I hope everyone is staying safe and keeping well. My thoughts go out to all those on the front lines (and their loved ones) putting themselves at risk of infection to help others, and also to anyone who has been affected first hand by the virus. Image by Ryan Richie , via Flickr For some, staying safe at home has meant hitting pause on many of their usual day-to-day activities, and I know that some of my own friends have had to come up with novel ways to keep busy (i.e., entertain themselves) without leaving the house. But, for me, the past few months have passed in a blur as I have raced against the clock to publish my latest book, The Convoluted Key - while at the same time (like many other parents during this Covid-19 pandemic) finding myself unexpectedly and unpreparedly pitched into the role of homeschooling mother and children's personal assistant (and trying to avoid allowing my children's daily dose of screen time to increase by too much). Request an advanc...

You only have one opportunity to create “buzz” about your book, and you don’t want to squander it. The hope is to create enough excitement about your release so that it explodes from the gate. My gate opens—hopefully with a bang—less than three months from now, on January 28. Pre-sales As you can see by the number “14” applied to this monthly post, I’ve already been creating buzz for The Art of Falling for some time now. So much so that every now and then—when people say, “Didn’t that already come out?”—I have to remind them that the bees haven’t already fled the hive! Once you get fully invested readers to pre-order, however, you can stop worrying about that. Now that pre-orders are live and the final copyedits complete, my evolving author website devotes two pages to my novel.  The first  shows the cover, a brief synopsis, trade review praise and blurbs, and—for the first time—debuts the opening chapter. If the reader is favorably impressed, she need d...

Traditional publishers often create a small print run of Advance Reader Copies , or ARCs, in advance of the version it will print for commercial distribution. This edition is clearly marked as an uncorrected copy so that it won’t be confused with the final product. The print above my name:  "Uncorrected Advance Copy • Not for  Sale" But it feels so much like a book—and mine have arrived! Oh, to hold this book in my hand. ARCs are typically made available 3-6 months before publication, often on the longer side for a debut author. The Art of Falling is still seven months out, but Sourcebooks wanted to have copies ready for Book Expo America (BEA) last weekend, since it’s the largest industry trade show in North America. For today’s self-publishers, who are able to finish a manuscript one week, format it the next, and have it for sale online soon thereafter, creating an ARC may simply seem like a way to add considerable time and expense to the book launch process. ...