truly done

Disabled

Well, that’s it. Page proofs are in the mail, headed back to the publisher.

It isn’t exactly true to say I’m washing my hands of this book until June, because of course I’ll need to do things to promote it. But work on the book itself is done.

And so, at last, the giant map of Elizabethan London has come down off the wall in the upstairs hallway . . . to be replaced by a new one, of course. I have a partial 1828 map, which is about forty years on the early side, but it might go up for now (once I get it flattened out). Especially since I’m not sure how best to go about getting a more contemporary one.

I just hope I can find some method that doesn’t involve three hours at Kinko’s with a bunch of tape again.

0 Responses to “truly done”

  1. kendokamel

    Congratulations!

  2. wadam

    Congratulations on getting the proofs out.

    As to maps, I’ve never figured out how to effectively find historically accurate ones. So good luck, and please do post where it comes from.

    • Marie Brennan

      Well, I just found a fabulous one from 1862 . . . selling at twenty-seven pounds fifty per sheet, and it consists of twenty-four sheets.

      Granted, I don’t need all twenty-four panels of the map, but the six or so I do need . . . no way.

      (And dammit, I need a Victorian icon — but I have no idea what I want for such a thing.)

      • wadam

        (And dammit, I need a Victorian icon — but I have no idea what I want for such a thing.)

        If you were interested in jumping in a costume in contributing to my victorian photo project, I would be glad to trade you for all the icons you’d like.

        • Marie Brennan

          Not sure if I want a pic of myself for iconage (though I do have one in my set, from the In Nomine game years ago), but I wouldn’t mind contributing. If somebody has clothes for me, that is — since the Victorian dress I’m working on currently consists of a bustle pillow, an unfinished petticoat, and a pile of uncut fabric.

  3. ombriel

    Congrats! 🙂

  4. milbrcrsan

    Yay! Congratulations! Bet you’re relieved that most of the work to get it published is done now! 😀

    And funny. I had just finished reading your essay about your first novel and the process of that. :p I must say, you inspire me to keep on writing and do my best to get my books out into the world. So, thank you for that. 😀

    • Marie Brennan

      Glad to hear that set of essays is useful! It’s the sort of thing that I never heard much about before I went through it, so I hoped somebody else might have an interest in it.

      • milbrcrsan

        I thought it was very insightful and useful! Though, I can very much understand how tired you got of your own novel during the editing stages. The Storm’s Edge (the novel I’m currently working on, which will hopefully be my first published book) has taken me years to work on, as well. So there are plenty of times I get sick of it! :p

        Btw, while you were going through the editing process, did you have a job and just find time to do it when you could?

        • Marie Brennan

          I was in college. (Or graduate school, by the time it sold.) That left me a fair bit of free time, since I didn’t also have another job I worked at.

          • milbrcrsan

            One last question…for now. :p

            How much money did it cost for you all in all? I mean, does it cost to get an agent or editor? And I’ve heard editing during the proof stage can be extremely expensive, is that true or does it differ for different companies?

          • Marie Brennan

            To get an agent or editor, the costs are printing, postage, maybe a couple of long-distance phone calls.

            And, you know, a crap-ton of patience and the occasional bit of self-esteem. <g>

            If anyone ever tries to convince you getting published has any costs associated with it beyond those, RUN the other direction, because they are trying to scam you.

            Page-proof-stage editing is expensive, yes, because the publisher has to change the typesetting from which they will be printing the books, which costs about a buck fifty per line. According to the cover sheet I got, changes up to about ten percent of the original typesetting cost will just be swallowed by the publisher, but if I go changing more than that, it comes out of my pocket. (But only, I think, if those are “authorial changes”: that is, me deciding I want to alter something. If it’s a correction of a mistake they made during typesetting — of which I had several in this MS — then I believe it’s not counted against me.)

            I don’t know if the cost varies between companies, because this is the first time anybody’s quoted a concrete price at me. But it’s always going to be pricy, and therefore to be avoided.

  5. difrancis

    There’s a great old map shop in Colorado Springs. I bought a 1860s map of London and environs from them awhile ago. Might be worth a look. Also, online, there’s this: http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/dickens_london_map.html Which is a downloadable Dickens London Map, and oh, crap. I bet I have a disk somewhere you’d love. I got it from Sarah Warneke (Sarah Douglas) and is a bunch of Victorian era research documents (she specializes in them. You might contact her). I’ll see if I can find the disk. It’s very cool.And then this one I’ve found very useful and includes maps from various years: http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/1859map/map1859.html In fact, this site is truly wonderful.

    Hope that helps.

    Di

    • Marie Brennan

      I’ve found some fabulous online maps, but I want one I can hang on my wall, and I’ve had enough of printing out segments and taping them together (especially since they always end up a little bit askew). Right now I’m waiting to hear back from a shop in England that sells a four-piece map for a more reasonable amount; I’m trying to find out if I need all four pieces, and also whether they ship to the US.

      Do you have the name of the Colorado Springs map shop?

  6. tak61

    What year exactly are you looking for? Also, how big is your ideal map?

    • Marie Brennan

      The book will probably take place around 1870, so ideally a map from the 1860-1880 range. Size-wise, I have a space 76 inches wide to hang it in, and the bigger, the better — especially since this time around I’ll need to see more than just the City and a bit of Westminster and Southwark (which is what my Elizabethan map showed).

      I don’t, however, really need to see the less-developed suburbs. If I could get in, say, Hyde Park or Mayfair across to Limehouse, that would probably be more than enough. Anything further afield I can check via an online map.

      • tak61

        I’m working on a series of mysteries set in the early 1870’s London. About a year ago I picked-up a reprinting of “Smith’s New Map of London” from 1860 at The Map Store in Brookfield, WI. (Website is at http://www.mapservice.com/). The copy is 36 inches by 24 inches, and shows Hyde Park in the West and Limehouse basin in the East. I think I paid about $30 for it. It’s not bad, but personally I wish I could find something bigger.

        Where did you find the four-piece map out of England?

        • Marie Brennan

          http://www.oldhousebooks.co.uk/product.php?prod=131

          They do ship internationally, and the crossing-point of the four panels is at post code SE11 6DS, which you can pinpoint by using http://www.multimap.com. (Or probably Google Maps, but I was following the instructions the store gave me.) If you don’t want to look it up, that translates to Lambeth, about halfway down the north-south stretch of the Thames.

          It’s twenty-four pounds fifty for the set of four, or thirty-two fifty if you want the period guidebook to go with them. And they’re quite big.

          36″x24″ might be okay, since what I want a wall-map for is mostly to see the big shape of things; I could check finer details on digital copies. But since that website doesn’t appear to sell it, I guess it’s a moot point. I may just order from Old House — but first I may see if I can leverage the UK office of my publisher to help me out.

  7. unforth

    Congratulations! and I feel like I should be able to remember a map resource from my classes, but some how I can’t just now…if I think of it, I’ll let you know, maybe it’ll help you find a closer-to-contemporary one.

    • Marie Brennan

      I can get the data just fine; what I want is something to hang on my wall that I don’t have to put together myself.

      • unforth

        Cheaply?

        • Marie Brennan

          For certain values of “cheap.” Since this is a business expense, I’m willing to go further than I would otherwise. I would like, though, to find something less expensive than the thirty-three pounds plus overseas shipping that’s the best option I’ve found yet, since that would approach a hundred dollars very fast.

          • unforth

            Well, for slightly more than the Kinko’s/scotch tape root, you could have a company print out the digital images you’ve got and make um as large as the resolution will handle, they’ll even laminate them and such. A bunch of printing companies will do this, and I think it’s about $20 at the low end. (ie, this service at Kinkos, though they don’t list prices here.)

          • Marie Brennan

            Scotch tape comes into the equation not because of printing issues, but because all the hi-res maps I can find are broken into multiple images.

            . . . though, okay, I suppose I could digitally “tape” them together by downloading and compositing them into a single image? And then print in some large poster size.

            In theory, it sounds like that would work. I may give it a shot.

  8. squishymeister

    Congratulations!!!!

    I’ve gotta say, I’m very proud to have you as a friend. Tony and I agree that you’re the most famousest of hobbits, or er…most famous of our friends at least.

    Way to go on another job well done!

  9. sapphohestia

    Congratulations!

    Good luck on the map front.

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