All Blog Posts Tagged '#hopecountdown' (13)

COUNTDOWN TO PUBLICATION: Zero



Release (Control) Day






If I hadn’t witnessed yesterday with my own eyes, I might not believe it happened. But it did, and I’m here to tell you the crazy story. I have to tell it in a fast first draft though, because the laptop I’m working on might not stay charged long enough for me to edit and post it. But I get ahead of myself.



Yesterday was a big marketing day, possibly even bigger than today. It was my last chance before release to let everyone on… Continue

Added by Hope Edelman on September 15, 2009 at 8:35am — 13 Comments

COUNTDOWN TO PUBLICATION: 7 Days





Supersonic Freak-Out Time



Despite the eighteen months it took to write this book, and the nine months of production and marketing that’s occurred since I handed it in, it somehow took me until this week to really get the message that it’s going to be a book. As in, sold in stores. Where people I don’t know will buy it. And then read it. And form opinions about it. And subsequently think they know more… Continue

Added by Hope Edelman on September 8, 2009 at 12:30am — 9 Comments

COUNTDOWN TO PUBLICATION: 14 Days

Finding the Back-Door Approach



What’s an author to do when her book attracts barely any media attention at all? Well, if you’re me, first you sit around for a while trying to second-guess what’s going on.



At first, I was convinced that a book released in April, The Horse Boy, had co-opted my parents-take-troubled-child-to-shaman-in-exotic-country angle in the ever-dwindling media slots for authors. Admittedly, it’s a huge… Continue

Added by Hope Edelman on September 1, 2009 at 10:30am — 12 Comments

COUNTDOWN TO PUBLICATION: 21 Days



The Pre-Pub Event



The first time I saw the phrase “pre-publication tour” was in a New York Times article I came across this past spring. It told about how some publishers are deciding to tour authors ahead of publication instead of afterward, sending them around to meet local bookstore buyers in advance of the pub date in hopes… Continue

Added by Hope Edelman on August 25, 2009 at 12:30am — No Comments

COUNTDOWN TO PUBLICATION: 28 Days

I just spent three straight days inside an airtight safe.



Okay, it wasn’t exactly a safe, but it looked and felt like one: metal, and square, and stuffy. It also had a huge glass window on one side. Inside, there was only an office chair, a music stand, a space-age set of headphones, a couple of water bottles, and a black microphone the size of a dinner plate suspended in the air.



Yes, my friends, it was audiobook time.Three days in a padded, soundproof… Continue

Added by Hope Edelman on August 17, 2009 at 11:00pm — 7 Comments

COUNTDOWN TO PUBLICATION: 35 days

A RAINY DAY IN CHICAGO



It was one of those "what was I thinking?" moments for sure. But we were on a mini vacation, and I didn’t want to stick to a schedule. Plus, it seemed like the kind of thing an author could easily do, a form of spontaneous artistry: walk into a neighborhood bookstore, introduce yourself to the owner or manager, and talk up your new book. Booksellers love meeting authors, everyone always says. So I figured, as long as I was in town, why not stop in… Continue

Added by Hope Edelman on August 11, 2009 at 1:30pm — 5 Comments

COUNTDOWN TO PUBLICATION: 45 days

Fielding the Early Reviews



Kirkus Reviews files first, followed weeks later by Publishers Weekly and Booklist. In between come the advance reader reviews online, the ones that sprout overnight like random mushrooms. And this can be where things get real interesting real fast.



For the most part, online advance reviewers are regular people like you and me, except that most of them aren’t writers. They’re book club leaders, teachers, librarians—anything,… Continue

Added by Hope Edelman on August 2, 2009 at 12:30am — 16 Comments

COUNTDOWN TO PUBLICATION: 55 Days

The sound of screeching brakes echoed up and down the 500 block of Davenport Street this past weekend, when all writing and marketing activity in my house came to a skidding halt. That was the day my summer teaching job began. Despite the amount of multitasking I normally do as a writing mom, I still haven’t figured out how to parent, write and teach at the same time. There’s only so much creative energy to go around, and my kids get at least half of it. When I try to split the remainder… Continue

Added by Hope Edelman on July 23, 2009 at 10:07am — 4 Comments

COUNTDOWN TO PUBLICATION: 64 Days

Where Everybody Knows Your Name



One of the big perks of being a writer is the ability to travel incognito. Unless you're Jodi Picoult or Stephen King, hardly anyone ever recognizes you by name. They might know your book titles, if you’re lucky, but almost never your name and never, ever, your face. Once when I was paying by credit card at a Barnes and Noble in Calabasas, California, the cashier asked to check my I.D., looked up at me to compare my face to the one on my driver's… Continue

Added by Hope Edelman on July 14, 2009 at 10:00pm — 9 Comments

Countdown to Publication: 66 Days

It’s easy to get caught up in pre-publication frenzy, and even easier—at least for me—to succumb to a deluge of self-generated, panic-inducing questions at this time like, Am I doing enough? Am I doing too much? What should I be doing that I’m not doing? What am I doing that I don’t really need to be doing? And—no matter how many resources a publisher is allocating or not allocating—it's all too easy to bemoan, Why isn’t the publisher doing more?



Left unchecked, these… Continue

Added by Hope Edelman on July 12, 2009 at 11:00pm — 4 Comments

COUNTDOWN TO PUBLICATION: 70 DAYS

IMPROVING MY OUTLOOK



I’ve got a totally cataclysmic e-mail meltdown going on over here, the result of a laptop malfunction three weeks ago that I haven’t had time to properly fix. Yes, it’s a sad truth and also a pretty huge problem: I’ve had no access to my web site emails for nearly three weeks. The temporary computer I’m using (until I can afford a brand-new one) already has Outlook configured to a different email address, and I can’t figure out how to reconfigure it myself. At… Continue

Added by Hope Edelman on July 8, 2009 at 11:30pm — 7 Comments

Countdown to Publication: 71 Days

IRREPLACEABLE?



Tonight I went down to Prairie Lights bookstore to hear Stephen Lovely read from his new novel, Irreplaceable. It's the story of the relationship between a young widow; the 34-year-old mother who becomes the recipient of his deceased wife's heart; and the driver of the car that caused the accident. Heavy stuff, yet so beautifully rendered. A large, rapt and appreciative audience filled the entire second floor of the store. You could have heard a pen drop onto… Continue

Added by Hope Edelman on July 7, 2009 at 10:23pm — 10 Comments

Countdown to Publication: 72 Days

TAKING THE LONG WAY AROUND



I’ve been asked to keep a blog here leading up to the publication date of my next book, sort of a combination of personal stories, random musings, and practical advice about marketing, promotion, and writing. The literary version of a NASA countdown, in the hopes that other writers will pick up some useful advice or tips. I’ve got exactly 72 days left until my September 15 pub date, a little less than two and a half months. Ack. It makes me think of a… Continue

Added by Hope Edelman on July 6, 2009 at 9:30pm — 10 Comments

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