answer the question in the comments, JLY and I have opted not to use a professional editor... Since we've already got the two of us, plus KM Ricker's opinion, I tend to think we've got enough opinions floating around... Also, I'm not sure that the quality of professional editing we'd get with a self-publishing company would be that worth it, since the editors don't work with you for as much time, or as closely. But maybe a professional editor would be a good idea in the future, at some point...

<3

KL

Reviews, Deadlines, New Favorite Hobbies.

(Reposted from 09/10/08)

First off, I really can't thank everyone enough for joining the facebook group, posting comments, joining the tangler forum and overall reading the book. My new favorite hobby is checking to see who the new members of the facebook group are, and hoping we break 100 people. ^_^

Also, I'll admit that every now and then JLY, KM Ricker, and I spend a couple of hours sorting through all of the places where fans have posted SFA links on forums, or mentioned it on blogs or profiles. It's always a jolt of encouragement to see that someone out there has taken the time to share our story with other people. We really appreciate it!

So... along those lines, JLY and I have submitted our site to a couple of web fiction websites, so I wanted to let everyone know that you can now find a listing of our book at Pages Unbound and the Webfiction Guide. We've had so many thoughtful and amazing emails/comments that I thought I'd throw those two links out there to see if anyone would be interested in giving us a ranking/writing a review at one of those sites. (Who wouldn't want to write a review for SFA? No one, presumably... Right? =D)

Anyway, apparently the only way JLY, KM Ricker, and I can manage to get anything done is to set some strict deadlines... The latest one we've set is to try to submit the manuscript to Booksurge by Sept 15th. Given how long the formatting, etc. takes, that should mean the book will be ready to buy in time for the holidays... Hopefully. So, as per usual, we're scrambling to get everything done, tighten up anything that needs tightening, and add in all the scenes we think make sense to add.

As JLY and I have mentioned a bit, we're planning on filling in Fell's arc somewhat more completely, so you can look for a couple more Fell scenes in the first book. Honestly, one of the main reasons that Fell was neglected was the steady-progression nature of his character. Warriors take their lumps and grind through the first year, so that's what Fell is doing... and unfortunately, that's not particularly eventful, or plot-relevant... (We can really only have so many scenes where Fell gets beaten up again, right?) But, looking back, we did end up skipping over some parts... So, I can now definitely say that we're going to round all of that out a little more, particularly the social side of Fell's first year.

Other than that, just more of the same type of work that we've been talking about for the past couple months... the Fell additions are the last major thing on our list, along with a couple other scenes that need looking at... and, realistically, probably going over the entire thing one last time... But, after that! We can submit it! I feel like I've been saying that for awhile...

Anyway, I'm looking forward to submitting it, and finally really moving on to work full-on for book 2. We'll keep you updated as we go along... With hope and much luck, the next time I post, I'll be congratulating the SFA team on successfully submitting our book to Booksurge by September 15th. ^_^

<3

KL

Publishing and Editing

(Reposted from 08/25/08)

I wanted to take the time to thank all the readers who have been loyally following the book, sending us emails, and posting to our blogs to give us feedback and encouragement. KL, KMRicker, and I are so glad to hear that you've enjoyed reading School for Adventurers. =)

To give us more contact with our readers, KL and I have created our basic but lovely RSS feed. We've also created a new facebook group called Eastridge Academy: School for Adventurers. Shameless plug: Join our group, if you're so inclined...and tell your friends too!

For the past month, aside from earnestly trying to stay ahead of the Book 2 updates, KL and I have been working on publishing Book 1. We've decided to go the self-publishing route and have been putting the agents of various self-publishing companies to work to impress us with their features, options, and marketing packages.

It's certainly a learning process, as I've never had the experience of self-publishing a book before. There were a lot of factors to think about: what size we wanted our book to be, what we wanted our retail and wholesale prices to be, what our royalties might be, as well as what types of marketing and advertising strategies we needed. I don't think I've ever really given a thought to the sizes and shapes of books before, but after a month of research, I can proudly say that I am able to identify different genres by their book dimensions alone.

KL and I decided to go with BookSurge in the end, mainly because publishing through them makes our book that much more affordable (I didn't realize that 350-page, *paperback* fantasy novels can get to be as much as $21.00, yikes!). Also, it feels like BookSurge might give us more control of how our book looks, which is important particularly because KMRicker has conceded to give KL and I a pretty book cover if we're very good. Anyway, if everything goes well, we'll be able to have a paper copy to sell in a couple months' time.

In the meantime, KL and I are editing and improving our first book before we send a final draft off to print. We're tightening the narrative and throwing in new scenes. We're also typing out more descriptions about the world and characters in an attempt to really round out the SFA universe. By the time Book 1 is given to the publisher, it'll probably look different than what is on the website now. Hopefully, all the grammatical and continuity errors will be hammered out, our plot pace will be more fluid, and, yes, there will be more scenes of Fell. =)

Anyway, keep reading and telling us what you think!

Best,

"Jae Elle Whye", or JLY

Self-Publishing, RSS, Facebook, and Fell

(Reposted from 08/24/08)

Thanks again to everyone who's been commenting and emailing. KM Ricker, JLY, and I were very encouraged by all of the feedback!

We've spent the last couple of weeks working on the non-writing side of SFA. We called a couple of self-publishing companies and spent a few hours talking to each of them so we could figure out what the best company for us would be. After much debate, we decided to go with Booksurge (as David Dunham even recently recommended). We picked Booksurge for several reasons, including the book size (smaller, and more like real fantasy books), and the price buyers pay (which should end up being lower than other companies). The process takes a couple of months to complete, so when it's available to buy, we'll be happy to let everyone know!

On top of the self-publishing research, JLY and I also spent many (too many?) hours bashing our heads against the RSS feed, but we finally got it working, so SFA now has an RSS feed. Sign up and stay on top of all the upcoming SFA news. =)

Lastly, you might have noticed that SFA has a shiny new Facebook group, so you can join up and discuss SFA on facebook with other readers, or just show your support. =D Thank you to everyone who has signed up so far!

Whew. Well, hopefully this week it'll be back to writing. Rai's prologue will be posted on Friday, so we can see how Eastridge's resident charmer spent his summer. After that, it'll be time to dive into the first chapter!

By the way, there have been a few emails and comments asking about why Fell isn't more involved in Book 1. Originally, we had a few more things planned for him and for the Warrior major, but as it was we felt we were taking too long to get to the actual overarching plot, so we decided to push some of it to the second book.

So, JLY and I have previously talked about this imbalance, and as we're editing the book, we've been looking to see if we can balance the narrative a bit more evenly while still making sense and without getting too side-tracked. So, it's something we've definitely been thinking about and looking into, although I'm not sure what the end result will be. I can, however, say that we've got lots of plans for Fell this year.

<3

KL

The Second Book

(Reposted from 08/14/08)

KL and I posted the first part of our second book, as several people might have noticed. =)

It's always exciting and a little terrifying to start a new book. It seems as if we're starting over. However, at least, with the second book, we already have our characters and our world in place, so it's not as intimidating.

One of the more amusing jobs that KL and I face as writers is naming our books. As KL and I never got around to deciding the name of our first book, we were faced with the task of titling both. Because there are several main characters and several threads running through our novels, it becomes hard to summarize into simple titles and taglines.

Do we name our characters in the title? The Adventures of Fell, Wisteria, Averi, and Rai seems a bit long and uninformative. And, what would Book 2 be called? The Further Adventures of Fell, Wisteria, Averi, Rai, and Friends? ...no.

Or, should we stick to the relevant nouns and concepts that our book addresses? The Thief, The Princess, The Farmer, and The Mage is like one of those logic puzzles. The Princess must be Averi, and no one knows more about farming than Fell. But, who is the Thief, and who is the Mage? Rai's not all that good of a Thief, but he's certainly no Mage. And, Averi's also a Thief, but there's no way that Rai's the Princess. At any rate, we abandoned this title.

We also thought about following the Harry-Potter-title format. However, Wisteria Ling and the Magical Mystery Sword didn't strike the right chord, especially since it cuts out three of the main characters. For that matter, Averi and the Diplomatic Relations Disaster also failed on multiple fronts.

So, we ended up talking about what we were both looking for in a title. Like the sucker I am, I knew I wanted alliteration, and, ideally, some sort of connection to our plot. KL, on the other hand, wanted something that sounded exciting, or had to do with fighting, which led to her throwing in a lot of words such as, "Fight! Sword! Battle! Adventure!"

The end result of hours of brainstorming was a compromise. Book One ended up being the title we've been using all along as a placeholder--Eastridge Academy: School for Adventurers. And, Book Two became Eastridge Academy: The Stolen Sword.

And, our tagline is:

"Eastridge Academy: School for Adventurers...where adventurers are made."

(A serious title for a very serious book.)

=)

JLY

08/08/08 and Thanks...

(Reposted from 08/08/08)

As we're posting the beginning of book two, I want to take a minute to say thanks everyone who's commented on the blog or sent us an email. I have to admit that there are days when JLY and I start to feel burned out, and hearing that there are people out there who like our story gives us the motivation to push ourselves to work harder, make the scenes better, and keep writing instead of taking a break to play Soul Calibur IV. ^_^*

You might have noticed that SFA doesn't have any ads, anywhere. And, while we certainly wouldn't mind someday making ridiculous amounts of money off of our writing, for now, we're just writing for the love of telling the story. When we hear from readers, it makes the hard work worth it, and inspires us to keep at it. So, thanks to everyone for the emails and the blog comments. We appreciate it more than you know.

To answer Lana's question (in a comment on the previous post), JLY, KM Ricker, and I have thought about self-publishing the novel, and we're hoping to pick a publishing service and get a physical copy of the book out there in circulation. We spent part of the last month going through and editing the entire novel-- adding some scenes, polishing some of the rough places, and (hopefully) catching all of the typos. If we do end up publishing it, I hope everyone picks up a copy!

But, in the meantime, if anyone out there enjoying the story would like a way to support us, I'd like to put in a shameless plug for you to tell a friend, or a couple of friends, or everyone you know, about SFA. ^_^

In other news, it's 8/8/08, and that means that we've started posting the second book, which actually has a title, and a good one, at that--The Stolen Sword. It took JLY and I longer than I'd like to admit to come up with that title... Someday we'll post up the outtakes, but probably when they're no longer massive spoilers for the plot...

We're starting off this book with a look at a few of the adventurers' summers, and writing these prologues has been a lot of fun. I hope it's as much fun to read as it was to write. While the big scenes that JLY and I write have more energy and more excitement, there's something nice about stepping back, focusing on just one character, and meandering through his or her life, picking up details at random to examine.

Also, in scenes with more than one character, we usually don't get to spend much time inside any one character's thoughts, seeing how they see the world. It's nice to have the freedom to ditch the neutral perspective once in a while and jump into a character's perspective.

So, this week, it's Fell. Next week you can catch a glimpse of Averi's summer. Hope you enjoy it!

<3

KL