RedHotRomance

Okay, so a few days ago I finally wrote "the end" on the latest novella in my Wolf Tales series, and as much as I felt like celebrating, I have to realize that writing "the end" is merely the first step on a very long road. Once finished, I reread the story and did some minor revisions, then I sent it off to my "village," a wonderful group of readers, all either published authors or editors, who are currently finding lots of ways to tell me, nicely, that my writing sucks. I'll take their comments and revise as needed, print the manuscript out and mail it to my editor at Kensington. The end? Not quite. Next I'll receive a nice little package in the mail filled with copy edits which will most likely need to be dealt with on the run and overnighted back to New York. All through? Not hardly. Galley proofs will show up, again most likely by overnight FedEx with instructions to proof and return within half an hour...well, not quite that fast, but damned close. Finally. Sigh of relief, right? NO WAY! It's time to check on promotion! Is the ad for RT ready? Got the mailings done for booksellers? How about those online chats lined up with readers? Almost ready to take a breather when you look at the calendar and realize the proposal for the new novel is due in two days and the deadline on the next book is less than a month away. Point being...there is no end in sight, which is a good thing and a bad thing...and one more example of being careful what you wish for. (VBG) My question being, did any of you who are now published authors have any idea how much work went into a manuscript AFTER you wrote "the end?" I didn't have a clue.