Waiting For Christmas: Writers Version by Annette Dashofy

Most of us who grew up celebrating Christmas remember the feeling of anticipation as November rolled into December. We knew there were packages with our names on them, but we didn’t know what was inside. 

Unless we peeked, but that’s a topic for another time. 

Assuming we didn’t peek, we knew what we’d asked Santa to bring us. What we didn’t know was if those objects of our youthful desire were inside those colorfully wrapped boxes. 

For those of you reading this who are not authors, imagine that anticipation without knowing what day Christmas fell on. Would we be able to open our presents in mid-December? Late-December? Sometime in January perhaps? 

That, dear readers, is what we writers go through on a regular basis. 

I turned in my manuscript for the third Honeywell mystery in March. Between then and now, I’ve rewritten and revised and corrected according to my editor’s and copyeditor’s recommendations. I was informed that the updated manuscript was approved to be passed along to proofreading. For the first two Honeywell mysteries, I received my title and book cover well ahead of this stage of the process. This time, I’ve been told they’re working on it. That was about a month ago. 

For me, opening that email, clicking on that file, and seeing the image of what my new book will look like stirs all the same emotions as those long-ago Christmas mornings. I know what I’m hoping for (more or less), but I won’t know how the real thing holds up to my wishes until I get that email.

 I just don’t know when I’ll get that email. 

I would be more than a little anxious (maybe they’ve changed their minds and don’t want it), except it’s available for pre-order in the UK, which is where my publisher is located. I looked it up, which is the author equivalent of searching our parents’ favorite hiding spots to see if our gifts are there yet. And this is what I found.

So, no, they haven’t changed their minds, but I still have no clue what the cover looks like or what the title will be. 

And there’s no way to even sneak a peek. 

Fellow Writers Who Kill, do you share my cover anxiety? And readers, are you as eager as we writers to get a first glimpse at the cover of a much-anticipated new book?