Kevin's Watch

I've now completed my first rewrite for Covenant 9, "Against All Things Ending". At this stage, the manuscript is now 1076 pages (not counting WHGB or the Glossary). Just to put that number in context: at this same stage, "The Runes of the Earth" was 1032 pages; "Fatal Revenant," 1088. Not much difference.

So what happens now? The text has been sent to my agent, who will read it and decide whether it's good enough to show to my editors. Assuming that he thinks it IS good enough (I believe he will), he'll send it on to my editors. And sometime, oh, 5-8 weeks from now, my editors will give me the benefit of their insights. At that point, I'll start on the third draft. In the unlikely event that my agent gives me a thumbs down, I'll start on the third draft sooner.

At present, I've made up some of the time that I lost in the first draft. But now matters are out of my hands, at least temporarily. All I can do is wait for my agent's verdict--and for feedback from my (badly overworked) editors.

6/8/09

rdhopeca wrote:Someone should tell him to start on TLD now, while he was these 5-8 weeks of downtime.

Orlion wrote:Just read this at SRD's website:

I've now completed my first rewrite for Covenant 9, "Against All Things Ending". At this stage, the manuscript is now 1076 pages (not counting WHGB or the Glossary). Just to put that number in context: at this same stage, "The Runes of the Earth" was 1032 pages; "Fatal Revenant," 1088. Not much difference.

So what happens now? The text has been sent to my agent, who will read it and decide whether it's good enough to show to my editors. Assuming that he thinks it IS good enough (I believe he will), he'll send it on to my editors. And sometime, oh, 5-8 weeks from now, my editors will give me the benefit of their insights. At that point, I'll start on the third draft. In the unlikely event that my agent gives me a thumbs down, I'll start on the third draft sooner.

At present, I've made up some of the time that I lost in the first draft. But now matters are out of my hands, at least temporarily. All I can do is wait for my agent's verdict--and for feedback from my (badly overworked) editors.

6/8/09

My friends thought I was dying due to the loud gasp I emitted

inablackout wrote:Even though I am enjoying reading this final series, I almost wish I hadn't found out about it till they were all written, its killing me to wait another 16 months before the release of the next book.I guess it will give me time to reread the entire series, for the 6th time!!!

rdhopeca wrote:Someone should tell him to start on TLD now, while he was these 5-8 weeks of downtime.

AjK wrote:

rdhopeca wrote:Someone should tell him to start on TLD now, while he was these 5-8 weeks of downtime.

I am glad that you are not my boss...

Orlion wrote:Hey, hoobie, welcome to Kevin's Watch!

In the Gradual Interview, Stephen R Donaldson wrote:Perhaps I should have posted something in the "news" section. After all, I'm the one who first mentioned the issue of waiting to hear from my editors....

So. I had to wait about 7 weeks to hear from my US editor. My UK editor took 10 weeks. This is considerably longer than I've had to wait for editorial feedback in recent years. (Swine flu was added to the usual excuses.) But I've had much worse experiences. The editor of "Reave the Just and Other Tales" took something like five MONTHS to respond. The editor of "The Man Who Fought Alone" took more like SEVEN months.

At any rate, I'm now hard at work on what I believe will be the final rewrite of AATE. If nothing goes wrong, I should be able to deliver the next draft before the end of 2009.

What are the usual excuses? Mainly inhuman amounts of overwork. But overwork has an inadvertent secondary effect. Editors are forced to "prioritize" (a word I don't actually like), and so instinctively they give books that require a great deal of editing precedence over books that require very little editing. And in my case they both agree that AATE needs very little editing. (I disagree.)

A more obvious consequence of overwork is that editing tends to be cursory at best. I received a few comments about pacing and a couple of questions about story-logic: nothing else. On the plus side, both of my editors do want me to keep doing what I'm doing.

(10/17/2009)

sherifffruitfly2 wrote:lol! It feels like we're all the Misery lady, all SRD's "number one fan", waiting impatiently for him to finish the next book.

rdhopeca wrote:

AjK wrote:

rdhopeca wrote:Someone should tell him to start on TLD now, while he was these 5-8 weeks of downtime.

I am glad that you are not my boss...

I said "someone", I didn't say me! Besides, doesn't consumer demand drive sales?