I think the process starts with the story. When I was writing for Victory Tales Press, they wanted shorter stories, about 10-20,000 words to put in a holiday themed anthology, be it paranormal, Christmas, or spring/summer.
One of my first stories for them was “Christmas in Bayeux.” The story was to be stimulating, or sexually charged.
When it comes to writing the majority of my stories, setting is very important to me. I shoot for international settings (inspired by my time spent in Europe when I was in the Army) or New England where I grew up. Sometimes I write about places that have left a marked impression on me, such as California wine county.
Once I have my story, I flesh out my characters, my conflict, the romance, and then target the heat level to what I want for the story, be it sweet, sensual, steamy, or spicy. With Christmas in Bayeux, I was shooting for steamy. A big part of my writing is researching as well. I flesh out a plot and start to writing. The whole creative process is invigorating!
When I first wrote “Christmas in Bayeux,” was about 10-12,000 words and was published in 2010. When I got the revision of rights in 2018, I decided to do a content edit, flesh it out, and develop the characters more. It took me about 2 years to do that content edit. The story was now about 40,000 words long, novella size. I pretty much self-edit along the way, so my editing was done shortly after the content edit.
After I was satisfied with the edit, my beta reader read the story and offered suggestions. My beta reader typically reads for spelling, punctuation, and grammar, but also looks at other story elements as well. Beta reading takes time, and I don’t rush her. She’s done when she’s done. That’s where patience comes in.
However, this is a good time to go about securing your Copyright.
A copyright is a legal way to protect your intellectual property. Legally, a book you created is your intellectual property and you want to protect it.
From Copyright.gov: Copyright is a type of intellectual property that protects original works of authorship as soon as an author fixes the work in a tangible form of expression.
Again, from Copyright.gov: Copyright exists automatically in an original work of authorship once it is fixed, but a copyright owner can take steps to enhance the protections. The most important step is registering the work. Registering a work is not mandatory, but for U.S. works, registration (or refusal) is necessary to enforce the exclusive rights of copyright through litigation.
If you ever need to take someone to court for a violation of copyright, having registered your copyright is the best way to prove you have the copyright.
How to go about doing that?
You can start here to register for your copyright: https://www.copyright.gov/registration/
Last year, when I registered some of my stories the cost was about $65.00. You can register for the copyright yourself. You don’t need a lawyer to do it.
While a copyright registration isn’t a MUST, it’s a good to do it to protect yourself in case someone else infringes on your copyright.
Here is the video I did for the original Christmas in Bayeux
