Starting the Colt e-book released! In fact it was released a week and a half ago, but I've been so busy--working, going out of town two weekends in a row, getting ready to go out of town, catching up at home after being out of town--that I never even thought to update my blog till today. 

When my publisher emailed me that the e-book was released, I had to think up some ways to publicize it, without actually having a book in my hands! A Facebook announcement was the obvious first choice. I quickly made a few last-minute changes to my website, including the addition of a page where website visitors could read the first chapter. 

Then I got busy with my computer and printer and created a flyer I could post on bulletin boards around town and on my two trips to visit family. For a template, I used a flyer from The Orange Slipknot, swapped out the cover photos and the pertinent information, and tweaked the size and location of my text boxes. I decided to add tear-off strips, formatted from my piano lesson flyers with tear-off strips, with each strip containing the title, my website, and the information "Smashwords/Amazon."

Finally, I created bookmarks, again using the template from the bookmarks I created for my first book. I printed them on photo paper and cut them apart, five on a page. Now I had something to hand to people I talked to. 

The paperback won't be out for a couple more months--should I contact the newspaper now or then? I decided I'd rather give the biggest publicity boost to the paperback, so I'll hold off on that. But I did write up a possible press release. 

As a substitute teacher, I've had fun sharing my publishing journey with the classes I've been in recently. I love to answer their questions, but my favorite comment was: "You don't look like an author." I laughed and agreed, and told them that actually, authors are just regular people, that happen to also write books.

Actually quite a bit has been going on in the "Writer's Corner" of my life--yes, it only is one corner, not the main thing, which is why it takes me so long to get things accomplished. Two big things:

1) As a follow-up on my November blogpost, over the next few months, I contacted an administrator, several teachers, and various resource people in the school district to learn more about the Common Core Standards and how I might incorporate them into my existing Curriculum Unit for The Orange Slipknot. I ended up cutting some of my original material, rewording much of what remained, adding a few new things, and then inserting numbers to indicate which standard was met by each activity. My goal was to finish this by the end of summer, which I did. The second edition will be a great improvement! (It is not yet available.)

2) My second book, Starting the Colt, is in the works and is slated for release this coming spring! I recently finished editing and proof-reading the "page layout" version, in which the pages on my screen actually look like book pages--kind of exciting to get that visual of the finished product. I was amazed, in my editing, at how many things jumped out at me that needed fixed, clarified, or just improved. There was much less editing needed than in The Orange Slipknot, hopefully because I learned so much about writing from that experience that I did a better job in my initial writing of this one. But my publisher will now do further editing before creating the galleys, so I guess that remains to be seen.

Now that those two biggies are behind me, I have two more biggies to tackle. One involves marketing: Every year I contact all the Nevada fourth grade teachers for whom I can find email addresses (a very time-consuming project) to make them aware of The Orange Slipknot-plus-Curriculum Unit as a great social studies tool. The other involves writing: Now that I'm up to speed on the Common Core Curriculum, I need to craft a CU for Starting the Colt. This should take me much less time and work than the first one did.

One of the purposes of this blog has been to demonstrate what is involved in being a writer. First you write and self-edit the manuscript. Then you must market and sell the manuscript; however, I managed to skip this step with my second book, because my original publisher, Raven Publishing, was interested in my sequel. There is much involved in the publishing process--editing, proof-reading, galleys (preliminary unfinished copies), artwork and cover design, deadlines. Then you market and sell the book, which includes flyers, phone calls, emails, presentations, etc. And yes, blogging. Since I procrastinated so badly on my blogging, I am making up for it by posting twice in one day!

Oh yes, and don't forget websites--finding a host and learning your way around their technology, creating and updating your website, then repairing the things you screw up...which I was just reminded of as I tried to post this. In posting my earlier entry today and updating the link on my "janyoungauthor.com" home page, I found I had accidentally wiped out my entire home page. Instead I had somehow uploaded the wrong home page: the one from "jackyoungclinics.com"! I will admit to a few moments of panic as I tried unsuccessfully to get the right page to come up, until I finally figured out what had happened, and got everything back to normal. Sometimes I love playing with websites, but when things don't go right, well...let's just say the problem is not always fixed this easily!

Never count your chickens before they actually hatch. Things do not always go as planned, and I'm sure this won't be the last time...the books that were supposedly "in the mail" to my publisher turned out to be not in the mail, not even printed. So then a last minute change of printer resulted in several more weeks of delay and lost opportunities to sell books at an event and on a trip, but they will actually arrive in a couple of days now.

Meanwhile, I have been distributing flyers and bookmarks and talking up my book. I've used my unplanned extra time to get over being sick, visit grandkids, make my Christmas plans, and work on another writing project. I hope to use my two-week vacation from my job at school to resume work on the sequel to The Orange Slipknot, which I haven't touched in months.

When my books arrive this week, I will spend that evening autographing and stuffing books into prepared mailers which I will take to the post office the next day. Hopefully all prepaid orders will arrive by Christmas! Then I will begin my new job of selling books. I have stores to visit and press releases to send out. I will need to devise a way to keep track of my business transactions. Writers must also become small business managers!