IWSG Wednesday: In the Editing Cave

Happy Insecure Writer's Support Group Wednesday. Thank you again to Alex J. Cavanaugh, the creator of the group. The first Wednesday of every month is dedicated to this group of supportive writers. If it's something you're not familiar with, then please click on Alex's link above for more information and to sign up!

I finished editing Provex City and sent it off to my proofreader. I expect to get it back over the next week. I've also finished editing Le7el and SUSY Asylum. The next items on my agenda is to get all my covers finalized. They all need blurb rewrites and spine adjustments. I also need a cover for Le7el, which should be completed by the end of the month.

I'm excited to have finished my edits of Provex City, Le7el, and SUSY Asylum because I made quite a few tweaks and changes to match up with the last two books. There were a few scenes and details I'd forgotten about in the early books that never went anywhere. I specifically targeted those types of scenes and details to make the stories as tight and fast-paced as possible. I had been nervous about splitting Le7el and SUSY Asylum since I had to completely rearrange the stories. Now that they're both done, I'm happy and more than a little relieved. This is the great thing about ebooks and self publishing--the ability to easily change stories that have already been released.

I feel like I've accomplished a lot over the past month, but I still have a long way to got to get this series fully released. But I can see the end of the end of the tunnel, which is encouraging. I'm itching to start a new story, but I have to stay focused and get this series released before moving on. It drives me to work that much harder.

My biggest insecurity right now is what will happen once the entire series is released--an insecurity that grows with each passing month, the closer I get to finally releasing the last books. I'm not worried about negative reception, but of not reaching an audience with the ever-growing ocean of new releases. Discoverability isn't getting any easier. But I'll get back to focusing on the tasks at hand and let future Mike worry about that.

A new band I've gotten into over the past two weeks is X Ambassadors. I've liked the song Renegades since I first heard it on the radio, but didn't look into the band until recently. And I'm sorry I waited so long because they are amazing. X Ambassadors sounds like a fusion between Imagine Dragons and The Fray, but I like X Ambassadors much better than the other two bands. It was hard choosing a song to post here. I'm typically a sucker for acoustic versions of songs, so I finally decided on a live acoustic version of Unsteady. As an aside, their beautifully emotional song Litost was on The Host soundtrack (another writing song I'd highly recommend). Who knew?