Started editing work on the page proofs of  "Demon Thief". This will be my final work on the book -- once I wrap up editing duties on the proofs, that's it, game over, it'll be ready for printing! Which means this is my final chance to fix anything that isn't working as smoothly as it should be!!! I enjoy the final edit of a book -- it's the closest I ever get to actually reading my own work. I never read a book of mine once it's been printed, but at this stage of the editing, most of the hard work has been (or should be!!) done, so I can go through the book quite quickly, much the way that I do when reading another author's book. At least, that's USUALLY the way ...

Things have changed with "Lord Loss" and "Demon Thief". During "The Saga of Darren Shan", the UK editions of the books came out long before they did anywhere else, because the first book was published in the UK long before it saw life anywhere else in the world. But a few countries have caught up -- Taiwan and Japan, to be specific. And America will start releasing "The Demonata" books before the end of my vampire series there. So these countries all need the books NOW! Translating a book is a lengthy process (if done right), and sometimes my translators can spend a couple of months working on one of my books.

But actually publishing a book is an even lengthier process. The translation is just the start -- the book then has be checked by editors, typeset, proofread ... the jacket and interior design has to be sorted out ... the books have to be physically printed ... In short, if a country like Japan or Taiwan is going to release a translation of an English book at the same time or soon after it's released in its home country, they need to have the book translated several months in advance. That was fine when I was working on "The Saga" -- we simply sent an English copy of each book to them when it was published. But that doesn't work any more. They need to get the books BEFORE they're released over here!!

What all this means is that I sent an unfinished draft of "Demon Thief" to a few of my international publishers a couple of months ago. It wasn't the very final draft, but it was close to it. They've made translations of that, and are now waiting for me to go through the UK proofs, make any last-minute changes or corrections, then forward those changes to them. That means that, while I'm going through the proofs, if I decide to alter a line, I have to stop, make a note of the page and line number, type out what I'm changing and what I've changed it to, then make up a list of all the changes and forward it to my translators when I'm finished!!!!

Sounds complicated? It is!!! But that's just everyday life if you're an author whose books are on sale in different countries at the same time! You have to get used to it, adapt, and get on with things. Of course, if you're an author who only write one book a year (or every 2 or 3 years), it's fine -- you simply make sure the proofs are ready nine months before publication, so that everyone has lots of time to translate them. But when you bring out a book every six months ... well, you don't have that kind of luxury!!!! It's the curse of being prolific. Sometimes I think I should just slow down and only release a book once every five years or so ...

:-)