Aaand, of course, I'm kidding. There's nothing compelling to set your heart aflutter about sending your manuscript and particulars in to the Library of Congress (LoC) for filing. It's about as far from Ora hand-twistingly drifting into King Ruel's bedchambers to summon him, or Zoey brushing her fingers against Ocean's palm while passing him a plasma clip, as you can get.
However, that copyright is a critically important part of protecting your investment in the work, folks. Copyright is about standing your I.P., and I don't mean address, ground here. I mean Intellectual Property, a.k.a. that fistful of possibility you hold up against the future, and that sleeps in your work. Cerebral as I can be, I believe in the work. I know that. When an advertiser I'd been looking to work with turned on me with invective, one of my writing mentors once told me, a) they're worried about your technology chops poking holes in them, and b) it hurts you because you believe in the work. Yes, I do. That's why I want so badly to share the book. It matters to me, and that little red engine that powers me. Filing your copyright is like publishing in front of the world. It's anxiety inducing at first... and gets easier with practice. It's well worthwhile. Do that step.
So, what's the hang-up with Cardinal Machines 6? Well, as you may know, I like to move quickly once I'm at the LoC stage. Generally, I'm working on the site blurb, iterating over the cover text, the Author's Note, and setting up for publish in ebook and hardcopy. But... I usually need a cover locked for a lot of this to come together. And... I don't currently have one.
What's up with my (fantastic) cover artist? I don't really know. Is it backlog from dealing with this hectic year? Is she having issues with the software, somewhere? I'm not sure, but will find out. The Cardinal covers aren't particularly demanding from my limited perspective. By that I mean, pound-for-pound, it's more difficult to do a cover for The Folded Earth universe. But I'm not the expert. Who knows what's gumming up the shop? I will check and let you know!
In the meantime, I have jumped into working on The Dead Set series. I don't expect that book to take a tonne of time to complete, in fact. I'm in a Halloween state of mind lately, and cannot wait for #inktober2020! As I close in on the end of the new novel in The Dead Set series, I'm set to write a post that dives into that genre and milieu a little, so expect that to be peppered among goings on with Cardinal!
Which makes me wonder... how many of you would work at Cardinal Machines if you could? Me... after some internal debate? I'm a guarded... yes. Though... I can't say Zoey would necessarily agree.
P.S. Iiiin other news, I should never doubt my artist. I clicked publish, checked my mail, and guess what's already sitting in my Inbox? I have work to do. X)