Whisper House Press

Notes from the desk of the editor are offered in the interests of personal posterity and transparency for writers and other potential editors who wish to learn from my experience

the editor

I’ve gotten all edits back from contributing authors.

I’ve finished the interior design using my program (Vellum, in this case). Identifying the right format for the chapters (with authors listed per chapter) and having the contents appear the way I wanted them to was a bit tricky but ultimately not too difficult.

I’ve contracted a cover designer and have 3D images, a 2D cover image for the ebook, and a 2D cover image for the trade paper. I’ve received the cover and its iterations. Check out my instagram account for a teaser on the cover.

The designer needed my print-book dimensions (6″ by 9″, a standard size), paper color (I plan on using Ingram Spark’s 50lb creme option), barcode for the print book and ISBNs for the print and Ebook (I use the only authorized dealer in the USA, bowker, and I advise buying in bulk rather than one at a time for this—barcodes are part of some design programs, so don’t buy those outright)… they also needed to know which printer I was using. I’ll be using IngramSpark again. I know their system and am kinda sorta familiar with its weirdness.

I still need to write the back text and send it to the cover designer (hopefully today or tomorrow?) to get it onto those designs.

I’ve sent all contributing authors a cover image (it’s not yet ready for the public but will appear here on this website before anyplace else, so subscribe for updates!) and the electronic proof of the full text of the book. Along with these two items, our authors received a track-changes spreadsheet (to make a copy of it and then share it with me) for noting changes needed in their stories. Newer authors, take note: when you get to this phase in the project, it’s not time to change your story; it’s time to find errors in the text.

I’ve modified my own internal tracking document to include a column for “author has sent changes” / “author has said all is okay” and a column for a thumbs up emoji for when I’ve gotten changes completed for each individual author’s notes.

When I get the changes all done, I’ll print a physical test copy. If I’m satisfied with everything, I’ll print a few dozen for ARCs and will start prepping the Kickstarter Campaign for January 2025.

Things are going well! The authors seem happy with the process, and I’m definitely happy with how the product is developing.

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