Pearls of Asia- An Update

It took a crime of passion to teach him

his passion wasn’t a crime.

–  Marketing tag line from “Pearls of Asia: A Love Story”

Here’s a piece of advice for all those wanna-be authors out there itching to write the next Great American Novel; it’s a lot more fun self-publishing a book than going through an actual publisher. By a factor of ten.

As you may recall, in November 2009 I began work on my first novel, Pearls of Asia. Though I was later able to secure a literary agent, finding a publisher with the guts to distribute a romantic mystery revolving around a funky San Francisco restaurant and its crew of transsexual waitresses was a much harder row to hoe. As a consequence, I decided to self-publish the book through Amazon in August 2011. Just in case you were wondering, I have yet to sell enough books to retire.

Last February I sold the rights to my book to The Writer’s Coffee Shop (TWCS), a small Australian publishing house made famous by being the original publisher of the mega-hit Fifty Shades of Grey. My contract stated that I would agree to “edit” portions of Pearls of Asia to satisfy the whims and fancies of TWCS’s literary audience. Once complete, the manuscript would go through the “standard” editorial cycle before being published.

Note to Self, Part I: next time, look up the Australian translation of “edit.”I spent most of the summer writing not one (the original ending was too sweet; this one was too bitter)…not two (too many characters;focus only on Mac and Sheyla)…but three different endings before finally finding THE ONE that put a smile on TWCS. It’s their book, now. I just wrote it.

Note to Self, Part II: next time, look up the Australian translation of “standard.” Here is the editing schedule I had to keep with my editing team. A team, as in three different editors, with three different viewpoints, and three different opinions on how to write my story. Ugh. You know what’s even better? The content editor lived in Seattle, the copyeditor resided in London, and the proofreader was enjoying summer in Melbourne, Australia. I knew my book would eventually go global. Time zones, be damned. There are deadlines to meet!

  • Manuscript due to TWCS:  August 22, 2013
  • Editing Team Evaluation:  September 11, 2013
  • Substantive Edit Due:  November 6, 2013
  • Copy Edit Due:  November 27, 2013
  • Proofread Edit Due:  December 18, 2013
  • Editing Sign-off Due:  January 2, 2014
  • Production Edit Due:  February 4, 2014
  • Final Edit Complete:  February 11, 2014 (As in, yesterday)

Despite hundreds of hours pulling my hair out or wanting to slit my wrists, when all is said and done, here’s the best part;

Estimated publication date:  May 29, 2014

Stay tuned.

 

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