Reign of Retribution Book 3 & .99 Sale -Fiona Tarr

Reign of Retribution Book 3 -Fiona Tarr

The Process of Creation to Publication
Fiona Tarr

(English Spelling)

From Conception to Publication

The process of creating a book idea and getting it to the self-publishing stage is different for many authors. Most authors will have a couple, or even more book ideas in their head or in the drafting process at any one time, but at some point, we have to decide which book to get started on.

In my case, I write 2 books each years. I’d love to write more, but at the moment, that’s my goal. While one book is being written, and prepared for publication, I’ll be researching the 2^nd book and drafting an outline. For instance, I have just released my latest book Reign of Retribution, so now, while I’m in the marketing process with it. I’m finalising researching and outlining my next book. The next book is in another series, The Priestess Chronicles, and I’ll start drafting that in the next few months.

So Where do I Start?

Idea

The Eternal Realm series is loosely based on various Old Testament bible stories. All have female leads and all could be described as alternative historical fantasy in some respect, as they fill in the very short Bible stories with many fictional characters and new story lines.

Method

Research, outline then research again. I have the ugliest running word document you’ve probably ever seen. It is usually full of quotes from various online sources; researching culture, facts, famous authoritarians of the era and anything else that will help me with the historical and timeline aspects of my story.

While researching, my imagination gets time to mull over ideas and start to formulate what the point of my story will be. For instance, when I wrote Reign of Retribution, I started with a very little known story about the king of Judah and featured an even little known femal lead. The historical story of the Bible was very brief, focusing on all the necessary stuff that Bible stories focus on, but nothing about the people, what they felt, their struggles and their relationships. This is the substance I use to flesh out the story idea and turn it into a fictional story.

Timeline

My actual writing process is quite short. Once my research is done, the story line drafted ie a start, a middle and the finale, I get started on the writing. I try to stay focused during this period. I write anything from 2,000 – 10,000 words a day in this period, so the average full length novel takes me around 2 weeks.

Editing

I’m not big on editing. Because my stories are written in a very tight timeline, the story tends to flow pretty smoothly, so I honest do one read through looking for major errors and another read through focusing on plot holes. This wasn’t the case when I first started writing but after 10 novels, the process has become much smoother.

After I’ve finished with it, I print out two double spaced copies and hand them to my two very special Beta team readers. My husband is one, and a close friend is the other. They both see my manuscripts from different perspectives, which is awesome. My husband reads the story side, he tells me when words don’t fit or sentences don’t make sense. My friend has a very real need to know more about people, so she helps me ensure I’ve fleshed out each character with enough ‘meat’ to make them interesting. She also picks up any time line issues or plot holes I might have missed.

After I’ve worked both lots of feedback into the story, I send it off to my copy editor who focusses on grammar. Thank the Lord for copy editors because even though I have improved, I am still not great with grammar.

While the book is away with my editor, I work with my oldest son who is my cover designer. Like me, he has learnt along the way and his process is much faster than it once was. I’ve usually got a clear idea of what I am looking for on the cover, by the time we reach this point, so we pick a few stock images and work them into the cover as a sample. If we are happy, we purchase the stock images and finalise the cover.

Publishing

The final stage is getting the manuscript published. I’ve self-published all my books to date. I think there are a number of reasons I have done that. The first is that getting a publishing agent and chasing publishing deals was both disheartening and very time consuming. I decided quite quickly that I’d rather spend that time writing, than putting query letters together, so self-publishing was a conscious choice.

The publishing process has improved dramatically since I started in 2016. Now, what used to take a week of formatting and jumping through hoops, has turned into a very quick process with the introduction of companies like Draft2digital. They can take a basic word manuscript, formatted quite quickly with the right line spacing and margins and then turn it into a .pub (apple) and .mobi (Amazon) file with the touch of a button.

While I’m preparing to publish, I set a realistic publishing date, contact my lovely network of authors like Juneta and see how many eyes I can get on my new release on the week of the release.

People often think writing a book is hard. It isn’t. Selling a book is the hard part. Even with glowing 5 star reviews, getting eyes on your work—getting it into the hands of new readers. That is what take time and dedication.

Reign of Retribution is the 3^rd and final book in The Eternal Realm series. A religious fantasy series that mixes mythology and intrigue in epic fantasy style. If you like strong characters, intricate plots and action, then you will enjoy my contemporary take on this old Biblical classic.

Author Links:

Website: http://atime2write.com.au

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fionatarr.atime2write/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FionaTarr

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/fiona-tarr

Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Fiona-Tarr/e/B00KOL7XI2

Reign of Retribution Book 3 -Fiona Tarr

Reign of Retribution Book 3 -Fiona Tarr

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Reign of Retribution Book 3–Fiona Tarr New Release