You can buy it now! It's already available at https://www.createspace.com/3714538. CreateSpace did a very nice job with the book. I learned a lot in the process. I hope many of you will buy the book, read it, and find it fascinating. It's a pretty bizarre story and not much like my other writing.
I may be able to use a version of my own cover on the Kindle edition, which I'm still working on. And someone I met on a different blog gave me a suggestion on how to up the DPI on a Word drawing, so I may be able to use my own covers in the future without obtaining a new graphics program and spending a lot of time learning it. Strangely, I've had very good luck with those little drawing tools in Word.
"The Termite Queen" will not be published very soon for the following reasons. First, I have a confession to make. I've said it was a long book -- now I'll tell you how long: 325,000 words. To me, when I read through it, it doesn't seem long at all, but then I'm the author and authors ought to love their own books and their own characters. Otherwise, why write? The length is one reason I decided to self-publish -- I won't have to fight with editors at publishing houses about shortening it, or about changing the title to something chatchier (actually, "Termite Queen" fits the book perfectly -- you'll see why when you read it).
Anyway, formatting it for publication will be a time-consuming process, and I'm thinking seriously of dividing it into two volumes. I just think a single volume would be way too bulky and heavy and would fall apart in no time. I'll have to talk to CreateSpace about how that's done -- if the volumes would be published separately or as one rather expensive set, or what. They would really be one work, not a work and a sequel, but if I published them separately, everybody who bought the first one would be champing for the second one to come out and they wouldn't have to shell out as much all at once. Hmm.
Next, each chapter has an epigraph, mostly poetry with some prose, so I have a problem with permissions to quote. I had always thought that a professional publisher would do all that work for me. The obvious public domain authors (Shakespeare, Milton, Congreve, etc.) are no problem, but there are a lot of later authors that are obviously still under copyright. Getting these permissions will take awhile and I'll probably have to go see a copyright lawyer. I need to do more research on this, but I haven't had time yet.
And thirdly, there is the cover problem. Even if I use what I have, it will have to be reworked into the right size. And if I go with two volumes, I'll have to do a cover for the second volume.
So I'll just keep plugging and you can follow my efforts here. Lucky you! (I promise to also post other things that are more interesting, like why I used the epigraphs, and what my 30th century is like, and what English is like in the 30th century, and also something on that period's humanist philosophy. And more on the termites, too!
"The Termite Queen" will not be published very soon for the following reasons. First, I have a confession to make. I've said it was a long book -- now I'll tell you how long: 325,000 words. To me, when I read through it, it doesn't seem long at all, but then I'm the author and authors ought to love their own books and their own characters. Otherwise, why write? The length is one reason I decided to self-publish -- I won't have to fight with editors at publishing houses about shortening it, or about changing the title to something chatchier (actually, "Termite Queen" fits the book perfectly -- you'll see why when you read it).
Anyway, formatting it for publication will be a time-consuming process, and I'm thinking seriously of dividing it into two volumes. I just think a single volume would be way too bulky and heavy and would fall apart in no time. I'll have to talk to CreateSpace about how that's done -- if the volumes would be published separately or as one rather expensive set, or what. They would really be one work, not a work and a sequel, but if I published them separately, everybody who bought the first one would be champing for the second one to come out and they wouldn't have to shell out as much all at once. Hmm.
Next, each chapter has an epigraph, mostly poetry with some prose, so I have a problem with permissions to quote. I had always thought that a professional publisher would do all that work for me. The obvious public domain authors (Shakespeare, Milton, Congreve, etc.) are no problem, but there are a lot of later authors that are obviously still under copyright. Getting these permissions will take awhile and I'll probably have to go see a copyright lawyer. I need to do more research on this, but I haven't had time yet.
And thirdly, there is the cover problem. Even if I use what I have, it will have to be reworked into the right size. And if I go with two volumes, I'll have to do a cover for the second volume.
So I'll just keep plugging and you can follow my efforts here. Lucky you! (I promise to also post other things that are more interesting, like why I used the epigraphs, and what my 30th century is like, and what English is like in the 30th century, and also something on that period's humanist philosophy. And more on the termites, too!
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