It's official!
Posted by jennifer gibson on Friday, August 24, 2012
My first novel, Sway, is now available worldwide in paperback format! Can you believe it? Amazing!
After nearly four years of writing three books in this series, sending out lots of queries in search for a publisher across Canada and the USA, creating the covers, obtaining the ISBN, dealing with the online bookstores, as well doing all of the advertising and marketing by myself - it's a nice change to have an actual publisher help me with all of this work this time around.
It's mind boggling just how much work goes into creating these books from start to finish and getting it out there. It doesn't end when I put down the pen; I have to type it all in, edit the book, send it to my Mom who's also a professional editor, make the changes, then send it off to my editors at the publisher's office who edit it even more. During that process, I come up with the cover design, take photographs of the chosen subject matter and produce a theme that will be used throughout the marketing stage. Thankfully I'm a professional illustrator & photographer which makes this process so much easier...and cheaper. However, I do spend money on purchasing the ISBN, copyrights, and book packages. The reviewers read the books and submit their thoughts. Once the books are completely finished, it's off to the printers. After several weeks, I submit a large order of the printed books (hint: it's not cheap particularly when shipping it to Canada) and anxiously wait for them arrive. At the same time, my publisher is contacting bookstores all around the world and dealing with heavy duty work at their end.
By the way, while this is all happening, I'm still writing my third novel and going through the official stages of editing the second book from the publisher at the same time. Talk about mentally changing gears!
Then, as this is going on, I produce a sparkling trailer, upload it to YouTube, Facebook and Twitter and promote it like crazy. In the meantime, I'm also contacting local bookstores for book signings, arranging everything months in advance as well hiring a professional caterer for the official book launch in my town. Plus there's a matter of reserving space for the book launch that is suitable for a potentially large crowd, creating an invitation and sending it out, buying oodles of wine glasses, wine, sparkling perrier, and cider (perfect for the Fall). None of this would be possible without the help of my parents who have graciously pitched in to help! Holy cow, talk about being crazy busy just prior to the launch!
Whew!
After nearly four years of writing three books in this series, sending out lots of queries in search for a publisher across Canada and the USA, creating the covers, obtaining the ISBN, dealing with the online bookstores, as well doing all of the advertising and marketing by myself - it's a nice change to have an actual publisher help me with all of this work this time around.
It's mind boggling just how much work goes into creating these books from start to finish and getting it out there. It doesn't end when I put down the pen; I have to type it all in, edit the book, send it to my Mom who's also a professional editor, make the changes, then send it off to my editors at the publisher's office who edit it even more. During that process, I come up with the cover design, take photographs of the chosen subject matter and produce a theme that will be used throughout the marketing stage. Thankfully I'm a professional illustrator & photographer which makes this process so much easier...and cheaper. However, I do spend money on purchasing the ISBN, copyrights, and book packages. The reviewers read the books and submit their thoughts. Once the books are completely finished, it's off to the printers. After several weeks, I submit a large order of the printed books (hint: it's not cheap particularly when shipping it to Canada) and anxiously wait for them arrive. At the same time, my publisher is contacting bookstores all around the world and dealing with heavy duty work at their end.
By the way, while this is all happening, I'm still writing my third novel and going through the official stages of editing the second book from the publisher at the same time. Talk about mentally changing gears!
Then, as this is going on, I produce a sparkling trailer, upload it to YouTube, Facebook and Twitter and promote it like crazy. In the meantime, I'm also contacting local bookstores for book signings, arranging everything months in advance as well hiring a professional caterer for the official book launch in my town. Plus there's a matter of reserving space for the book launch that is suitable for a potentially large crowd, creating an invitation and sending it out, buying oodles of wine glasses, wine, sparkling perrier, and cider (perfect for the Fall). None of this would be possible without the help of my parents who have graciously pitched in to help! Holy cow, talk about being crazy busy just prior to the launch!
Whew!