Re-Releasing Heartless ~ Step 2: Review Copies

My final read-through is complete and Heartless has been sent off to get formatted for Kindle, so now it's time to get busy with the pre-publication promotion. I owe e-copies to a few people from over a year ago, lovely people who volunteered to beta read. One of those lovely readers will get a paperback edition—I have yet to select the winner. That's neither here nor there, however.

Review Copies....

For one part of my pre-publication promotion plans, I am willing to send e-copies of Heartless to anyone willing to post an honest review (negative is fine as long as it's honest). I do require that you indicate in your review that you received a free copy from me, the author, for the purpose of providing an honest review (this is also a requirement of the FTC). I have no preference in regard to where the review appears, whether it's a blog, Goodreads, Amazon, B&N, or any of the other sites out there that cater to the book-loving world. I also have no requirements as to the number of blog readers your review blog has. Everyone is eligible. However, I reserve the right to refuse anyone's request for any reason whatsoever. I find it highly unlikely that I will refuse anyone's request, but just so we're clear.  

If you're interested in a copy to review, please comment on this blog post with your email and preferred eBook format. (I need your email so I can send you your copy. I will not sell your email address, share it, add it to my mailing list, or otherwise misuse it. If you are uncomfortable typing it below, you can email me your request at jaimeygrant {at} yahoo [dot] com.)

Your eBook choices are:

• PDF (Adobe, but works with many eReaders) 
• EPUB (Nook, Kobo) 
• PRC (Kindle) 

If there's another format you prefer, indicate it in your comment and I'll see what I can do. Review copies will be sent out right before Heartless is enrolled in KDP Select.* The exact date will be announced here when I know it. After it's enrolled, I won't be allowed to give copies away.

So get those requests in! If you use an EPUB format eReader, I strongly urge you to take advantage of this review copy offer. That way, you'll get a 3-month jump on the availability of this title. I will update this post when this offer is no longer available.

For those who purchased a copy of Heartless in the past, paperback or eBook, I have good news for you. Stay tuned for my follow-up blog post to find out how you can get an e-copy for FREE.

*I will explain the details of my decision to enroll Heartless in KDP Select in a future post....

Edited 11/2/2012 to add: I am no longer accepting requests for review copies of Heartless. Thank you so much for your support! ♥

Heartless: What I'm Doing Now....

Covers for other authors have been keeping me pretty busy lately. That's not a big deal since I rather enjoy the cover design work I do. It does take my time from writing/editing, however, so Heartless has fallen temporarily to the wayside.

Again.

I have received the notes from my final proofreader and I fully understand now why it's recommended that several pairs of eyes proofread a manuscript prior to publication. Each reader spotted different typos and had different questions. While applying their suggested changes I spotted a few typos that NONE of them caught. Which means Heartless will be getting one final read-through from me before it gets formatted for eBook publication. I am now several chapters into that final read-through. 

Which leads to another question. How do you stop your overly critical inner-editor and only fix typos? 

Today's [supposed to be] the day!!

Yeah, Heartless was supposed to see the publishing limelight [again] today. 

Not. Gonna. Happen. 

I'm sorry for that, truly I am. It's my fault for thinking I could get it done in the one month all year that I'm busy from Day 1 to Day 31. Bah! 

Anyway, you'll be pleased to know that the proofreaders have the book and I'm waiting to hear back from two of them. Hopefully, there will only be typos to correct and not major plot issues. There's the chance a plot hole snuck its way in. You just never know sometimes especially when you LIVE in the story but you're ripped out of it for irritating and mundane chores like eating, sleeping, and showering. The nerve of these things! 

So that's all I've got for you now. I know the Heartless delays are reaching into the Realm of the Ridiculous but I really appreciate your patience and understanding. ♥ 

Slow and steady....

Two more solid days of Heartless work (it would have been three days but Sunday was spent working on Part 2 of The 11th Commandment, the serial Regency I'm writing for InD'Tale Magazine) and I still have 30 pages left to edit. This is rough going, as I have to tie in certain mystery elements that I didn't have to before, and all because I decided to remove the prologue, which gave a lot away at the very start. 

At this point, I think it's going well. I should have it in the hands of proofreaders by next week, if I can continue at this pace. Too bad vacation is gonna eventually get in the way of this productive pace. 

Oh well. 

Family has to come first at some point and I have a fabulous family. Hubby pushes me though he doesn't approve of this Heartless revamp (he said it was perfect as it was and I shouldn't have touched anything) and my kids give me a lot of space so I can work. It's nice that they have such varied interests, even though they're only 6 and 8. 

So despite my slow start, I just may win this race. I'm steadily working through this difficult section of the book and I think it's smoothing out nicely. I just hope the readers will agree. 

☺

The turtle pic is mine. If you take it, you're a thief. Just sayin'.

Surely, there's an easier way...

Ever have one of those days where nothing seems to go quite as planned? I'm having one of those years, I think. It all started when I edited the first four chapters of Heartless, started rewriting chapter five and then lost everything I did when my flash drive decided to croak. 

I have since started over on the editing and have just completed chapter four. Not bad for six+ weeks, huh? (I'm rolling my eyes here.) I've a great start on the rewrite of chapter five but let me tell ya, I was so tempted to crapcan the whole d*** project and my writing career too, for good measure. Can you hear the frustration I'm suffering under here??

*deep breath*

OK, now that the whining's out of the way, let's get down to brass tacks. Heartless MUST return to his rightful place at the top of bestselling lists everywhere. I admit, he was only at the top of search lists on Amazon (thus inciting venom from a tiny-minded fellow writer-type) but I'm determined he'll see the top of bestseller lists too, upon his re-release.

So....back to editing his brains out. *snort* (Now you're rolling your eyes too. We're all in this together.) 

While I'm doing that, why don't you click over to my author blog and weigh in on a very serious subject. How do you define sweet, traditional, and clean when it comes to romances? Is there even a difference? Click the pretty little rose to hop over to my other blog and let me know what you think.

A Trip to the Dump

I need to share my Heartless progress. OK, I don't really need to. It's not like I'll die if I don't. So, I want to share my Heartless progress. 

I've begun editing chapter five. Fabulous, right? I'm thrilled, believe me. But now, despite my joy in my characters, I've come up to another HUGE decision regarding this MS. 

In chapter five, we're with our heroine, learning how her days are spent since becoming a duchess. There are more room descriptions in this one chapter than in all my other books COMBINED. It's shocking, believe me. 

In the critical writing world, this is what's known as an information dump. The problem with info dumps is they're boring. The reader usually loses interest at that point and if the dump is long enough, the reader might even set the book aside. 

There are times an info dump works but those times are quite rare. It can be a challenge determining when and where to place one. The better, safer bet is to take that information (if it is, indeed, important) and lace it throughout the story itself. 

For example, in Heartless, where Leandra's lamenting the horror that is the Egyptian Salon, instead of devoting an entire paragraph to this in chapter five, I could mention her loathing for it later, when she instructs the butler to put Hart's mistress there. (Oops! Not a spoiler. Not really.) Or I could work it in some other way.  

So chapter five might find itself shorn down quite a bit, perhaps deleted entirely and rewritten from scratch. Not the type of major edit I'd envisioned when I started out on this path but, what else can I do? 

Progress...of a sort

I've finished editing... 

Chapter One. 

Why, when I'm determined to get something done, am I that much more likely to get distracted? Why, when I'm determined to get something done, do I get more cover orders than I can shake a stick at? And why, when I'm determined to get THIS interior edit/format done, do I want to work on the COVER?? 

There is no understanding me, even for me. 

I will go to my other computer now and endeavor to complete at least one more chapter before dinner. Can I do it?? Probably not. But I'll have fun trying. 

☺

Heartless Revamp Step 1 : Read Through ~ DONE ~

So I did it. I read Heartless cover-to-cover. And with no tears shed, though I think that had everything to do with my determination not to shed a tear. Funny how when you read a book objectively, emotion takes a backseat, and the whole reading experience is far less enjoyable.

Before you read further, please be assured that I value each and every one of my fans, followers, and readers. I love that you love this book and love the other things I write. Please do not take what I am about to say as an insult to you or your opinion. I am in no way denigrating your views on this work. As is often the case with authors, we are our own worst critics. This can be a good thing.  

My thoughts? Needs a little work. The issues:

• I think the prologue gives too much away right up front, taking away from the natural question as to WHY the hero acts the way he does. 
• I think the passive voice is a tad overdone. 
• There are words and phrases that weren't used at the time. For example, Hart mentions he's "working with a deadline." The word DEADLINE didn't come into use until the American Civil War and it referred to the "do-not-cross" line in war prisons. Deadline in the sense of a "time limit" was newspaper jargon that came into use in the early 1920s. Then there's the use of handicapped in reference to people with disabilities. Yeah, the word existed then but not in that sense. There were a few more but I think I made my point. 
• There is an excessive amount of characters. Servants, family members, friends, all named and given a few lines each. Sheesh.

I think these flaws are easily overlooked in the natural draw to the main characters. I totally agree that I CAN write characters. Dang.

Possible "fixes":

• Prologue: Do I really want readers to forgive Hart for everything before they actually get to know him? I don't think I do. I think I want them to start out hating him a little, getting to know him as the story goes on, and then realizing he's severely warped for good reason. 
• Passive voice: This is one of those "little changes" I mentioned in a previous post. Some sentences will get some restructuring to allow for more showing, rather than telling. 
• Historical inaccuracies: Of course these will have to go. I mean, what was I thinking??
• Excessive characters: I do believe that removal of names would go a LONG way in clearing up some confusion on this one. I'll try that and see what happens. 

So that about sums up my initial thoughts on the simple read-through I did. Next step, edit out the redundancies, inaccuracies, passivity, and prologue. 

Thoughts?