How Do I Celebrate A Book Release?
How do I celebrate when one of my books releases? I put on a slinky dress, round up my posse, and go out on the town to an exclusive club for dinner and dancing. The paparazzi takes all sorts of pictures of us, because we are enviably glamorous. We then take off to a private dungeon club where we have all sorts of kinky fun until dawn. At which point we pour ourselves into a limo and our chauffeur, the enigmatic and sexy Kurt Brawn, puts us safely to bed.
Isn’t that how all authors do it? Yeah. The same way Rick Castle of TV’s Castle, Temperance Brennan of Bones and Tim McGee of NCIS manage to be mega-bestselling authors (seemingly without effort) while succeeding at being an international playboy, a top-rated forensic scientist and a dedicated NCIS agent, respectively. All of whom fight crime practically 24/7. Oh, and they look REALLY good and put together while doing it.
Seriously, this is a question I’ve been asked quite a bit over the years. You want to guess the number one way I celebrate finishing a book? Brace yourselves – it’s dirty.
VERY dirty. Because it usually hasn’t been cleaned in over a month, as I’ve been on a marathon of final edit rounds, which involves coordination with critique partners, fact checks, consultation with experts, and countless detailed readings of the final manuscript. Yep, you called it. The number one way I celebrate a new release is cleaning my house. It’s a way to clean my mind and re-set before moving on to the next project. Sometimes I also celebrate with a shower, because I’ve had deadlines where there was no time for personal hygiene during the last several days of completing the book. Even the dogs wouldn’t sleep with me. Sexy, right? Lol
However, I should clarify the above. This cleansing ritual is more of a celebration of the COMPLETION of the book than of the actual release day. With my self-published works, the finish date and release dates are closer together than when I go through a third-party publisher, but even with self-published titles, I’ve usually turned the book over to my husband for preparation about a month ahead of time. Well, okay, optimally a month ahead of time. I’m a terrible perfectionist, so will come up with plenty of “oh, I just noticed this, can we change it?” requests that make him want to snarl like a bear. I’m getting better at meeting that month ahead of time deadline, though. Really. Ahem.
Back to my point and turning away from my husband’s dubious frowny look. By the time a book release date happens, I’m well launched into writing the next book, so most of my celebrating on release day has to do with promotional efforts – social media notices, FB release parties, et cetera, so the real “celebration” (aka house cleaning) happened a little bit before that. It doesn’t make me any less excited to see it go LIVE, though. That’s ALWAYS a thrill. It just means I’m usually doing my fist pump and happy dance as a quick pause during the normal writing day.
Do I do anything else to celebrate book completion? Well, yeah, I admit, I do. First comes the house cleaning, before the CDC condemns the structure and/or my animals prove to me it needs cleaning by tearing things up and adding to it. Yes, they will do that. Even dogs and cats have their threshold for filth. It seems to correlate to the dust bunnies being bigger than them and made up of just as much biological material. However, after the house is shiny and clean (or shiny and clean by my standards, not June Cleaver’s), I do have other ways I celebrate.
I will usually take 24-48 hours “off” from anything writing related. If JD Robb has a new In Death book out in paperback, I often reward myself with that title, or another “escape” book I have waiting as my personal stroke for all my hard work. This time I had two of them – The Will by Kristen Ashley and Breaking Free by Cherise Sinclair, both fabulous reads. I'll be posting a review of them soon.
If I had to paint a picture of my most favorite way to celebrate the completion of the book, it would look like this. A full, uninterrupted afternoon of reading on my back screen porch. I’m surrounded by my dogs and cats, and I have a Hershey bar (plain chocolate, the thin standard kind, not the block bar), a Cherry Coke Zero and a cup of original Wheat Thins at my elbow. This lazy afternoon would be punctuated by frequent visits from my husband (if he’s sucked into the gaming world) or his continuous company (if he’s not) to smile at me, talk and laugh, and hand out kisses. Lots of kisses.
If I manage to score a nap with him curled around me, that’s pure heaven. Quiet celebrations are the best kind! It may not be ultra glamorous, but it’s the best way I know to close the book and send my characters on their way toward their happily-ever-after.
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So I’m sure you guessed my idea for today’s post was spurred by the fact I had a release this week. Worth the Wait came out Tuesday. You can check out the excerpt, buy links and blurb here - http://storywitch.com/book-nod-wtw. Oh, and if you haven’t heard, Cherise Sinclair has a new one out as well – Protecting His Own, the continuation of Beth and Nolan’s story from Breaking Free, Book 3 of the Masters of Shadowlands I mentioned above. I can’t wait to read it! (Actually, I already stole time for a few chapters when I should have been working – wink.) Happy reading to all, whatever your current book pleasure.
