My book is on sale this week for 99 cents. Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Alone-SM-Ford-ebook/dp/B01HR7O0Y0/ or Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/alone-sm-ford/1124041307. This is part of the summer sale of Clean Reads books, which includes A HUSBAND FOR DANNA, a runaway groom story, by Christina Lorenzen. See other Clean Reads books on Twitter or on Facebook.

Publishing, like many businesses, is a hurry-up-and-wait experience. Submit a manuscript and wait to hear a response. Get an acceptance and wait for the contract. Sign the contract and wait for edits. Get editorial notes, and often a short deadline. Turn in the edited manuscript and wait for more edits. Rinse and repeated as needed. Get copy edits and work on those to meet the next deadline.
 
This week I went through a second round of copy edits. The number of mistakes still remaining is humbling. Obviously, I’m not so good at seeing errors as I thought. Thanks for making this book better, copy editors!
 
Now I’m on another “wait” square on the playing board. I don’t know what the next move will be.
 
A preview of the cover? That would be fun. Since my ebook is slated to be out this summer, someone must be working on the face of the book, right? I hope so. What will it look like? Will I be pleased or merely satisfied with the images, layout, and design? (I’m not expecting a bad cover as I like the publishing house’s covers!)
 
A third round of copy edits?
 
Or will there be something I haven’t even thought of?
 
I know I’m fortunate. A print book would have even a longer waiting time. So while I wait, I’ll stifle impatience and apply what I’ve learned on other manuscripts. (And try not to watch my email inbox as these cats are watching the clock.)

I had no idea it would be difficult to create a blurb and a tagline for my book. My first blurb attempt, my editor didn’t like at all. I thought I’d modeled it on what I saw in other Clean Reads books. And I’d gotten some feedback from other writers, too. The editor and I went back and forth with my ideas and her suggestions and my rewrites. My writing group (we meet once a week to write together) heard me moaning about my struggles for several weeks.
 
Until . . .
 
One day I got it right!
 
Then I had to work on the tagline, which was even harder for me.
 
But I’m happy to say we reached agreement on that, too, so here they are:
 
Tagline: Is murder on the menu?
 
Blurb of ALONE:
 
Ready for adventure in the snowy Colorado mountains, Cecelia Gage is thrilled to be employed as the live-in housekeeper for her favorite bestselling author. The twenty-five-year old doesn’t count on Mark Andrews being so prickly, nor becoming part of the small town gossip centering on the celebrity. Neither does she expect to become involved in Andrews family drama and a relationship with Simon Lindley, Mark’s oh so good-looking best friend. And certainly, Cecelia has no idea she’ll be mixed up in a murder investigation because of this job.
 
Will Cecelia’s faith in God get her through all the trouble that lies ahead?
 
I hope others find both intriguing.