It’s been almost three months since I first announced I would begin working on turning The Moreau Witches into a novel. It’s amazing how much has taken place in this time, as I:
- Finished my first draft
- Worked with my designer to complete the front cover of the book
- Had Madeleine’s full portrait extended for use on promotional items
- Selected the printer for my promotional items and began to design and price the items I would sell
- Spent a lot of time fact-checking
I’m pleased to say, while I continue to do my research, I have now done enough to hand the beta draft over to my Beta Readers.
For the beta review, I selected ten readers. I handed the book over to some who had read the original short story series, and some who had not; to Europeans, Jamaicans, and Americans; to historians, and some who cared not a fig for history at all; to friends who had known me for 17 years, and some who had never set eyes on me.
So far, the feedback has been good. Through research and the help of my Beta Readers, I found old areas to improve, and new ways to add credence to the witches’ tale. The beta review commenced on May 4th and will end on June 4th. Once completed, I’ll address the feedback received from betas, and then contact the four editors I have in mind.
We move speedily along, and are still on track for release by the end of December. If we’re lucky, I may be able to release the book by Halloween, in celebration of the stories’ second anniversary.
In the meantime, those of you who follow me on Twitter know I’ve been working away at another novel, also written for publishing, entitled Alanis, Land of the Undead. If all goes well, this book should be published in 2019. At the time of writing this post, I was already 26,137 words into the first draft, so stay tuned!
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For ongoing updates, check out the #MoreauWitches hash tag on Twitter, where I often tweet in real-time, while working on the novel.
UPDATE: The novel is published. Get your copy here!
Alexis Chateau
Activist. Writer. Explorer.
Good luck, Alexis. After you have made the changes per your beta readers, I would get yourself a copy editor, and after that, go through your book line by line to make sure it’s perfect. Reviewers will get you with printing, typos, misspells, indentation, etc errors.
Thanks Noelle. I did mention in the post that I had four editors I would be contacting for the editing work. I do know reviewers tend to look out for typos with indie authors especially.
I will say however that I have found typos in textbooks, and even well established writers like Anne Rice 😂
Rock on with your bad self😍🤩😍🤩
Haha, I’m doing my best!
SO EXCITED!!!!
Haha, good. I’ll be setting aside an advanced review copy for you. 😊
Almost there! Thank you for sharing the publishing process. It’s giving me some valuable insight.
You’re welcome. It was getting that valuable insight from working with another independent author that finally got me thinking, I can do this. I hope you and others feel encouraged as I did. 😊
I definitely do!
Mission accomplished 🙄😏