For aspiring first time fiction authors I have three general pieces of advice based on this endeavor.

1. Use your favorite generative AI chatbot (mine is Google Gemini Pro) and one term at a time create a detailed prompt where you ask it to investigate the entire internet and all available databases (including foreign organizations) to see if you have any direct conflicts. Use Deep Research – Thinking mode for this be patient while it takes several minutes to finish, each term.

2. Use generalized terms as much as possible. For example, instead of saying XYZ satellite where XYZ could be a proper name or an already trademarked name, just say something general like government satellite and then put a hyphenated number as one example on how to stay safe in general. As an added bonus that makes your book future proof such that if somebody comes along and has a trademark later on after the book is published, or there's a change in nomenclature for the technology describing your fictitious items or service, you've used a general marks and so the age of the book on the market will not be a detractor to the storyline.

3. While a brief consultation with an intellectual property attorney is advised, they are very expensive. It's best if you do your own homework before consulting the lawyer using the US Patent and trademark Office search tool with your key phrases or keywords that are fictitious from your novel. Then after you do step one above - which is work with your favorite chatbot tool for research - go back to US Patent and Trademark Office and double check it to make sure it didn't miss anything.
 

Well, there were unexpected administrative delays and logistical hurdles during the Summer and Fall months.

Today I sent yet a third round of proof corrections for both the manuscript and the front cover. The back cover and spine designs are 100% ready for printing. I tripped up again over using a proper noun/name that may conflict with an established trademark. I remedied that by replacing it with a compound name using generic words.

A total of 11 manuscript corrections and five front and back cover design improvements uploaded to Book Baby this week. I await their reply with the changes. After that I will give the book one more complete read-through, expecting to finalize both manuscript and cover design in February.

Today I uploaded my corrections for both the manuscript and the front/back cover design. The cover design was too simplistic; I provided detailed feedback on how to improve it. The manuscript text was in general typeset and formated in good fashion. That said, I still have 14 pages of corrections; some of the errors are my fault, like the wrong tense of a verb.
 

I waited 3 weeks but the BookBaby.com proofreader did a great job with providing useful notes for overlooked English, spacing, and punctuation mistakes.

Today I finished working those corrections into the manuscript.

Next week I will meet with my Account Consultant to set up the logistics for the BookBaby.com staff to prepare print and ebook -ready proofs.

In an attempt to add realism, authenticity, depth and believability, I inserted real person, real establishment and real trademarks into the story. This even required extra research beyond just making something up.

My Intellectual Property Lawyer takes a conservative approach and advises me to substitute those real-life elements with fictious ones or with generalized descriptors and labels.

So my lesson learned is to save time on my next novel and just make up proper names as much as possible. It is faster than researching real names, saves time in editing, and lowers my chance of objections from outside parties about intellectual property violations.

 

Aim for creating a proof-ready manuscript that is the same format for the print, ebook, and audiobook versions. Readers should not have different experiences based on the medium of their choosing.

#2 The modern novel is at least 80,000 words. My second realization is this: a novella at 45,000 to 60,000 words can also tell a memorable story with a compelling message.

#1 Do not include photos, artwork, schematics, diagrams, drawings, sketches, or anything that is not text or tables. Anything color must be converted to black and white and the printers will warn you that grayscales may print with poor contrast. Printing them in the original color means the whole book is considered a color print, even for the sake of just one image. This will triple the cost of the book.

After much research, I've narrowed down my three choices to Smith Publicity, Black Chateau, and BooksForward. They each have different prospective author engagement procedures.

On November 17, 2023 after years of research and writing, the book manuscript is in the Line Editor’s hands! In the meantime, I am building this website for general book promotion, to update followers with my progress towards an official release date, to entice readers with glimpses into the story line, and to make special announcements about events or giveaways/coupons for the book.