Well, after a brief period of unavailability, the ebook version of TimeSplash is finally back – and better than ever. Featuring a new cover, this is actually a second edition of the ebook. Some of the changes that were forced on me by my previous publisher – because of their “house style” – have now been undone. There weren’t all that many, but they have nagged at me, and now that I have control again, I’ve put the text back the way it should have been. I have to tell you, it feels great.

I’ve also set a new price. For those who bought TimeSplash at $5.50, I apologise. I had no control over that, either. Now the price is $4.50 – which is exactly what I pay for a large cappuccino at my favourite coffee shop. It seems reasonable to me that a full-length ebook should cost about as much as a cup of coffee, so I decided to use the “coffee standard” to fix the price. If my coffee shop puts up their price, so will I. (Don’t worry, they just had a 12.5% price hike, so I don’t expect any more rises for quite a while.)

I’ve published the ebook through Smashwords and the Amazon Kindle Store (link soon – Amazon takes longer than Smashwords to process a book). This makes two editions with two different ISBNs (so, for all the collectors out there, you probably want to buy one of each – trust me, your grandchildren will thank you). The Smashwords edition will also be released through Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, Apple, Diesel, and Scrollmotion – but those links will take a while to come through too. I’m going to experiment soon with direct sales through the TimeSplash website and elsewhere – but that may be more trouble than it’s worth. Stay tuned and I’ll let you know.

Of course, the ebook edition has nothing to do with the print and audiobook editions which are due out very soon. Iambik Audiobooks tells me that late August/early September is the likely release date. eMergent press still has not confirmed a release date for print, but when they do, you will be the first to know.

I’ve mentioned before, I think, that one of the surprises of having a book published is the number of times you have to read it through. I don’t mean all those times you read it through as you’re writing it, to make sure that final draft is as fluent and coherent as possible, but all the time after the contract is signed. You work on the book for months with editors of one flavour or another, reading and re-reading, changing, tweaking, polishing, and re-reading yet again. By the time the proofs arrive, you may have read the book a dozen times, and then you’re doing it again, very, very carefully. But, at last, it goes out to the world and you think you will never have to read that book again.

I don’t suppose I’ve ever re-read any book half so often as I have re-read TimeSplash. Each of the Austen novels may have had three or four goes through, some Shakespeare plays may have had five or six goes, and I can’t think of a single sci-fi novel that I’ve read more than three times.

Yet, when I sold the audio and print rights to TimeSplash to a different publisher, it all started again. I had to read it through for Emma (who reads the book in the audio version) looking for foreign words and names and recording how I think they should be pronounced, then I had to listen to it, chapter by chapter, as Emma recorded it, looking for technical problems and speakos (the speech equivalent of a typo). Then I had another opportunity to edit it for the print version, so another careful read-through, and now I have the print proofs before me and I have to read it very, very carefully, yet again.

What am I up to? Fifteen re-reads and a listen? Since the book was signed to a publisher!

I think that’s enough, don’t you? It’s time somebody else read it.

It would be natural to assume I hate the sight of TimeSplash by now, that every time I go near it I start to sweat and tremble in dread. In fact, I have been very pleasantly surprised that the book is still readable even after all those many times. And I think that is for two reasons. One is that I actually like my own writing. There are still passages in TimeSplash that I really enjoy reading, that still touch me, or amuse me. After a lifetime of writing, you’d hope you would have found a voice you like, wouldn’t you? I really enjoyed writing TimeSplash and I really liked my protagonists. I still feel that enjoyment coming through in the text. It’s probably narcissism, I suppose, but I’m very glad that I didn’t write the book to suit anyone else but myself, because by now I’d be certifiable after re-reading it so often.

The other reason I can still get something out of my sixteenth time through is because of the world I built for the book. I’m very meticulous about world-building. I do masses of research and I work through all the details of every social, political and technological invention I make to ensure that the whole has coherence and integrity. Now, when I read it, a word or phrase will remind me of that background work, most of it probably invisible to the reader. I note the size and power output of F2 generators, I note the titles of police and security officers, and the structures and procedures of the organisations they work for, with great satisfaction, knowing they are right. Silly things really, intended to add rich texture to the world and create a feeling of reality for the reader, but some of them have helped keep me engaged – and sane – through the sixth, tenth, twelfth re-readings.

And the good news is, I’ll finish the proof reading today! Another milestone passed as TimeSplash heads into print.