(Fourth in a series on month-by-month preparations in the year before a book launch. In this case, the book launch is in October 2014. These are some of the things to think about, questions to ask oneself, issues to research in the course of this complex process which these days involves more and more of the author’s time and savvy. Previous posts are here, here, and here.)
Seven to eight months to go:
Tip sheet (Title Information Page)
At this point, the publisher asks for some information to populate the sections of the Title Information Page (TIP sheet) that will then go to the sales reps at the distributor. These will be used to sell the book to various accounts–bookstores, libraries, etc. Each publisher will have a slightly different form and requirements. There are some examples here and here. For She Writes Press, the sections included: sales hook, description, key selling points, audience, author bio, author residence, comparative titles, marketing & publicity highlights, and endorsements. Some of this information also gets fed into databases that populate fields on Amazon and other online book retailers.
Toughest here, for me, was coming up with comparative titles. The SWP preference was for titles that came out in the past three years, in the same categories as my book, with a similar audience, and of course with a good sales history. Not easy. For example, I think readers of Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden, would be drawn to my book and enjoy it, but that one came out back in 1997, which in the publishing world was at least two eras ago. But I did include it, along with more recent titles, such as Teatime for the Firefly, Russian Winter, and The Twentieth Wife.
Final cover design
The designer, publisher and I finalized the cover, with which I am delighted. (See the end of this post for working with a designer.) The designer began concepts for the back cover and spine, which we finalized within a couple of weeks. We included the blurbs (see below) that I received.
Publicist
After a lot of soul-searching, budgeting and general reflection, I finalized my choice of a publicist at this point, finding what I believe is a solid choice from among the various proposals I received, and sticking to a contract that is focused on those areas in which I have the least experience/contacts of my own: print and online reviews, radio, and the book blogosphere. I’m handling social media and the setting up of most local events on my own, and might expand to a Phase 2 with the publicist once I begin to travel.
Social Media
I’m lucky to have a social media expert, Crystal King, as one of my good friends and writing partners. Under her guidance, I made a list of social media tasks/goals. There are lots of posts out there on this, and I’m not in a position to wax eloquent, but this I can say: it’s never too early to get going on social media, or at least on figuring out what one wants to put into social media, and what one wants to avoid.
Lists
I’m a list-y type of gal. Have always been. Lists are how I keep everything organized. My oldest child started copying me, making her own “lists,” scribbling on a pad with a pen, before she could actually write. At this point, I started a mega list. It’s in an Excel file with many tabs, including: balance sheet, expenses, master pre-launch to-do list, month-by-month to-do list, media contacts, marketing ideas, endorsement requests, events, web site changes, and more. To some it might seem a thing of beauty, but others it might horrify. Either way, there’s no denying it: there is A LOT to keep track of, and it gets more and more overwhelming as the launch month approaches. I started populating all these tabs about eight months out (actually, I started putting marketing ideas in a mishmash on one tab about two years earlier), and I go back to this list several times a day. I’d be at a complete loss without it.
Blurbs
Having given my potential endorsers a deadline of March 15th, I checked in with them politely at the end of February, sending them a gentle reminder of the deadline but also giving them a potential out (although I really, really hoped they would not take me up on the latter). One required an extension, to which he assiduously adhered, and by March 15th I received the first two (glowing) blurbs, from Marjan Kamali and Bret Anthony Johnston.
First pages
The publisher sent me my “First Pages,” i.e. the interior pages of the manuscript all designed and laid out as they’d appear in the book itself. My first reaction upon opening up the PDF file was sheer joy at seeing the lovely choice of font and designs for chapter headings, section breaks, etc. The second reaction was one of horror as I realized I was expected to re-read the whole thing, again, for the four hundredth time, to catch any errors. I was very tempted to skip that step, but I am glad I did not, as I caught not only some small typographical errors, but also a couple of more substantial ones, such as the fact that one of my characters knelt to be at his brother’s height, except his brother was 15. That would have made the kneeling character a giant. The error was a remnant of an older draft, in which the brother was a little boy, not a 15 year old.
Random bits:
Little, random thoughts started popping into my head at odd moments. I started dropping those into Evernote (as I always have access to the program on my phone), then adding them to my various lists: look into credit card readers for my phone, open a separate bank account (or not? Should I? Need to figure this out!), consider a P.O box to use as an address with a MailChimp account (MailChimp? Constant Contact? iContact? Which one? Need to figure this out!), etc. More and more to add to the lists.
