Almost everything is done for Book 2 (The Heart of Percival, but my working file is still called “George II”.
) All the text has been edited, beta-read, re-edited, professionally edited – twice – and rechecked one final time, and it’s all been uploaded to Amazon. I would have another to do on that one except bite my fingernails, market the book, and wait until publication day rolls around.
Except… on Monday, I realized I hadn’t applied for a Library of Congress Control Number. That wasn’t really a problem. It’s not legally required, for one thing; I just like the idea of having my book registered with the Library of Congress. Second, they say it can take up to 10 days to provide a number, and I had that much time before Amazon’s deadline. But last time, it took only one day to get a preliminary number issued and it’s been five days now.
That means that now I get to bite my fingernails, market the book, wait until publication day rolls around, and worry that I did something wrong with the previous book and the LoC will refuse to talk to me now. Or conversely, that they’ve been stripped of staff and resources in the intervening time since I last did this. If the book goes out with “Library of Congress Number has been applied for”, like one I saw the other day, now you’ll know why.
On the plus side, work on Book 3 continues apace. (This one’s working title is “George III, the Mad One” because I grew up in Philadelphia and thus my grade school education included a lot of Colonial and Revolutionary War history.) I think I’m about a quarter done, and I have enough chapter titles holding space to make me feel like I know where I’m going. Whether I get there or not, we will see. I’d better clarify that: I will finish this book. (I know that people get touchy about unfinished series). The question is whether it goes in the direction I currently expect.