I’ve been busy the last few weeks working on the copy edit for Flying through Clouds. Not only did my copy editor (Catherine Heath) do a great job, but she inspired me to write more. I was very impressed with the eleven-page style sheet she compiled; a must for any book. All of the suggestions regarding punctuation and grammar were spot on, and her questioning of irregularities in the text and verification of historical details were particularly helpful. During the copy edit, I managed to write another 5,000 words. As well as filling in minor gaps in the story, I also developed the characters more and incorporated a greater sense of place.
While the copy edit was taking place, I commissioned a cover designer (Arielle Gamble) to do the full cover design and layout of the book for printing. The four cover concepts that the designer sent me were all amazing and quite different to each other. When I canvassed friends and family there was a greater preference for two of the concepts, and I selected one of these. With a few minor changes the front cover was finalised, and here it is:
I love the simplicity of the design and colours. The soft watercolours give that dreamy feeling of being up in the clouds. The title font is reminiscent of skywriting, and the outlined plane evokes the dream that the main character, Joe, has of one day becoming an aviator. The book is set mostly in Sydney during 1932 and 1933, but there are guest appearances of a few other towns and cities in eastern Australia.
The next step in my indie publishing journey is to request CIP (Cataloguing-in-Publication information) from the National Library of Australia, and to compile an AIS (Advance Information Sheet) to send to potential distributors and book suppliers. I’ll then arrange the printing of a number of copies of the uncorrected proof version of the book to send to reviewers and suppliers, having drafted a plain book cover for this purpose.
During this time, I’ll take the opportunity to write the Acknowledgements and Dedication pages for the book and update my website. When all the internal pages are ready, I’ll get the proofreading done.
And there’s a marketing strategy to think about….
I’ll keep you posted on my progress.