This afternoon, I reached another milestone on “Emptiness:” I finished the first draft of the novel manuscript.

As I’ve said before, I’ve changed the format of the project from animated Web series to novel, since I’m doing this on my own and animation is a challenge. Since then, I bought a new computer (a quad-core Mac Pro), cutting render time by well over half. For example, on a very high-resolution image I created for the cover of the novel, my new computer took about 5 minutes when my old one would have taken probably half an hour or longer.

But, anyway, I’m facing a few challenges on the publishing front:

• The first draft is only 10,000 words. It’s 60 pages in letter-size, and I hesitate to do the math for novel-sized pages. And, at least according to a website I found on Google, a novella should be at least 20,000 words, with 50,000 for a full novel. Granted, I’m planning to self-publish, so I don’t have to please a publisher, but it’s still a bit disconcerting to think how skinny the book will be.
• I really, really want this to be successful, and that means probably about $700 in fees and costs and two or three months before I can hit “Publish.” ($400 to have a neutral review written, $75 to have it listed in the Library of Congress and make it eligible to put in libraries, $35 to file with the U.S. Copyright Office, and the remainder for marketing.)

The review is the biggest part of the cost and wait – 8 weeks and $400. The LCCN is relatively cheap and only takes two weeks, and I don’t have to wait for the Copyright Office to publish. (As long as they get the file before I publish, they’re happy.) If the review is favorable, I could include it on the back cover and in all the marketing. (I could do so too if it’s unfavorable, but that seems like a bad idea.)

That doesn’t include having it professionally proofread. I have a few family members who have agreed to give it a once-over. They’re smart and they’ll be thorough, I’m sure, but I wonder if it would still be a good idea to find a professional proofreader, or even a literary editor to critique and help me tweak the story.

Anyway, I’ll be working on some marketing materials in the upcoming weeks, and redoing the front page of this site. I may even put together a new promo video.