Well, that was fun.
Many thanks to all those who read and helped to edit: Nat, Annie, Adrian, Rob, Sarah, Jayne, Chiara, Anood, Katie, Matthew, QE and Nerd Girl, whomever she may be.
It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be- I still went out three nights a week and while I had to miss a few things I'd rather not have, spending my evenings writing was more interesting, and more fufilling, than watching TV. Plus I technically finished writing on Wednesday, which means I finished a whole week ahead of schedule!
So, what next for The Trusted Professions? At the moment I'm thinking fourfold:
- Proofreading: I've already printed a bunch of copies of the manuscript and am distributing them to various clever clogs with highlighters attached to pick out all the typos and repeated words and various other written no-nos (want to volunteer?) In addition, I'll be going carefully over all the comments made during the process and re-writing sections of the novel accordingly. I'm not very happy with Chapters 1 and 2 and they'll probably be entirely transformed. I'll also try and make everyone sound less 'American', although really I'm not sure how to do that. I may try and fatten out other areas that were glossed over, particularly the 'rushed' ending.
I should mention that I will not be updating the online version with these changes. The first draft will be trapped in the amber of the internet and the version on my desktop that I'll be making revisions to will be the master copy, and hopefully it'll be quite different (and better!) at the end of December.
- Cover art: This is oddly one of the aspects that I'm most excited about, making a cover for the book. If Atomized taught us anything, it's that if you stick an attractive (and/or semiclad) young woman on the cover of your book, it'll sell millions even if it's your granny's laundry list. If you or somebody you know is a short-haired woman who wouldn't mind being on the cover of a novel, contact me.
- Publishing: I've decided to go the Lulu route, not just because I really can't be bothered with the stress and expense of trying to go through an actual publishing house, but also because, like flickr, I think Lulu is an incredibly clever idea (it's the future of publishing, no doubt) and I want to reward the company with my patronage.
It'll cost about £5 to actually print the book, plus then I'll add like a £2 commission on top of that, to which Lulu I think will add 50p. I'd have to pay them £75 to make the book internationally distributed, which I think I will do, so I'd have to sell like 37 copies to break even, which doesn't sound so hard. You'll buy one, right?
- Podcasting: I love audiobooks and am very excited about the idea of making TTP into one and uploading it to iTunes, maybe even shopping it to the BBC. TTP particularly suits itself to the format because, unlike most audiobooks, it literally is someone talking. I've already cast someone as Dr. Fielding and she's excited about putting it together, and I'm currently searching high and low for someone who can convince me they are Dalent. If you know any British men with good speaking voices, let me know.
I suppose I should think about, uhm, copyrighting it, as well. How does one go about that, exactly?

