The Launch of a Debut.
- Timothy Dobson
- Nov 12
- 12 min read
Updated: Nov 24
One of the most frequent questions which crops up anywhere discussions of writing occur, is "how did you go about ______________?"
In this post I am going to try to lay out the entire process of creating and launching my debut novel: Mettle and Ice. I'll talk about the initial concept, what drafting looked like, free and paid beta-readers, my first dealings with a developmental editor, working with a copy editor and proof-reader, and then finally all of the fun of making a book be available to the peoples of the world in three formats and across a number of platforms, including recording an audiobook. Bonus: Cover art and map creation.
Plotting:
I plot my novels using Dan Wells' 7-Point Story Structure, which I first heard about while listening to the Writing Excuses podcast. After watching a video series on YouTube in which the inimitable Mr Wells takes a group through the process in a presentation at a con somewhere, I was taken by the simplicity of this 7-point system. I've read Save the Cat, researched the "Hollywood Formula", been smacked over the head with "The Heroe's Journey" and nibbled cheese with the "MICE quotient", but 7 point works best for me.
Aside: Try a few of these, or any other plot mechanisms you find. The shoes that look great in the store may not fit right, the sizing may be off, or... I dunno, they might break.
The plot I wrote out on the above document is the same shape as the story I ended up writing. The story has changed through iterations and refinement, with the finale being the most affected due to the compounding effect of changes through the body of the story. The above plotting also expanded into a document that included character ideas as well as an expanded overview of the plot. The plot is a serving suggestion, not a recipe (at least for me).
The idea for Mettle and Ice started out as a fantasy reimagining of Ernest Shackleton's Endurance Voyage. I wondered, what it would have looked like if instead of just the most inhospitable location in the world, the crew were also up against magical monsters, enemies within the crew, and a need to prevent an animous nation from obtaining the means to conquer the world. After that, it was just a case of months of hardwork and stress...
Drafting:
I write in MS Word. I like the simplicity and just use the navigation panel to bounce between chapters as needed. I save my work to Dropbox, and have a folder for each work, inside of which are subfolders for things like art, plotting, worldbuilding, etc.
The process for drafting for me is a case of BIC, HOK (don't say it too fast...) Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard. I just need to sit down and write. I have never really struggled with writer's block, for me, it's depression that stops me writing when I am stuck. If my brain is on my side, I can throw words at pages and see what happens.
The process:
Draft 1.0: I just have to get the shape of the story onto paper. Mettle and Ice's 1.0 draft was 83,000 words and while resembling the shape of the story I wanted, it was a sparse and desolate landscape. I am a chronic under-writer in early drafts, this is far less common amongst fantasy writers than being an over-writer. Draft 1.0 is for my eyes only, it is to tell me what story I am trying to write. So after giving it a month to sit and mature, I read it and began to edit and add.
Draft 2.0: This draft grew by one chapter and made it up to 90,000 words. Still very bare bones, but the shape was becoming more apparent and the characters were becoming themselves. This is the first draft I let other people see. One of my brothers and a co-worker read the 2.0 draft and gave feedback.
Draft 3.0: Implemented feedback from the alpha readers and refined. It was becoming clear at this point that a lot more was needed. I had the abridged version of what could be a great novel. I needed to start un-abridging things.
Drafts 4.0-5.1: 25,000 words got added to flesh out the characters, the world, the story, basically everything. 5.1 is the draft I sent to two Beta-readers I found through Goodreads. This was the first time I had employed freelance Beta-readers and while I found some of their feedback useful, I feel that what I have been able to get from people who I know and are happy to read my work is of a similar quality, while coming for free. Next book I will not employ beta-readers, they were valuable but not of enough value to me in what I was looking for. YMMV.
Draft 6.0: This was the final major changes to the book... or so I thought. I was happy with all of it. The characters were who I wanted them to be, the plot was wrapping up nicely, and the tension was humming along nicely from start to end. The book was sitting at 125,000 words and I was ready to send it to a developmental editor. It was all pretty exciting, trying to find an editor and see if what they could add to my book would take it from "drab to fab" or something like that. I had applied feedback from six different readers as well as my own musings. Surely the developmental edit couldn't change too much?
Developmental edit and draft 6.1: You know when someone points something out and you suddenly wonder how you had ever missed it? Well, yeah. That happened. The developmental editor, Allison Alexander, was worth every cent and has made the book a better version of what it would otherwise have been. Tension was cranked to 11, chaos was made to ensue, and the ending... the ending was completely reworked. The book you can read and love (or not, you do you) was born after that developmental edit.
Copy edit, approve, proofread, approve, layout, approve, book? With the book about ready to go, at least in terms of the story, it was time to enlist someone to make sure I'd actually written it in English. I spent time researching copy-editors and ended up finding Lily Omidi at Ello Editorial. She offered a package which included copy-edit, formatting and proof-reading all in one. Lily was sensational to work with and I found every stage of the process to be smooth sailing. The product which arrived in my email inbox at the end of working with Lily was something I'm extremely proud of, and it was ready for me to hit "upload".
Cover and map (one was painful, the other was fun)
Cover: I have been dabbling in digital art for a number of years using Procreate. I decided, like a fool, that because of my amateur art experience I'd be the perfect candidate to create my own cover art. While I am extremely pleased with the final cover, I found myself resenting the work as it dragged on. I am not good enough at this type of digital art to ever get into the flow state I can acheive when pursuing other creative endeavours. Unless it is a cover of a very different style, I can't see myself attempting to create cover art for future books.
Map: Creating the map was a whole different experience. I've loved fantasy books with maps at the front for as long as I remember liking books. Tolkien's maps for Lord of the Rings are amazing, I love the flipped UK map in A Song of Ice and Fire, and I think right now it is hard to argue that anyone is doing more in the map game than Brandon Sanderson (or at least the maps he commissions for his worlds). I had skethed out a map of the nation of Kilatha when I first came up with the idea for Barduk and the Iron Chaplains. I then set about putting Kilatha into a world, and then adding detail. Below are a series of various levels of drawing of world and country maps. What I learned in drawing my own map and creating my own cover was that liking art, and enjoying creating a cover for a novel, are not the same. Cartography is staying on the cards, cover-art will be outsourced in future.
Audiobook production:
In a former life, I was a sport broadcast commentator for my college's athletics department, while a student there. Since then I have been working regularly with the Australian Lacrosse Network as a commentator. While in high school I dabbled in singing, including being in a musical in year 12 (senior year).
Basically, I have used my voice for things in the past and figured, 'I can read a book'.
I started researching audiobook recording and what was required. I found Travis Baldree's website to be a treasure trove of information and as someone who also self pubbed and then recorded their own audiobook, it seemed pretty relevant. The other place I found a horde of useful information was Jay Myers' YouTube channel.
I decided I wanted a Scarlett Audio interface, and found a bloke selling a Scarlett 2i2 studio (First Gen) which covered me for mic, headset, and interface.
Do your own research, but I found the consensus to be Scarlett were well regarded as interfaces (no USB mics, they are not the way), cardioid condesner mics are the way to go, and wired headsets are the business.
Aside: All the advice I have seen is that doing an audiobook will not move the sales measure at all if you aren't already doing well. If you aren't going to enjoy making it, don't make your own. I made one because I wanted to experience the process. I liked it. I doubt I'll make any money.
With the hardware taken care of, it came time to sort out the software. I went with Reaper audio. They are popular within the industry, although there are many choices. I liked the look of their UI, and the pricing is good (after a 60 day trial). I have not tried other software, but I have had no issues thus far.
Blanket fort? No. This is an audiobooth... I found someone looking to get rid of office partitions on Marketplace for free, and used those and some moving blankets to build myself a blanket fort in my office for recording.
Writing your own reviews is easy, but have a listen to my audiobook if you want to know how it all went. If you like the sound of it, you know what I used.
This section will be updated at the completion and uploading of the Audiobook. The platform for uploading in Aus is different than in the US as we don't have access to ACX down under.
ISBNs and getting the book out into the world:
Getting an ISBN is a must for some outlets. If only publishing through Amazon, you'll be able to use their ISBNs which will be provided for free. If you want your book to be available elsewhere, you will need one ISBN for each separate format. These are done differently depending on where you live, the cost is also location dependent. In Australia (where I live) I had to go through Thorpe-Bowker where I got 10 ISBNs for $88 AUD, plus a first purchase fee of $55 AUD. This is much more affordable than in some locations, and far more expensive than others. I have one for my paperback, one for e-book, and one for audiobook. This order of 10 will see me at least through my first 2-3 publications.
KDP:
In the ideal world, I'd not have dealt with Amazon. I hate that they are pushing to create a monopoly and suffocating the other players in the game. However, I want people to be able to read my book and they are one of the ways to get books into hands. There are a number of people out there for whom if a book isn't available on Kindle, it won't be on their radar.
I started trying to set up KDP and Ingram Spark on the same day. KDP is extremely easy to use. I set up my account and had my e-book and paperback uploaded the same day. There is a processing time for the books which took a couple of days, but the book was live for launch day as a paperback and e-book through Amazon, and available round the world. I am yet to have had a book out long enough to need to worry about royalties, but so far the book is getting some sales and it seems easy to get an estimate of royalties (I'm keeping my day job, as of writing this).
KDP's user dashboard (after publishing) is incredibly easy to navigate. I've added an image below to show you what to expect if you have not seen this sort of thing before. There are options to dive into more depth within KDP. KENP Read refers to if your book is in the Kindle Unlimited program, in which you get paid based on pages read (I have not looked further into KU as it didn't interest me).
Ingram Spark:
Anywhere I looked online, I found the same information. Ingram Spark are necessary evil...
If you want your book to be available everywhere (within reason) you need Ingram Spark, and they know it. Which means, their customer service is run like anywhere with no competition.
Aside: It's also part of why the unfortunate reality is that part of Amazon's stranglehold is due to them being so easy to work with (in specific avenues) their platform is easier to navigate, their system is better supported, they unfortunately tick a lot of boxes.
I set up my account on the day I set up KDP. Information was all straightforward, nothing too unexpected. With my account set up, I went to upload my e-book and paperback info. A message saying it could take 3-5 business day to process my account greeted me.
I waited 3-5 business days and found no progress, so I emailed support.
They got back to me a day later requesting my passport as verification of identity. If you are going to need a passport to verify who I am, maybe do that at the start of the process, not as a surprise sidequest???
I send off my passport and reflect on the fact I am about 25kg (55lb) lighter now than when I had the passport photo taken, and I return to waiting. Another 3-5 business days, and another, and another... After 2.5 weeks of waiting I finally get the news that my account is created. It will just take 3-5 business days to process my novel in its 2 formats...
Draft2Digital:
Updated - November 24th.
After more research, in accordance with my learning on the go method, I discovered that I wanted to add a third player to the game of getting books into the world. Amazon KDP covers kindle and Amazon POD. Ingram = POD to other locations, but as I researched more, I discovered it is not what I want to work with for other E-book platforms. Enter the D2D. Draft2Digital covers basically the rest of the E-book market. The upload was easy, the distribution became available at different times on different providers. Barnes and Noble, Apple Books, and KOBO were the ones I was most interested in getting up and they were all very speedy.
Another very nice feature with D2D is that they provide a universal book link (UBL) which contains links to all of their partner providers so I can share one link to folks who are then able to select where they want to go from there.
KDP, IS, and D2D: Streamlined enough.
Seems the best option for me. YMMV.
Final lessons:
The information I found online was a massive help, the resources linked were ones of particular note. All I have done here is centralise the information I used. I hope if you are reading this, some information has been helpful.
Don't expect to be the exception, the consensus online for each of the topics I faced proved to be bang on the money. Ingram = hard to deal with. Amazon = necessary evil and easy to use. Editing = you think you have found the mistakes... you haven't. Delays = guaranteed.
I allowed 2 months from when I planned on having my book ready to go, and launch date. I had an ebook on launch date, the paperback was a day later. That was only on Amazon. Ingram Spark was a week after.
The whole process was slow, but worthwhile. I loved learning about how to do these things. It was valuable to learn that I didn't enjoy the creating of a cover. I suspected it would be a highlight.
My family and friends were amazing supports through the process and I relied on them for several aspects.
If you have any questions about any of the process, comment here and I'll do my utmost to get to you with answers.
Aside: The biggest delay to several aspects of this publishing process has been twofold. There were delays in the editing process, and unfortunately those aligned with work getting really busy. Those two combined with my dear old friend, depression, to make things more painful than I would have liked. As of Nov 24th, still working on editing audio.
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