Stepping Closer

Publishing is hard! I'd never realized just how many things I'd have to do to make sure I'm ready for this! Every time I turn around I'm getting ideas on marketing before publication, marketing after publication, marketing, marketing, marketing! One really great thing is that I'll be publishing through Little Prince Publishing and had some awesome advice on things to do to market my book!! (okay, I realize I used an exclamation point in every one of those sentences, but I feel they were necessary :) )

I knew that marketing would be key in turning this into a success, but I didn't realize how time consuming it is, and will continue to be. I'm still working on edits and I'm trying to sell my book already. I have my Facebook fan page, my book website, my Goodreads' Author page, book trailer, I'm working on an Author website (with a real domain name) and every one of those things is sucking my time away. At least I know it's not going down into some endless abyss. It will pay off, but I need to do even more work on it.

So, as bad as I am at setting goals and following through, I'm giving myself until this weekend to have my edits done. Then I'll be able to get my next proof copy for the beginning of May. I need to get ready for a giveaway on Goodreads and I really need some ARCs for book reviews by the end of May. That gives me a month. To do another round of edits and finalize everything, so I can spend June promoting the launch.

On a very positive note, I finished my book trailer!! Thanks to the amazing generosity of Grindmouth over at DeviantArt.com who let me use a number of her beautiful photographs for the trailer.



Off to edit!

Choices, Choices...

So, I've sent off for my proof copy of Songbird, which was a scary feeling. Each day I get closer to publishing and I realize how little I know about the publishing world. Over he past few days I've been reading blogs and trying to learn everything I can.

Well, yesterday I spent an hour reading a forum about the importance of book covers. I knew they were important, but I don't think I'd really considered how important and what exactly it is that captures the reader's attention. Until yesterday, I was pretty happy with the cover I created using Create Cover. The stock photo was pretty and soothing, just the effect I was going for. But did it really represent my book. The field has a nice mix of colors, but my book takes place in the city.

After long hours last night trying to  figure out my photo program I came up with a new possible cover. All that's left is getting a few opinions.