After NaNoWriMo: What next?

Embed from Getty Images
Well NaNoWriMo is well and truly over and I managed not just the official 50,000 required to confirm you as a winner but very nearly 60,000 in November. So…I’ve got my book; what next?

It will come as no surprise to you, if you’re a writer, that ‘what’s next’ is a shed-load of editing! More specifically, I have the following jobs to do:

Re-edit each story ready to select which stories will make it into the final book;
Write, edit and re-edit remaining stories I didn’t manage to complete in time for NaNo but which I always intended would be valuable stories in the book (this includes several more in the Insignificant Women series);
send stories off to my beta-readers to edit and critique;
Decide on a final title for the book (I’ve decided that the working title: A Life Lived Through Stories isn’t good enough);
begin putting the Ebook version together and format it accordingly;
choose a cover picture and decide on the text I want for front, back and spine before sending off to be designed;
begin the marketing work (which is already in progress but will step up a gear soon) in preparation for the publication of the book.

So you can see there’s still a great deal left to be done! And while this is all on-going I still have to be bringing in the dough, as it were, and writing articles for editors or pitching pieces to new editors! Oh yes – and there’s Christmas and paying attention to my family too. Must. Not. Forget. That.

Five of those above seven stages are already in operation. I began sending stories to my beta-readers today. This means that over the next few days, as stories change shape and are accepted into the book, I’ll begin taking down the stories which were up on this blog. The only ones which will remain permanently are any that don’t make it into the final selection.

So if there are any stories you’ve not had a chance to read yet and you intend to get around to it – you’d better hurry up! Here’s a run-down of all the stories (including the introduction which tells you something of the intentions of the book and its themes). Just click on the story you’d like to read and it should appear in another browser for you to read at your leisure.

I hope you enjoy!