the queen of vorn is published!

​Wow…I can’t believe it was last year when I wrote my last blog post!  I’m so late – I normally aim to write them monthly.
 
So what’s been going on?
 
Quite simply, ground rush.

The Queen of Vorn is now published! 
 
What a mission that was.  I wrote a blog post about that book’s journey in August last year, was it really that long ago?  I just checked; it was!  Scroll down if you want to find it.
 
I’m not going to talk about the stuff I did then, I don’t tend to repeat myself if I can help it, but I will give a brief summary: I basically talk about how my first novel went from a horrific pile of poo to something I’m actually quite proud of.
 
At the end of the post, I talk about how it was ready for a line/copy edit (more or less).  I set it up for pre-order and carefully planned out my editing schedule for the next couple of years.  Back in August 2024, I set these dates for publishing:

Everything seemed achievable back then.  I had loads of time, right?
 
Correct, but you can’t account for being let down by others.  The Queen of Vorn was supposed to be edited and ready for a proofread by December 2024.  The editor I appointed for this finally finished this week – after I’d published it. 
 
Let’s rewind a little so I can explain.  December came – just three chapters edited.  I was promised it by January.  January came, nothing.  February approached, I got techy, and some more chapters were drip fed.  And so it continued, chapters drip fed at the speed of a semi-retired snail.  Meanwhile, publishing day approached.
 
What to do?
 
I decided to cut my losses and looked for another editor to finish off my book.  I found one. Yippee!  He was nice and reliable and efficient, but unfortunately, he didn’t achieve much more than I could have got out of Pro Writing Aid, even though I tried to pay him more money to get a more in-depth edit.
 
But better than nothing, right?
 
Meanwhile, I didn’t turn off my original editor and I let him continue to drip-feed me chapters.
 
I got my book into a decent state, decent enough for my ARC (Advance Reader Copy) readers – I was desperate to get it out to them, I was madly hoping for a bunch of reviews to be print-ready on publishing day.  So I sent out my book to hundreds of people, and waited, and waited…
 
I know most will never read it.  To quote Logan Ninefingers from the works of Joe Abercrombie (a fellow Lancastrian author who I occasionally Twitter-stalk):
 
“You have to be realistic about these things.”
 
Yep, realistically I know the vast majority of people who have a free copy of my book will never read it.  People just don’t value free stuff.  I guess I need a bigger list of newsletter subscribers – but how to get one of those without spending hundreds on ads, I’m not entirely sure.  But anyway…
 
I got my ARC copy out, then proceeded to try to polish my manuscript as best I could.  To save on paying a proof-reader, and also to mitigate the risk them letting me down, I invested in Pro Writing Aid.
 
Wow, I have to say, it’s bloody good!  I’d say it's better than a proof-reader as it does more; it highlights sentences that are too long or ones that are clunky.  It suggests re-phrasing – and sometimes the suggestions are half-decent.  I suggest it’s a worthwhile investment for any indie author.
 
So, I finished my Pro Writing Aid-assisted proofread, formatted my book into an e-book and paperback, and uploaded them to Amazon.  I ordered a proof copy of my paperback, spotted formatting errors and realised the cover needed some colour adjustments.  I did a load more work then voila!  My book was finally ready.
 
Now its out!  Have you bought it yet?  You can read it for free on Kindle Unlimited.  There’s a load of links to Amazon in different countries here:

buy now

​OK, expectation management time – if you’ve read this much of my blog I’ll be amazed.  But hell, you have to keep plugging away at these things, right? 
 
So I published.  Hooray!  Now what?
 
Audio book.
 
I did plan to get one ready before publishing day, but unfortunately, as my final manuscript was late in being finished, the audiobook was delayed too.  I finished the raw recording this week, but I’ve now loads of audio-editing to do.  I’ll probably talk all about that little project in my next blog post.
 
Until next time!
 
Charlotte