April 2025 Update
April showers bring May manuscripts
And so the beta readers have returned to me with their feedback! By May 4th, I should hopefully have most of their notes on hand to compile and begin tweaking The Manuscript for it to be sent off to actual editors.
A big thank you to my beta readers, of course! Despite busy work and school schedules, nearly everyone has had something to stay about The Manuscript in some way, shape, or form.
Also, The Manuscript has been formatted! Here are some interesting pre-publication stats for you:
In its current state, “The Manuscript” has 385 total pages, including the title, copyright, dedication, and “About the Author” pages. It also has a total word count of 116,122 words!
Compared to Shadowbound, with 326 total pages and 92,219 total words.
~…~
“The Manuscript” has 23 chapters, whereas Shadowbound has 26 (including the Epilogue)
Of course, anything regarding The Manuscript is still subject to change, so don’t expect these numbers to be the final stats! I knew that this project was going to be quite the step up from Shadowbound, but not to this degree.
Timeline Overview!
Oh dear, it’s getting even shorter…
Editing Stage 1.5 — May: After a short break and rereading of my own work, any given beta reader feedback will be compiled, sorted, and subsequently acted upon wherever necessary, along with other general/technical edits that escaped the initial editing rounds. By the end of May, all beta reader feedback should be collected.
Editing Stage 2 — May, June, & July: The Manuscript will be sent off to editors once beta reader feedback has been sufficiently acted upon for finer corrections and tweaks. By the end of July, no more major edits to the story’s plot will be made.
…Everything Else — July, August, & September: Final technical edits, necessary paperwork, formatting tweaks, cover art, and anything else that must be completed before publication will be completed in this remaining time frame.
Publishing — November! (Or December is things go awry)
If you’d like to support me this year, consider buying Shadowbound if you haven’t already - or maybe get a copy for a friend or family member! - and leave a review for it on Amazon if you can.
But word-of-mouth also helps! Even if you can’t afford the book, consider checking out and sharing around the Shadowbound Audio Book & Author Commentary playlist, where I read the entire novel from beginning to end. All the readings are free up until The Manuscript is published. It’s perfect for those who want to give the story a spin before buying.
Of course, if you have thoughts, theories, hopes, critiques, or anything else about Shadowbound that you’d like to share more in-depth, drop a comment about it down below!
And don’t forget to like and subscribe ;)