Review copies are going out…  Once in the hands of the reviewers I’m at their mercy!  Let me make this perfectly clear though:  I don’t expect glowing reviews; I want honest ones.  If any book review happens to be both, this blogger will be very pleased indeed.  N.B.; if you’re into reviewing books and would like a review copy, please get in touch.

It’s funny:  I’ve finalized the manuscript for my spy novel and sent it off to Bookbaby for epub (the filetype that most e-readers use) formatting.  Yet I’m so used to coming up with ideas and edits for the text that my brain’s still doing it without having to try.  This is a bit of a pain because some of them are good ideas which can’t be included now—but they might make it to the sequel(s).  I also find I’m worrying about small details as though they’ll ruin the whole thing in the eyes of the reviewer.  Yesterday I went off on some mental rabbit-trail about a character holding a certain object, only to find that in my nervousness I’d recalled it inaccurately and there was nothing actually wrong.  I think I need to chill.

Printing out review copies has been an interesting exercise.  How to fill a room with the essence of laser printing or what?  They make a certain highly recognizable niff which seemed to pervade the whole office.  It turns out that the book prints on exactly a hundred pages of letter, double-sided with a ten point font.  I don’t know what speed this particular laser printer is supposed to run at, but it made short work of the 172,000 word book and squirted out three whole copies before the toner died (which, in fairness, was already getting low).  When I went to buy a new toner cartridge I realized—with shock—the methodology by which the printer manufacturers are driving such nice cars:  The printer may be a couple of hundred bucks, but the four toner cartridges total more than twice as much and there are no third-party versions available.  So everyone rushes out to buy the printer thinking what a good deal it is, then they have to sell their children to afford the next toner.  Whilst such cunning on the part of the manufacturer reeks of cheating in my eyes, I do kinda wish I’d thought of it.

Right, I must away.  These review copies aren’t going to laminate, bind and post themselves!

Roger and out, X.