Gretchen Powell's Blog, page 3

On publishing a book

So, let’s forget yesterday’s not-so-secret soft launch, and pretend like this is the very first day you’re seeing an announcement of the book’s release, yes? Oh, and how would I sum up my feelings on the matter, you ask?

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

 

Yeah, I think that pretty much covers it. I have a much longer, more heartfelt, and more elaborate announcement post going on over on my other blog today, so feel free to click over and check that out if you want to be hit face-first with ALL THE FEELINGS. I am not ashamed to admit that I cried multiple times whilst writing the post (okay, I’m a little ashamed), but if you DO go over to read that post, perhaps you’ll understand why I’m choosing to keep this one short and sweet.

 

If you’d like to purchase a copy of the book, just click on over to the Where to Buy page and you have your choice of mediums. It bears noting that the paperback is still being sold through CreateSpace exclusively right now, but in a day or two it should be linked straight to the Amazon page where the Kindle version is residing.

Of course, even with all this excitement (and believe me, there is a LOT of it), things aren’t over yet. I’ve got a buttload of marketing and tracking and reporting and whatnot to tackle over the next few weeks, and then there’s that whole thing about planning the sequel. Phew! Please, PLEASE let me know what you think of the book when you read it. I would absolutely LOVE to hear your thoughts. Most importantly, of course, enjoy!

On soft launches

Hey, wanna know a secret?

Today is actually my super secret (well, not so much anymore, hahaha) soft launch day for Terra! I wanted to make sure that everything was up and running, and that files didn’t get caught up in any technical snafus before the official release tomorrow. See? Look at me, trying to be all responsible and whatnot. Go figure.

Anyway, I tell you this because if you’ve actually been willing to stick with me through this crazy self-publishing journey, I most certainly feel that you deserve first dibs, don’t you? This isn’t being widely publicized, but just in case any of you were simply chomping at the bit, I figured there might be at least one of you who’s interested.

The Kindle version is available on Amazon, and the paperback version is available through CreateSpace. Eventually, both will be available on Amazon, in the same spot, but evidently it takes a little while for everything to sync up. I’ll admit, it is pretty cool to see my very own Amazon product page and everything, so forgive me if I continue nerd out over the next few days.

I’ve also submitted the eBook for both Nook and Kobo, so keep your fingers crossed that those go live later on today! (See? Hence the pre-preparing.) I created a “Where to Buy“ page here on the blog, to keep all the links neat and tidy, too, AND my wonderful graphic designer, Cassie, whipped up some sparkly new badges (check them out/snag one over on the sidebar) as well.

I can’t lie, this honestly all feels a little bit surreal right now. I’ve been working so furiously toward this point (and toward all of tomorrow’s excitement!) for so long, I’m not really sure what I’m going to do with myself now! I guess, for now, I’ll just count on riding the wave of post-release excitement for as long as I can… and save all this sentimental crap for tomorrow.

 

ETA: The Nook version is now available, too! Would’ve been nice for Barnes & Noble to tell me, hahaha.

On release week!

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOGMOMG.

Yeah.

I think that pretty much sums it up.

Release week has arrived! (Well, for those of us who consider the week to start on Sunday, I guess. If you’re one of those weirdos that puts Sunday at the end of the week though, sorry, I guess I’m a little early. Hahahaha.) Needless to say, my heart is pretty much at a constantly elevated rate and my dreams have been even more vivid than usual. Go figure.

Gooooooooodness me, I am just so excited and terrified, I don’t really know what to do with myself! I guess I’ll just leave this post short, so that you all don’t start thinking this process has unhinged me (even though it probably has), and say that I cannot WAIT until Wednesday, and cannot WAIT for you guys to read my book, and start to hear your thoughts. (Sidenote: I literally just realized yesterday that my book release date is 12/12/12. This was not planned, so I feel like I got kinda lucky there, hehe.)

Just as an FYI, the book will be available on Kindle, Nook, and paperback to start with, but I’m going to get it up on Kobo, Apple iBooks, and Google Play as quickly as I can as well.

Wheeeeeeeeee!

On the final countdown

Yes. This is the final countdown. If everything stays on track, we are looking at Terra being released in exactly one (read it, ONE!) week.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Of course, this is barring any technical complications on Amazon/B&N/Kobo/CreateSpace’s parts. And if for any reason, those technical issues (uploading the digital version onto Amazon, CreateSpace approving the interior files, etc) prevent it from happening that day, it’ll be disappointing but it’s certainly not the end of the world. Just one more reason why self-publishing is kinda awesome. And any way you look at it, it’s all pretty damn exciting.

I’m starting to get a little feedback from early readers, too, and I’m blown away by their support. It makes me cry tears of joy and insanity (those are the best kind!) and I cannot WAIT until you all read it, too!

The finish line is in sight! Of course, when I say finish line, I use that term very loosely, since I have another two books planned after this one. (Oh God…)

ONWARD!

On continuing to alienate my real-life friends

Behold! I have created yet another means of annoying my real-life friends… by creating a Facebook author page! Now they have the choice of feeling awkward when they decline the invitation, or getting really, really annoyed at me for pushing yet another means of taking over their newsfeed on them if they accept. It’s win-win!

Lulz.

For those of you who I’m not Facebook friends with (yet!), I invite you to start to get equally annoyed with my pre-book-release excitement by Liking my new author page on Facebook. I also have created a Goodreads page for the book, if you’re a Goodreads member (and if you’re not, you should sign up anyway ’cause it’s an awesome site!). Also, just because I’m already linking to every single social media means out there, feel free to follow me on Twitter, too!

Okay, that’s enough social media highjacking for one day… probably.

On totally not freaking out no not even a little

TYPING. DELETING. CUTTING. PASTING. EDITS. REVISIONS. MICROSOFT WORD.

This has become my life. Waiting with baited breath for my editor extraordinaire to send me snippets of her comments that I eat up like tiny rainbow nuggets (uh, Skittles?), immediately incorporate, then send back to her asking for more comments. Poor, poor Aileen. (Looooove you!)

See, the thing is, I’m still aiming for a December release. It’s official. Well, officially self-imposed. But look! Up at the top of the screen! It’s a bird it’s a plane it’s in writing! And as silly as I know it is to get wrapped up in a deadline that I SET FOR MYSELF, it’s still something I’m desperately striving to meet. Which means I’m just a little bit crazypants right now (well, more than usual, at any rate).

But! Other than the general state of panic that I am living in, things are going well! The revisions of the book continue to make it stronger and better than ever, although in a mildly ironic twist, the experience of editing has meant I’ve actually ended up adding MORE WORDS to the book. About 10,000 more, in fact. Granted, I cut a lot of stuff first, and then rewrote that stuff, and THEN added more, but still. I always imagined editing as taking a giant machete to my hopes and dreams. And it is. But then it’s like wrapping those cuts in fluffy gauze and building the book back up into something even stronger.

See? Imagery. I’m totally a writer.

Of course, at some point, I have to recognize that I need to either be happy enough to publish, or I need to not publish yet. And knowing that I’m the kind of person who could nitpick until Kingdom Come, I’m hoping that it’s the former. But even with my precedence for being extremely impatient and driven by immediate gratification, I will do what’s best for the book. FOR THE GOOD OF THE BOOK. It’s gonna be a thing. There will be rubber bracelets and everything. Still, with every change and every rewrite, I’m happier and happier with the strength of the book overall, even though the story itself hasn’t really changed one iota since finishing. So that’s the good part. The story is the same, it’s just the outlying things, you know, like characters and dialogue and whatnot, that are changing. NBD.

Anyway, this has all pretty much just been one long-winded update on why things aren’t quite ready yet. But soon! And as soon as I’m actually able to forcibly shut myself off from my keyboard, I will be sending the final version over to my copyeditor for a last read-through, to catch all those typos and grammatical errors and places where I just started typing and then forgot to finish my sentence so the line reads, “There was a.” A what? THERE WAS A WHAT?!

I’m so anxious to get a copy out to people to start reading and reviewing, that I may send out a few ARC (advanced review copies) to bloggers and whatnot before the final copyediting is done. People do that, right? I mean, that’s why it’s called an ARC, and not a Totally Perfect Copy? The first step is going to be getting bloggers to even agree to read/review my book in the first place, of course. Baby steps, baby steps.

So! That’s my totally not freaking out or panicking or going crazy or anything update for you all. Doesn’t self-publishing seem like fun?

On shameless self-promotion

Notice anything new in these here parts?

No? Well, just look up, and to the right, and to the right and down a little ways. (Is this some sort of new hokey-pokey?)

The faaaaaabulous Cassie, my graphic designer extraordinaire, has whipped up some badges and a brand spankin’ new banner in anticipation of Terra’s impending release. It’s impending! Whoo-hoo!

She made me a bunch of awesome badges, actually, but the two that are posted are the anticipatory ones. Once the book is actually published (squee!), I’ll replace them with more appropro ones. Feel free to snag one for your own blog, if you feel so inclined. You can just copy/paste the code underneath into a text widget. (No pressure though, of course!)

The second draft is deep in the process of being beta-read (and beta… edited?), and I’m definitely ready to get some more feedback and make any final adjustments, additions, and changes. Publication is getting so close I can taste it!

On revising… and revising… and revising

So, I may have gotten a little ambitious. Back when I revealed the superamazingfantasticawesome cover for Terra, I started talking about how my book would likely be ready for released in mid-November. Weeeell, it’s officially early November now, and that’s not looking likely. Not that I’m complaining, of course. I’ve said from the beginning that I want to do this RIGHT, and I will take as much time as I need to do so. That said, I will admit now that I got just a little too excited.

Dude. Revising is hard.

I complained a lot that writing is hard, back when I was just finishing the actual writing of my first draft, but I will say hands-down that editing is much harder. I’m very lucky that I have a couple of highly skilled friends who are helping me, but it’s still tough-going. However! I can now say that I am proudly finished with my first round of edits! So, my first draft has officially become my second draft, and that is pretty exciting stuff. There’s still quite a bit of copyediting to do, with the additions and changes I’ve made, but when I talk about revisions I’m talking about bigger stuff than comma splices and appropriate US AP style (which, I have learned, I know basically nothing about, hahaha).

I haven’t made any HUGE story changes, but I’ve done a lot of tightening up of the storyline, and flushed out a few things. The word count as it stands now is a little over 73,000 (although at one point during the editing process it went down to 69,000, haha). I think that an early December release may still be a possibility, but I’m not going to get too wrapped up in the timeline right now. My biggest thing is to continue making sure this book is as strong and well-written as possible. Unlike the rest of my life’s endeavors, which I readily admit have been predominantly half-assed, I am taking this book very seriously. I mean, let’s be honest. As a self-publisher, I kind of have to. There are already too many things working against me not to put in 150%.

So! That’s just my little update for right now. While I’ve been working on edits, I’ve also been boning up on my XHTML coding skillz (read: learning how to code from scratch) so that I can properly convert the manuscript into eBook format when the time comes. I’ve also been planning out the interior layout of the trade paperback, and am planning on blogging about both those things in detail soon.

The to-do list is still long, but I’m whittling it down one thing at a time. Now I just have to make sure to keep my enthusiasm in check… urk. I’m just so anxious to get Terra out there for you all to read!

Cover

Terra is still deep in the throes of editing, but over the weekend I finalized my cover and simply couldn’t wait to spill!

I worked with the amazing Cassie Johnston, graphic designer extraordinaire and a good friend of mine — even though we’ve never actually met in real life (yet!). We met through our respective blogs, and it was an instant friendship that only the internet could have made possible. She is incredibly talented, as you’re about to see, and I’m infinitely grateful for her help in making this cover a reality!

Drumroll? No? Too much?

Click the image to view larger, if you like!

Obviously, I am flipping out with excitement over the cover. I just ordered another proof copy of the paperback in order to ensure that the colors come out well in reality and whatnot. With this, we’re one step closer to publication!

Would it be appropriate to squee at this point? Actually, I don’t care. I’m going to do it anyway.

Squeeeeee!

Proof!

Photos by Taylor (Ben Powell Photography)

So… I received my first proof copy of the book. In real, bound, legit-looking paperback.

Ish just got real.

The first draft of my manuscript is still going through heavy editing and revisions right now, but I was getting really antsy without being able to do much, so I decided to order a preliminary copy of the paperback to ensure that A) I liked the book dimensions I chose, and B) I actually know how to format a book properly. So far, so good!

I went with the 6 x 9, primarily because CreateSpace charges production costs by the page. I was originally planning on going with a 5.25 x 8 ratio, but the page count would have been over 360 at that size, which meant I would have had to price the book unfavorably high in order to make even a few measly cents. Fail. I thought that 6 x 9 might be too big, or feel bulky, but I actually really like it! The ratio of height: width is good, and it’s still sleek enough to fit in most purses, I’d say.

The paperback formatting process is actually quite straightforward. CreateSpace converts your Word document, so you just have to make sure everything looks the way you like (and ensure you’ve followed their guidelines in terms of margins and gutter and whatnot). I printed this copy with .75″ margins, but I actually think I’m going to increase them to 1″. Too many words on a page = harder to read. Plus, this proof is only about 250 pages, which at 6 x 9 doesn’t feel particularly impressive. I think I’m going to try to hit closer to the 280 – 290 mark in the end, still staying under 300 (for cost).

I also need to give a little more thought to the interior font. I went with Garamond for this proof, which seems to be a pretty popular choice for YA fiction (Hunger Games and Twilight were both printed in this font). However, Garamond in italic isn’t the best, so I’m a little torn. Preliminary research also suggests Minion as an option, which I like, though the spacing between lines really increases the pagecount. Decisions, decisions. (You can see examples of top suggested print fonts here or here, if you’re curious.)

Regardless of all the little details that may or may not change, I cannot even begin to tell you how thrilling it is to see your words in actual print. My initial reaction was literally, “Whoa.”

I mean, it’s, like, a real book! I still have a long way to go with the edits and revisions (my editors and I have made it about a third of the way through so far), but it’s still pretty damn exciting. And I have an absolutely amazing cover in the works, which is equally, if not more, exciting to see come together as well! So yes, please imagine a flippin’ sweet cover instead of the dinky little placeholder one I whipped up on CreateSpace’s cover designer.

Man, this really is getting… real.

Which now means all the fears that have been roaming around inside my brain are starting to run a little rampant, of course. I have to literally slap myself in the face to stop myself from being too self-deprecating roughly 3x a day.

Confidence, right? Confidence!