Hey there, Arrowheads! Can you believe six more months haven’t passed since my last Editing Diaries update for my upcoming release, The Fall?
Instead, it’s only been three months *only halfway hides in shame* and I’ve actually made a good bit of progress. Good bits of progress have been rare as of late, my friends, so let’s talk about this while the moment is still bright! 😀

Editing Round 5 (I think): March 2022

When we last left off, I mentioned that I was reading through The Fall again after implementing some major edits, but still felt that a couple story beats were off and needed to be switched around (mainly the scenes at the 25% and 75% marks). When I finished reading through that round, I went back and fixed those scenes for maximum emotional damage, and rearranged a few other scenes so that the lead up to those changes would make more sense. It involved a lot of detailed maneuvering, but overall, I’m really happy with those changes, and I can’t wait to see what readers think of Emery’s journey in this book!

Editing Round 6 (pretty sure, but idk): April-May 2022

I started what I can halfway safely assume from Goodreads is the sixth round of edits on The Fall on April 30th, and finished that round up on May 16th. There was no terrible reason why it took me that long to get through it… that’s just the way the cookie crumbled.
For this round, I had Microsoft Word read the book to me, and I checked for typos and awkward sentence structure that way. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there were not that many things to fix… unless I was just being a lazy bum and wasn’t paying attention. Could’ve been a bit of both. Who knows.

Intentions for the 7th Round of Edits: June 2022/July 2022

Currently, I’m working on a secret project that I hope will be announced soon (praise the Lord, things are starting to work out again), but in my spare time this month, I’m hoping to go through The Fall with a fine-tooth comb with my Word Search Edit list and edit out crutch words, words I commonly mistype/misspell, and cliche phrases. In the past, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with this round of edits, so prayers for clarity on what to change are greatly appreciated! ❤

Preparing for Publication

I planned to publish The Fall in early October, before my husband and I go on vacation for our first anniversary, but I’m now planning to publish it in early November, to dedicate a little more time to editing. But, Lord willing, this book will be published before 2022 ends. My main goal for this year was to publish two books, and I want to achieve that badly.

I made up a mock cover in Canva to show my cover designer, and I’m excited to start working on that with her soon.
As far as dates for the cover reveal, ARC sign-ups, etc., nothing is set in stone yet. Part of me feels like I’m not preparing well for this release, and part of me could care less. For my past few releases, I was wound up so tight that I forgot to have fun and enjoy the release. For The Fall, while I do plan on doing the basic marketing things, I think I’ve decided to not go overboard or take it too seriously. This is my fifth book, and it’s time I start actually enjoying releases, dang it. So I may just take a more laid-back approach like I did with my debut back in 2017 and see what happens.

For those of you who have completed the early sign-up for my ARC team, thank you! I’m sorry I haven’t sent anything out yet; I typically do that after professional edits, but my editor and I are currently looking at September for those. If you signed up to read book one, The Crush, I may send those out a few weeks ahead of time so you’ll have more time to read them both, but we’ll see.

Thank you for your prayers and patience!

Read Book One, The Crush!

If you’re not interested in joining the ARC/Review team, but would still like to read The Crush on your own time, you can preview the book below and grab a copy for yourself!

Universal Book Link for all Retailers: https://books2read.com/thecrush-theballadofemerybrooks1

Talk to Me, Arrowheads!

If you’re a writer, how is your current WIP going? Are you currently drafting, or editing? Let me know in the comments!

Aim high, stay strong, and always hit your mark.

-Allyson 😀