Ohlen's Arrow enters a revision stage

During the last week of May I published Ohlen's Arrow to Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Since then, I have received some very valuable feedback from a professional source that moves me to take the book down off the e-shelves and give it another round of revisions before making it available for sale.

The message was, it's a great start, especially for a first-time author, but it still needs a bit more work before it truly has a chance to stand at the professional level.

I'd rather get the book done right than simply get it done, so I made the painful choice to temporarily remove it from sale and spend the time and effort to make it even better.

If you have purchased the first edition, please feel free to contact me directly. I will be happy to gift you a copy of the revised edition when it becomes available.

Final Assembly!

The cover design and world map have been delivered to me from the designer, Kristie McClure, who did a fantastic job. The text has been proofread I don't know how many times, and a block of ISBNs have been purchased. All that's left is to assemble the final pieces together using Scrivener, produce the various eBooks, and then test them out in the various e-readers.

I'm targeting Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble's Nook, and Apple's iTunes bookstore. I don't have specific plans to print Ohlen's Arrow in a dead tree edition, but am open to that once the eBook versions are all online and available for sale.

The self-imposed deadline is to have the book available for sale by June 1st. I'm very excited to see this effort come to fruition! Now, if I can just make enough money to quit my day job and become a full-time writer, life will be golden...

World map and ISBN's

The world map for Ohlen's Arrow has been finished as well as the cover design. I also purchased a block of ISBN's to be used for each delivery channel.

What remains is to get my author pages created for each eBook publisher, then format the novel and create the eBook files.

My goal is to have the book available for sale online by June 1st and I'm on target to meet that deadline.

Cover art process moving forward

I met with my artist/illustrator, Kristie, yesterday evening to discuss the cover design for Ohlen's Arrow. We're going to start with three concept sketches. I gave her very specific guidelines and suggestions for the first one, a general concept or style for the second, and the third is entirely up to her creativity and imagination.

Kristie will also be designing the world map that appears at the beginning of the book.

I'm very excited to see my first novel moving forward. While the artistic side of things progresses, I'm also taking care of some final edits and very minor plot changes, followed by yet another round of proofreading. Then it all comes together and I move forward with the sales and marketing side of things.

Minor plot changes

In the process of editing Ohlen's Arrow, my editor and I have come up with some aspects of the plot that still need some tweaking. Prior to this effort I had assumed the plot was more or less settled and the rest was just down to proofreading and mechanical oversight.

It helps to get an outside perspective on your writing. Other people come at a story with a different set of assumptions and preferences. They can see things that the author takes for granted or simply doesn't see at all.

This process of editorial oversight has thrilled me because I know the story will improve as a result. I have no ego in the game. In fact, I'm pleased that the end result will be of even higher quality. In the end, everyone wins, both author and reader.

Outside help

No writer is an island. You can't edit your own work. These are just some of the sayings that highlight the fact that writers need outside help in their effort to write and publish their works.

For Ohlen's Arrow, I have engaged the professional services of an illustrator to design the book's cover and the world map inside, and an editor for the text contained within. Up to this point my outside help has entailed the reviews of nearly a dozen volunteer beta readers.

Writing a book is an exciting process, and frankly, I'm glad I don't have to do it alone.

Ohlen's Arrow: Excerpt

This is an excerpt from the book, Ohlen's Arrow. This is how the book starts...

Thwip.

The arrow sank deep into the creature’s throat and it fell backward in a spray of blood, twitching and clawing at the wooden shaft protruding from its severed windpipe. The man lowered his bow and crouched down into the bushes in case there were others. He remained still but watched and listened intently to see if he had stumbled upon a lone cru’gan or if it had been part of a patrol. At first the only sound was the wet gurgling coming from the cru’gan’s throat. Now it lay still and silent and the only thing the man could hear was the evening breeze through the pine trees.

After several minutes passed he retrieved his arrow and quickly searched the body, then rolled it under a pile of briars out of sight. He kicked the creature’s blood into the dust and pine needles to obscure the evidence of the encounter, and then moved silently away into the forest amidst the diminishing evening light.