Writing update

I'm continuing to work my trousers and fingertips to the bone.  I set myself a target of publishing four books over a seven-month period this year, but if I'd known how much work was involved, I'd never have considered it!  Sure, I'd written three of them to within final draft level already, but the amount of work remaining is still . . . impressive.

Still, I can't complain.  Thanks to all of you and your support, I'm doing really well for a newbie independently-published author.  By the end of August, I'll have sold approximately 10,500 copies of my first two novels.  That's in just 3½ months on the market, which is very satisfying.  If I can do as well with the next two books, and continue the progress next year, I'll be very happy indeed!

The prison ministry memoir is better than 90% complete.  All that remains is to update some of the statistics (I wrote the first draft back in 2007, so I need to make sure that the numbers I cite are more recent than that).  I've asked Lawdog, whom I'm sure many of you read as well, to write a Foreword and cover blurb for the book, which he should send shortly.  Then I've got to update and hot-link all the end-notes for Kindle, produce a hot-linked Table of Contents, and prepare a second edition formatted for print via CreateSpace.  That'll take a couple of weeks.  I'd hoped to have everything ready for publication on September 15th, but it may slip to September 20th or so.  I'll do my best.

The third novel in the Steve Maxwell series is well under way.  I'd written a couple of earlier drafts, but neither was anything like ready for publication.  I'm busy with the final version now, and have almost completed the third out of seven sections.  This one will be longer than the first two, and more complex.  It's a lot of fun, because Steve's career has now reached the point where he can begin taking on some real responsibility.  He also meets a rather interesting young lady . . . but I'll let you read about her for yourself!  His pirate nemesis returns, as well.  There are a lot of elements to bring together into a cohesive whole.  It's quite a challenge.

I plan to get the first three sections of Maxwell 3 out to a couple of alpha readers by mid-week, freeing me to concentrate on publishing the prison chaplaincy memoir.  As soon as that's out, I return to Maxwell 3, hopefully incorporating feedback from my alpha readers.  I'm going to Blogorado in October, which will eat into my writing time, but I hope to have the final draft finished by late that month.  It'll go to alpha/beta readers for a quick pass while I prepare the templates for the published versions.  I'd like to be ready to publish by November 15th, but with so much still to do, it may slip until the beginning of December.  I don't want to publish later than that, because I need to catch the Christmas shopping season.  Then it's on to Maxwell Volume 4 . . .

Only problem is, my eyes are getting rectangular with all this staring at a computer screen!  I'm having to use lubricant ointment in them every day to prevent serious dryness problems.  I'm sure those of you who do a lot of computer work know exactly what I mean.  I'll have to take care of them.  In this line of business, they're primary tools of the trade!

Peter