On December 8, 2023, I finished the sequel to Erin’s Ring and published it through Bookemon.com. It is titled Marguerite's Diary. Seeing as how this historical novel includes approved Marian apparitions and also a Marian miracle, I thought it was apropos that its publication date would be one of Mary's special days, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
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| For the cover, I used an old still life painting I'd done in college in the late 70's, to which I added some flames and a Rosary, so it would fit the subject matter. |
I exhaustively pored over the book's 20 chapters myself, looking for typos and grammatical errors, and then had my husband read through it, too. He caught a few boo-boo's I'd missed. (You'd be amazed by how many typos an author's eyes don't see, because she knows what she meant to say, and so that's how she reads the words!) However, I fear that even with all of that care and attention in an effort to produce as clean a manuscript as possible, there will be errors. Cheryl Dickow, the publisher at Bezalel Books (where both Finding Grace and Erin's Ring were published, but which is now out of business), liked to remind me that there was no such thing as perfection in the printed word. I guess I'll have to take her word for it, and try not to panic if I see any errors in the printed books...
...which are due to arrive today!
I ordered ten copies to start out, because I've promised them as Christmas gifts for our oldest son's four oldest daughters (the avid readers! The ones who really wanted me to write this book!). Then there's one for us, and one for each of our five sons. I didn't want to order too many to start out, because they're a tad pricey on the site where I had them published, at almost $20 a copy, and I want to make sure that they turned out nicely.
My husband is wondering if I should republish on Amazon, using their KDP services. I think the copies would be much cheaper to purchase if I did that, and the book would be legit, with an ISBN number...
We shall see! In the meantime, it feels good to be done, and to have copies in time for Christmas!
What a beautiful day to publish your book! Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteWhen you do publish elsewhere, please let us know. I would dearly love to read this as I loved, loved, loved your other books.
I just clicked on the link and saw that I can order one now. Yeah! It's now on order.
DeleteDonna, thank you so much for your enthusiastic support!! I feel terrible telling you that I ended up finding some typos and mistakes in that version of the book you bought, as well as a few formatting errors that made it look less professional. I never should have been in such a hurry to publish it--but I was determined to have copies ready for those granddaughters of mine for Christmas. The four girls and their mom read it while we were visiting in WI with them after Christmas, and they found some things my husband and I had both missed when we proofread the manuscript. So I've fixed it all up, and even edited the back cover synopsis. I think it's a better book now, and I'm sorry you got the not-so-great version. I would be happy to gift you a PDF of the revised book. You can contact me via my other blog, String o' Pearls (there's a "contact me" button on the sidebar) if you'd like me to email that to you. Again, thanks for your support, and I hope you enjoyed it despite the boo-boos!!
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