One year from today! And the implications thereof.

Guess what happens exactly one year from TODAY?

My book releases!

Yes. I'm a little excited.

It feels like I've had my book deal for FOREVER (it's been 10 months and one week), yet I still have a year to go. In case you were wondering, yes, a year and ten months is a crazy long time when you're waiting for your book to come out! And yes, it's a completely normal length of time to wait if you're with a big publisher. Many of the people in the Lucky 13s have wait times over two years long. But now, to have that number be a year or less, feels MAGICAL. (Seriously-- anyone need any magic done? Today I feel like I could do it.)

There's a lot of implications, though, that come with the one year before mark that I can't say I had thought of before this point. Let me tell you where I'm at right now:

• Book 1 has been fully content-edited. 
• Book 1 has gone through the first round of copy edits, and ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies that go out to reviewers) are printed based off of that. It has gone to production for ARCs, even though they won't be out until spring. It has also gone back to copy edits for the second round. At this point, other than a few sentence wording things, it's pretty much set in stone.
• Book 1 HAD a cover.... until it was shown at list launch early August, and they decided that the cover wasn't strong enough for the book, so they started over with a different illustrator. That's a story for another time, but basically, it would've had a cover by now, if it went according to plan.
• Book 2 is two-thirds of the way drafted.

What does that have to do with anything, might you ask? A lot, actually. Like many, my books will come out almost exactly a year apart, which means books two and three will be on roughly the same schedule. Which means that when my book releases a year from now, this is what will be happening:

• Book 2 will be fully edited
• Book 2 will have gone through copy edits, and onto production
• Book 2 will likely have a cover
• Book 3 will be in the drafting stage.

Why that is significant?

Let's talk about reviews. Or, more importantly, constructive reviews. Have you ever read a book that was great except for one thing? Let's say it's an annoying tic the main character has that drives the general population nuts. Or something in the plot or with the world that seems to not fit, and desperately needs some explanation in the next book. By the time people start reading the book, and reviews start coming in, the next book is already to the point where everything is pretty much set in stone. So anything that needs to be addressed specifically, for the sake of the reader, can't be addressed until the third book.

Kind of mind-blowing, no? (Does it freak me out? A little. Yes.)(But it also helps stave off the Sophomore Slump, which is TOTALLY a story for another day.)

For a moment, I'm going to forget all that. Right now I need to go make one of those paper chains you made in December in elementary school to count down the days until Christmas by ripping off one link of the chain every day. Only this one will count down the days until TTBB releases. Then I'm going to wrap it around the walls in my office. And around... and around....