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?
This is a 
The Book and audiobook are totally on my shopping list for next year dude!
On copyrighting, since the original version is already on your site, free for all to see and read, have you thought about Creative Commons licencing? I'm not 100% sure of all the ins and outs of this, or what the story is with then selling it in print and audio form, but I think you shoudl look into it, there's loads of good stuff on the CC website.
I was going to mention the CC license, but that is a specific license that allows others to use and I think make derivatives of your work. By my understanding, you don't have to do anything to copywrite the book. By virtue of the fact you wrote it, you own th ecopywrite. All you need to do is put the copywright symbol and your name and I think it's copywrited. You may not actually even need to do that from a legal perspective, but I'm not 100% sure.
I know a short haired girl who would be perfect for Max. However I barely know her and I only know her because she works for the same firm as me, so I can't really ask her.
Ross has a british voice. Although I don't seem him as Dal nor do I see him having the time to do the reading.
Well done, and it probably wont hurt to send the book to a publisher anyway.
Hi D, I'll take photos of the model to be and help you design the book jacket (if you like). BTW I'm aka Nerd Girl!! haha you thought I was Sarah! :)
Unless the pictures of the girl are naked ones, in which case I'll pay to take the photos.
I'll buy a copy :-)
Hey, I did the layout and production for a book project at uni - if you need some InDesign help for doing your formatting just shout. Lulu will do your production but as I understand it you need to supply them with final layouts, usually in PDF.
Apologies for disappearing mid-month; I still haven't caught up :-(
Give me a shout if you'd like me to proofread your current version.
Not only will I buy a copy, I'll offer my professional (real job not side job) skills. I'm a technical author by trade so can help with the editing and proofreading if you want an extra set of eyes.
Double bonus is that I didn't read any of the nanowrithingy posts, so it'll be a fresh pair of eyes to boot!