Can you elaborate on the progress bar in regards to individual books and the steps it takes for one to be complete? For instance, as I am writing this, the WoR 6th draft, copyedit, and 2nd proofs are 100% and the Steelheart book 2 is 63%. Can you please explain all these steps that it usually takes to complete a book.
Usually a book is written and edited in stages. If there is no draft number next to the book, you can assume that Brandon is currently writing the frst draft. The first draft is when Brandon sits down with his outline and writes out the whole story. So for instance, when Steelheart Book 2 was at 63%, he had written about 2/3 of the material he had planned on his outline. Second draft is when he goes back and makes the whole thing consistent and fixes things that have come up during the initial draft. Any draft after that Brandon will smooth out the book keeping in mind feedback from his editor, agent, and writing group. Once the final draft is turned in to the publisher and is getting ready to be typeset (which is when a designer puts the final text into a printable form) a copyeditor will read over the book to find typos, grammatical mistakes, etc. The copyedit is sent to the author, who will then have a chance to go over each of the copyeditor’s suggestions and either approve them or “stet” them, which means that the suggested change doesn’t fit with the original intent. The second proofs are the next step, taking into account the copyedit, the author once again having a chance to look over the manuscript one last before it goes to the printer.