Writing – Page 24 – Jessie Mihalik

Deadlines and Promo, a Ramble

July 1, 2019 / Life, Polaris Rising, Writing

First of all, Polaris Rising is on sale for $1.99 at the various US ebook retailers for the next two weeks (I don’t know about international—sorry!). If you’ve been meaning to pick up a copy, now is your chance to get it on sale! :)

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Kobo | Google Play

As for deadlines, some of you may remember that book three was due on July 1, and today is July 1. So book three should be finished.

Except it’s not.

At the beginning of June, it looked like I wasn’t going to make it, for a host of reasons that are all excuses and don’t alleviate the fact that I was very likely going to miss my deadline. I hate missing deadlines. Hate. But sometimes, life gives you what it gives you.

So my agent reached out to my editor and asked for an extension. Thanks to a bit of wiggle room in the schedule (and thanks to my editor being a saint), the date is now early August and I didn’t have to try to kill myself to hit July 1. I actually played a game, and took a weekend off, and slept.

I still have a lot of work to do, so it’s going to remain pretty quiet around here for another month or so. As always, I’m most active on Twitter.

Oh, and don’t forget, The Queen’s Advantage releases next week! You still have time to get your preorder in. :)

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Kobo | Google Play

While I’m here, I might as well tell you about the good news/bad news for the print copy of TQA. The bad news is that thanks to the extra length (the final draft is ~52k, compared to ~39k for TQG), the price jumped to $10.99, which is not ideal, I know. Before I get angry emails: the ebook remains $2.99 despite the extra length.

Why is the print cost so high?

I asked my agent the same thing. There are a couple things at work here. Print on demand books are more expensive, full stop. And to put the book into Amazon’s expanded distribution (which lets libraries and other bookstore customers order it), there is a middle-man that must be paid.

At $10.99, I make about $1 when someone buys an expanded distribution copy, but about $3 when someone buys from Amazon directly, and those prices can’t be set separately (I asked). That’s compared to about $2 for the ebook. So if we set the print price any lower, then I make pennies when someone outside of Amazon buys it. :(

Now for the small piece of good news: print books don’t have a preorder option. They are either up or not, and since my agent is out of the office this week, she wanted to get it up before she left.

So if you want a print book, you can order one right now and Amazon will rush it to your door. If you prefer to buy from BN or another bookstore, it will be up whenever it trickles through the system, hopefully by release. (ISBN: 1075962099) Fingers crossed!

Now back to making words. I hope you all are doing well!

The Queen’s Gambit Audiobook!

June 11, 2019 / Author News, Books, Writing

I’ve been sitting on this news for a while (though my newsletter subscribers got an early hint), but I’ve sold the audiobook rights for The Queen’s Gambit and The Queen’s Advantage to Tantor Media!

The Queen's Gambit Audiobook cover featuring a woman with a gun with planets behind her.

Not only that, but The Queen’s Gambit audiobook is already available! If audiobooks are your jam, now you have the option and you don’t even have to wait. :)

As you may know, I find it deeply strange to listen to my own audiobooks, but the few seconds I heard sounded good. 😂

Rachel Dulude narrates and she’s narrated many, many fabulous books.

I don’t know when the audiobook of The Queen’s Advantage will be available, but it will very likely be after the ebook release, because I just sent final edits in to my agent late last night. 🎉🎉🎉

TQA now clocks in at just over 52k, so it’s firmly out of novella territory. The serial was about 42k, which means I added around 10k during edits. This wasn’t a massively different rewrite like the end of the TQG, but there were definitely some changes and lots of deepening of the various scenes.

I hope you all enjoy the new words!

Do you want to ensure you don’t miss the new, improved TQA? You can preorder from your favorite retailer now! 😉

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Kobo | Google Play

Aurora Blazing is on Edelweiss+

May 17, 2019 / Aurora Blazing, Author News, Writing

Today was the day for lots of Aurora Blazing news, as it turns out. Page proofs landed this afternoon and reviewers, bloggers, librarians, etc can now request a review copy on Edelweiss+.

Want a sneak peek at the formatted book? Of course you do! 😉 Here’s the title page and the first page of chapter one. Reminder: you can read all of chapter one over on the book page.

Preorder!
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Kobo
Google Play | IndieBound

It’s always a bit scary, launching a new book into the unknown, but I hope you love Bianca as much as I do. And as much as Bree does. She’s half of NYT bestselling author Kit Rocha and incredibly, incredibly kind. Here’s what she said on Twitter:

…

Aurora Blazing is on Edelweiss+Read More »

TQA Edits Finished

May 13, 2019 / Books, Writing

This afternoon, I sent the edits for The Queen’s Advantage to my lovely agent for review. The manuscript grew by about 7k words, up to just under 50k. This edit was the most difficult I’ve done, and I’m not entirely sure why. Part of it is because I’m under deadline for book three, so everything is stressful, but this book just did not want to be edited.

I think it’s improved, but I’m so close to it and so tired that I’m not even sure anymore. :/

I feel like I need to get some beta feedback, but I’m under too much of a time crunch to do an open beta call. So if you’ve beta read for me in the past and want to have another go, or if I’ve specifically said I’m putting your name on the list, then send me an email with the subject line “TQA Beta” and I’ll get you a copy.

As before, you need to be able to electronically mark up a PDF. I need feedback by the end of the month at the latest, so please only email if that works with your schedule.

In return for this thankless job, you’ll have my eternal love and a mention in the acknowledgments. :)

Everyone else: please don’t email me. I’m not adding anyone this round. I’ll do another open call at some point, but I just don’t have the capacity to do it right now. I have to make many, many words on book three.

So many.

Aurora Blazing Chapter One

April 29, 2019 / Aurora Blazing, Life, Writing

TL;DR: The first chapter of Aurora Blazing. Happy reading! :)

This weekend was a busy one. We saw Endgame on Saturday and it was awesome. I highly recommend it. We’ll have to chat about it in a few weeks after everyone has a chance to see it, so DO NOT SPOILER IT.

If you drop spoilers in the comments, I’ll remove them and put you in moderation until you prove you can be trusted. I managed to see it spoiler-free and everyone should have that chance. If you want spoilers, I’m sure you can find them elsewhere. :)

I also made it through the first pass on my copyedits for Aurora Blazing this weekend. Yesterday was a marathon of over twenty chapters. My brain is mush.

If you mosey over to the book page, you’ll find the first chapter and preorder links. It comes out in October, and I would love for you to preorder it if you are able. Preorder numbers are super helpful!

It always surprises me just how many mistakes are in my manuscripts. I feel like I turn out fairly clean drafts, but there’s nothing like a copyeditor to take your ego down a peg or seventy.

Last night we watched Game of Thrones, and this season has decided to bring it. I can’t believe it’s going to be wrapped up in just three more episodes. I’m still waiting for the Red-Wedding-esque other shoe to drop. If anything, this show has taught me not to care for anyone too deeply, but I did cheer when [SPOILER] [SPOILERED]. :)

This week, I have edits for The Queen’s Advantage on deck. I also need to be adding words to book three at a high velocity. Once book three is done, I’m taking a month off to binge books, play video games, and lie on the sofa. Or so I tell myself. :)