See How They Hide: Draft to Publication

A lot goes into creating a book

When speaking to writer groups, I’m often asked technical questions about publication — research, editing, production. When I speak to readers, I’m often asked about ideas and my writing process. So I thought I’d give a quick summary of everything that goes into creating a book.

See How They Hide is the 6th Quinn & Costa thriller, on sale January 7, 2025. How did it begin?

Some books take longer than others — both in writing, editing, and production time. For example, mass market originals (like my Angelhart Investigations series) don’t need as long a lead time in production, so I can turn in a manuscript 8-9 months before publication. But books first printed in hardcover, publishers like a full year lead time with the manuscript.

Here’s the calendar for See How They Hide, which will be released in hardcover, ebook, and audio on January 7, 2025:

3.18.23

I submitted my synopsis for the book. I don’t like writing synopses, and I’m not very good at it. I don’t know what’s going to happen, I often don’t know who the bad guy is or what their motivation is. This all comes from writing. Since I don’t plot, what I try to do here is come up with a compelling set-up and strong character arc, and then stay vague with the details. For See How They Hide, I pictured two dead bodies on opposite coasts, killed in the exact same way at about the same time. I didn’t know why and I didn’t know how the victims connected. I already had my team developed, since this is the 6th book in the series, so I focused on the character arc for a new character as well as a couple major plot points for my team. My synopsis was 4 pages single-spaced and my working title was HAVENWOOD.

4.27.23

My editor approved the synopsis. There was no huge rush on this because I was in the middle of revising The Missing Witness (which came out 1.23.24) then writing You’ll Never Find Me released 6.25.24). But I like to get the okay so when I’m ready to write, I’m not chasing down approvals or answering questions. It took me roughly four months to write this book.

12.10.23

I submitted my draft of HAVENWOOD. My manuscripts are generally clean and tight, but not “final” — meaning, I always expect editor revisions and, in fact, want revisions. I could spend months tweaking a manuscript and still miss stuff, so to me, it’s better to turn in a good book and work with my editor to make it as strong as possible. This is how I’ve written 46 books with three different publishers and it works for me.

January, 2024

I can’t find the email, but sometime in January my editor emailed me about a title change for HAVENWOOD. While they liked it, they didn’t feel it had the punch needed for the series. We worked back and forth and came up with SEE HOW THEY HIDE.

3.1.24

My editor returned my manuscript with her notes. This means notes in the manuscript via track changes and comments, and a memo outlining the strengths and weaknesses of the story. This is what I usually refer to as the “developmental” edit. The big picture problems to address so the story is as strong as possible. There were four big issues to address in this book (plus a few little things). The big four were:

• Info dumping in the first two chapters.

• The timeline of Riley Pierce (the main, non-recurring character.) The how/why of her story was confusing because the timeline and her backstory weren’t straightforward in the first draft.

• The development/motivation of the primary villain of the story. Not three-dimensional enough.

• The climax — it was strong but needed more layers/ended too quickly/needed more build-up.

4.4.24

I received the first cover concept for See How They Hide. I really love how they have branded the Quinn & Costa series, especially the last four books. And I loved the basic concept of the cover, but felt the colors were a bit off and while mysterious, was too dark. They said they would tweak.

4.8.24

I turned in my revisions and was very happy with the changes. I streamlined the opening (tightened, deleted a bunch of stuff, and threaded through necessary information later); I fixed all timeline issues for Riley and other characters, as well as expanded Riley’s backstory and conflict; I added flashback scenes to strengthen the villain’s motivation and give them a lot more depth; I fleshed out the climax and took more time and care in building to the ultimate conclusion. Also, I needed to wrap up some threads in the story that I had forgotten about! In the end, I loved how the revisions made the story so much better, and I made a few other changes that I felt were necessary even though my editor was fine with the initial writing. Basically, once I start making any changes to characters, other things need to change, too.

4.22.24

My editor loved the revisions and sent me back line edits. This is slightly different than how my two other editors work (they usually include line edits with the copy edits), but I like this additional step because I think it makes the book cleaner in the end. There were a couple of small queries (sometimes in revisions I make some big changes and then miss places in the manuscript where I need to fix something for consistency.)

5.2.24

I sent back the line edits. I also received the cover copy for the book, made a few small tweaks, and approved it. You can read it here.

5.29.24

I received the copyedits. This is where the copyeditor goes through the manuscript to conform it to house style as well as remind me that while I got A’s in English, I am not a grammar expert, LOL. The CE also queries potential problems (timeline, names, locations, etc.) This is also the last time I can make substantive changes.

6.7.24

I returned the copyedits. Now the book goes to production (well, technically copyediting is part of production, but this is where the book goes to be paginated and proofread by someone who has never seen the book before.)

7.12.24

I received the page proofs. Some people call them galleys, some call them pass pages, I usually call them proofs. The book is in PDF form and the interior designed (chapter headings, etc. I have until July 25 to read and make any final changes. This is the last time I can tweak the book. I print it out — I catch more errors on paper than on a computer screen. While I know there will be a professional proofreader, I will also flag typos/errors. I also go through the book for continuity to make sure I caught everything in the copyedits, and I’ll “tweak” things — my fatal writing flaw is repetition, so I’ll look especially for “echoes” — repeated words or phrases — as well as repeating information the reader already knows.

I also received the final cover the same day. I absolutely love it. The art department totally made it pop. They took off the odd green hue that distracted me and added a bit of sky to give the cover a little light while keeping it bold and mysterious. It went from purple-blue to purple-red and I love the colors. I don’t know if I’m supposed to share the early version, but we’re all friends here, right? Look at them side by side:

The original was good and I was happy with it, but the final really pops with the light coming in from behind and the movement in the water. I really, really love how MIRA has branded this series.

Once I’m done reading/fixing the page proofs, I’m done. The book will be typeset and printed and in the warehouse 4-8 weeks before publication.

One caveat to my above calendar … between the time I submitted the idea for See How They Hide in March of 2023 and today, July 16 2024, I had other projects going on:

• The Missing Witness: revised, worked on copyedits, page proofs for the fifth Quinn & Costa book.

• You’ll Never Find Me: The first Angelhart book: finished writing (I wrote the first 100 pages when I first sold the series idea back in 2022), revised, copyedits, and page proofs.

• Into the Fire: Angelhart novella I wrote a synopsis, wrote the novella (40K words), revised, copyedits, and proofed.

• “A Secret Project” (more later!) wrote between deadlines of other projects

• QC #7: Wrote a synopsis for the next Quinn & Costa book that is due Dec 1, 2024 for a January 2026 publication day.

• Angelhart #2: Last summer I wrote the synopsis, now I’m in the middle of writing the second Angelhart book, which will be out May of 2025. It’s on hold until I finish my page proofs, but I’ll jump back into it this weekend!

• Angelhart novella #2: Wrote a synopsis for the novella that will come out in April 2025 (but I’ll write it after the book.)

A good reminder for writers: when you’re writing two or more books a year, you’ll have to juggle projects depending on deadlines. I write three books a year, so that’s a lot of juggling! But I honestly love what I do, and wouldn’t have it any other way.

Any questions?