Cover for all three books in the series are going to be done by Tom Derrett, a professional designer who I've worked with before. Another friend, Mrs Yaffle, is going to proof read for me (I hope).
But the big question is about copy-editing. An other friend of mine, Minty, pointed out that this is a serious issue that needs addressing but with it comes time and cost. Time for the job to be done and cost of paying someone a fair wage to do the work.
Anne Lancaster and Craig Borlase have both put me in contact with people who are likely to give me an idea of just how much work they think needs doing.
However, a question remains - do I want to pay somewhere in the region of a thousand pounds (guesstimating here) to get this done on what could, ultimately, be a vanity project. I phrase it that way because I want this to succeed but I'm not sure I have the money to invest in something that could be, and probably will be, seen by just a few hundred people if all goes well...Given that I'm going to charge 99p for book one, the break even is nearly two thousand copies.
I'm going to take up those offers of sample review from people who know what they're doing but the question remains - unless they scream with horror at what they find, should I get book one copy-edited?
Part of me thinks that if book one starts to sell then get subsequent books treated properly. Another part of me says - if I'm really serious about this then I should give the first book every chance of success I can.
Of course there's another issue. This blog is read by a lot of North Americans - in fact you out number my Euro readers by 3 to 1. Would the text being in UK English be an issue for you? Could you stand to read colour instead of color?
What do you think?
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