I launched the cover reveal and announcement of pre-orders for Magic’s Stealing yesterday, so make sure to check that out if you haven’t already. 🙂
In the meantime, I have ideas for new posts, primarily based on my writing process, though they do include minor spoilers (per usual) for the various stories. Possible topics include “Developing A Magic System – Glass-stone (The Wishing Blade series),” “To Swear or Not to Swear,” “How to Keep Characters Alive Under Dire Circumstances/Using Game-play to Solve a Story Problem (The Multiverse Chronicles),” and “Dealing With Multiple Character Motivations in a Scene (The Wishing Blade series).” Let me know if any of them stand out to you that I should write first.
For now, though, I thought I’d go over my publishing process from the past couple days. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Last couple days:
- Marked up paper manuscript of Magic’s Stealing. Input changes into ebook file.
- Added the table of contents and platform-specific adjustments to each file.
- Quickly proofed both files with their table 0f contents on my Kindle.
- Uploaded files to Smashwords and Kindle (and discovered that if you have the final file ready, you can set the pre-order for only a couple days away).
- Checked that those files uploaded properly the next day.
- Added the book to Goodreads.
- Changed my accounts to have new author photo.
- Updated the main Infinitas Publishing website with the new book cover, blurb and links. Corrected Battle Decks name, and added a blog post.
- Tweeted the pre-order announcement from the publisher account (which is specifically meant for announcements).
- Prepared a blog post announcing pre-orders and revealed cover. (Thank you to everyone who shared the post! I appreciate it. 😀 )
- Responded to tweets.
- Sent email to potential reviewer and cover reveal/book launch blogger.
- Sent emails to beta readers to offer a thank-you copy of the final ebook.
- Wrote up this list to help me keep track of what I’ve done thus far.
Up next:
- Complete book cover assignments from separate project (I’m really glad I got through most of those before trying to launch Magic’s Stealing).
- Update author photo on Author Central for non-US countries, since they have separate web logins.
- Research potential reviewers and make contact.
- Continue editing The Multiverse Chronicles episodes. Isaac is getting well ahead of me in getting the rough draft written.
- Start writing The Shadow War (I have the first portion written in rough form, but I already know there’s a few big changes I need to make before continuing).
- Take a break every now and then. Probably in the form of role-playing one of my favorite characters in the current campaign with Isaac. (Side note: It will be a while before that particular story gets written. It’s highly convoluted… which is what happens when dealing with a super-powerful fourthwaller. *Ahem.*)
That’s the plan. I hope you enjoyed this post. 🙂 Have you had any experiences with preparations for releasing a book?
Stephanie Flint - Author and Artist 
Ooo, I vote To Swear or Not to Swear! Love idea writing about your writing process. It’s something other writers can relate to and goodness knows we all love to gush about our work. 🙂 You’ve been so busy! I applaud you. I’m currently in a program for book publishing and a bunch of my Ooligan Press friends are preparing for the release of their books! (I’m doing an event so my preparation process is a little bit different than theirs.) It’s such an amazing process though and I look forward to hearing more of yours!
I shall keep that topic in mind, then. 🙂
My plan is to try to get a few of these written tomorrow, that way I have them ready to post on my usual dates, even when I’m busy with work. I’m glad you can relate to the posts. I have a lot of fun going into detail about the process and how I work through the various scenes (and you’re right… we love to gush about our work). That’s awesome that you’re in a program for book publishing. I didn’t even realize there were publishing degrees until earlier this year. While in college, I didn’t work much with the press on campus because they were strictly involved in literary fiction, which wasn’t really my interest. Though, there was an on-campus student publication that I published a couple short stories through. I’m not sure why I never tried to get involved behind-the-scenes with that publication, though, since they allowed for a wider range of submissions.
I hope your event goes well, and that your friends’ book releases go well, too. 🙂
Definitely! (Also, that’s a brilliant idea, writing them early. I might steal that.) Yeah, it seems like you have fun doing the work and really that’s all that matters in the end, right? Having fun, getting our stories out there, connecting with others. I hadn’t realized it either until I actively went looking for them a year or so after undergrad. I’m psyched that I’m in this particular program because there’s lots of hands-on things we have to take care of (it’s a student-run press!). If you’re interested in the behind-the-scenes stuff, maybe consider volunteering for a local press? It might give you connections you might not’ve had before and allow you the inside look of how non-indie publishing works. Thanks! My event isn’t until January so I have some time. 🙂
Yes… scheduling early is quite handy (when I actually remember to do so). I’ve been brainstorming ideas for the To Swear or Not To Swear post, so you should see that coming soon. 🙂
Indeed, having fun is important. Granted, I also want to make this a livelihood, so I’ve got to pay attention to the business aspects, but having fun is still a key ingredient.
Awesome that you have a student run press to work with. The college I went to had a student publication, though it’s circulation was pretty much just the college, and I think they had limited funds, but they also had a much larger literary journal that the professors managed but had students working under them. I thought about asking to work with them a couple times, but since I didn’t have much interest in literary work, I doubted I would be particularly helpful (and I suspected that I’d drive both myself and my professors nuts if I tried to read through the slush pile). Still, I sometimes wonder if it would have been beneficial. I’ve done cover art work for a couple small presses, and even that has given me some valuable behind the scenes glimpses. So I can certainly see the value behind volunteering for a press when you have one available. 🙂
January’s a nice ways away (though I seem to remember time flying fast when I was in college). I’m glad you’ve found a program that’s helpful for you. That’s really awesome. 🙂
Thanks! It’s been an awesome experience thus far. Though this will my final year in graduate school, so perhaps it’ll be a bit more stressful as well. 🙂
I haven’t been in graduate school, but my husband has. Did seem like it got busier, but that may depend on the program. Hopefully yours won’t be too stressful. 🙂