Already it is time for the October Review. The month was a much quieter month than usual. The day job continued to consume, but there was light at the end of the tunnel with a week off, much of it spent on Menorca. The Mediterranean heat was very welcome, just as the UK was getting colder. I’m certainly feeling the cold on the way into work at the moment. As usual, the morning commute has been the focus of my writing efforts, with the return journey in the afternoon also contributing, when I can get a seat.
October Review – word counts
It was not my intention to focus almost exclusively on editing at the start of October. Still, I needed to redistribute my time so that I could complete the edit of Outbreak London. This took much longer than anticipated, and as a result, my new writing dropped right off. There were quite a few days when I wrote no words, breaking what has become a daily habit for me. I, therefore, managed only 2,448 new words, my slowest month this year. However, this was still better than the 1,300 of the previous October. The good news is I’m already back on track and will comfortably beat this level of output in November.
October Review – works in progress
- ‘On discovering a zombie’, a short story set in the Royal Zombie Corps series, is now being edited. I’m about halfway through this task and expect to have it finished in another week. The mailing list has been set up ready to deliver this short via BookFunnel. I still need to source an appropriate cover for this short
- ‘Outbreak London’, book 5 of the Royal Zombie Corps series, has now been wholly proof-read. This took a sizeable chunk of time in October. The initial concepts for the cover have been delivered, and I’m delighted with them. The new cover will be vastly better than the covers of the rest of the series, and I will have to get them recovered at some point. Only the covers and the Amazon page need to be finished. A short pre-release marketing effort also awaits, with the possibility of a discount for mailing list subscribers before the launch
- ‘Dead Handler’, Book 6 of the Royal Zombie Corps series, is awaiting my attention. It needs editing and proof-reading. I expect to get to this during November
- Book 2 of the Butcher’s Funeral series is also pending an edit and proof-read
- Book 7 of the Royal Zombie Corps series, is the current writing project. Having completed next to nothing on this during October, I’m working on it again
October Review – other projects
The mailing list has been extensively updated, and I’m currently engaged in a campaign to add subscribers in advance of the release of ‘Outbreak London’.
I have also been working through one of the Mark Dawson courses, making sure I cover all the essential bases when publishing.
Publishing schedule
This remains unchanged, but I am concerned ‘Outbreak London’ may slip to early December. Should this happen, there will be a knock-on effect with the other books.
- Late November 2019 – Outbreak London, book 5 of the Royal Zombie Corps series.
- December 2019 – ‘Dead Handler’, book 6 of the Royal Zombie Corps series
- January 2020 – Butcher’s Funeral book two, probably going to be titled ‘Butcher’s Fire’
- February 2020 – book 7 of the Royal Zombie Corps series
Plans for November
- I aim to get my new writing daily average back up to something reasonable. In October it was 79 words a day. I want at least 300 in November (as I complete this blog, the average is standing at 297 so far in November)
- Finally, proof-read the short story which has been sitting waiting for a very long time. This will be going on my blog and is entirely different from anything I have previously written
- Release the new Royal Zombie Corps short story to the mailing list
- Finalise the cover of ‘Outbreak London’ and set up the release process
- Begin the cover process for ‘Dead Handler’
- Continue to learn about publishing and writing, specifically working through one of the Mark Dawson SPF courses