I am now able to say, Mik Murdoch, Boy Superhero, is done. At least, all of the writing , revision and proofing. That, of course, just means I have finished another chapter in the road to publication. There are still many, MANY things to do:
- Prepare and send out Advanced Reader Copies (ARC’s) for review (Lorina Stephens is working on that as I type, I am sure);
- Create a book trailer;
- Get publicity for myself and the book;
- Book launch;
- Write the next book in the series.
Am I missing anything? Undoubtably. As I have never done this before, everything is new to me. I am pretty sure I have left a few things out.
So, let’s talk about book trailers for a moment, shall we? Just how does one create a book trailer on a budget of $0 (or as close to it as makes no never mind)? A couple suggestions have already been made to me. What I will be starting with, however, is study and research. I will be looking at as many book trailers as I can find and make notes of what I liked and what I didn’t. Hopefully, that will give me some ideas of what I would like to do. Drop me a line if you have suggestions.
Publicity – I am not known for being a publicity seeker (at least, I don’t think I am), but I do enjoy talking about writing. If you would like to interview me, have a guest post or whatever, drop me a line: author at michellplested dot com.
Book launch – I know that the official launch is scheduled to occur at the “When Words Collide” convention in Calgary in August. What does that mean exactly? Not a clue. Do I need to start saving my pennies (which will soon be extinct in Canada, btw) so I can buy beverages and snacks? More to be determined on that one.
Write the next book in the series – you might expect that to be a no-brainer, right? Even so, I only really started to think about it in the past month or so. Granted, the second book was written a long time ago, but, after everything I learned on the first one, I know I need to rewrite it. I will just add it to the list of everything else, but it will get done. Can’t leave the fans of the first one (fingers crossed that there will be LOTS of those) waiting.
Wish me luck. If you have thoughts, ideas or suggestion (or interview requests), send those my way too.
Thanks and have a great day! š
You may be finished, but I’m still going over the damn galley proofs today. It is an emotional roller coaster for the editor, because on the one hand, every time I find a mistake, I get a “gotcha!” rush for having spotted something that the previous proof readers have all missed; on the other hand, I am always totally embarrassed that I didn’t catch these errors in one of the previous 8 iterations of editing process…. For example, how did we all miss the mention of the dog, two chapters before Mik GETS the dog? Arrgghhh! Even editors get too close to the manuscript after awhile and miss stuff.
But it’s always like this. My favorite example is the Math exam that went out back when I worked for the provincial government that was missing an exponent on one of the questions and therefore had no right answer. When I went back to see how it was missed, 13 different editors had proofed and initialed that page… Or the first edition of Ringworld in which no one noticed Larry Niven had the Earth spinning in the wrong direction…. It’s all just part of the process….
Yeah, I noticed the dog too. I read the scene and did a double-take, asking myself if that character had been introduced yet. I looked again, and of course he hadn’t been. I made note of it too.
That different view of the book made a big difference. I even found a spot where one character changed names mid-story (how the heck did I manage that?). Now, the challenge to you, should you chose to accept it is, tell me which character it was and what was the change? š
Just kidding, I know you will find it. You don’t need me challenging you.