Great outbursts of activity as publication date approaches...
- The Cover Reveal will happen on the Facebook page on Sunday night / Monday morning depending on where in the world you are. Go ahead and like the page if you haven't already done so; I'm now utterly shameless about plugging myself!
- Publicists now on board, agreement signed, questionnaire completed, money handed over (gulp) - I had been wavering about it, but the success of my Facebook campaign (see below) has swayed me - people who have never heard of me are at least interested and intrigued enough to investigate and hit the like button - I think this might work...
- I am an author. Yes, I know it's not news, but for the last week and a half I have been (only slightly ostentatiously) carrying around an actual printed copy of my book, and now - after all the toil and tears, I feel like I'm an actual, proper author. I can put the book on my shelf next to the hundreds I have up there, and it doesn't look out of place. I can show it to people and read it in public and generally behave as if it is a real thing, and it feels right; it feels like it's an actual, you know, book.
- I finished proof-reading it again this morning, and I was taken aback by how I felt as I turned the last page. I was gripped by the story; reading it as if I hadn't seen it before (which, given the surgery I performed on the third part just before I sent it off to be printed, I hadn't, not properly) and I felt a little like a proud parent - there they were; my characters, beyond my influence now, ready to go off into the world on their own terms. I feel a little emotional, to be honest. It'll pass
- It'll pass, because I need to get on with the hard work of getting the book in people's hands. My strategy has wavered more times than a particularly wavery thing, but I'm broadly sticking to my plan - ebook version first, which takes the brunt of the publicity effort, then print later, as appropriate. The thing is, I think I'm going to have to make the print copy available more or less from day 1 as well - it'll be really interesting to see what happens there, when I'm not pushing it particularly hard.
One more key thing needs to be done before I can start selling online, though - I need an EIN from the US Revenue Service - this is so I don't pay US tax on anything I sell there. It's apparently easy, but I spent half an hour on hold this morning before I gave up, and I don't feel particularly inclined to try again today. Maybe in the morning...
Oh, and I keep having ideas for the next book, but no time to write them down in. Ah, well; time enough for that, I suppose.
