Here’s an update on progress with The Favourite Murder, the fifth book in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. Yesterday I completed the grammar and spelling checks with ProWritingAid. That was certainly well worth doing. So far my sternest critic has been my wife, Claire. She has read every one of my books, and always contributes many corrections, additions, and suggestions.
The problem is that The Favourite Murder weighs in at 110,000 words, and printing it would be a problem. We have a monthly allowance of 300 pages on our ink contract, and what with all the committee minutes Claire has to print, it would be expensive, wasteful, and take too long. So I have saved it as an ePUB file and worked out how to send it to her Kindle Reader.
I have to say that on the Kindle, it looks quite good. I’ve drafted a synopsis in three paragraphs, ready to send to publishers. Compressing a 110,000 word book to one page was quite a challenge, but I’ve done it. It distills the story arc, but omits the background and the emotion. Jeff at Milktown Writers has kindly suggested that I table the synopsis at our next meeting. Suggestions on the synopsis from other writers and readers will be really helpful. Perhaps I’ll ask if anyone wants to read it as an ebook too. It would be fabulous to have some beta readers other than Claire.
I have no idea how long Claire will take to read it, it depends on when she finishes Captain Correli’s Mandolin. Wow, that scares me, what an act to follow! Well fingers crossed that I can at least submit it to publishers by the autumn. I very much doubt that it will be out by this Christmas, but fingers crossed for the spring.