Starting the Colt is going to the printer, and the last-minute emails are flying back and forth between myself and my publisher, Janet Muirhead Hill, of Raven Publishing, as we make corrections and suggestions and critique each other's ideas. We both want everything to be just right. I am excited and stressed--so glad it's the weekend and not a hectic work day.

At the same time, marketing has already begun! We are offering a pre-publication ordering discount, so I've been designing mailings as well as changes and additions to my website. Because this is now my second time around, I have greater confidence about what I need to be doing. There is so much more to writing a book than just writing a book!

It's sure exciting to hear kids making frequent comments to me at school about how far they are along in the book, how much they like it, and wondering when the next one will be out. I did a book talk at school, complete with a newspaper reporter who did a nice job with several photos in the paper. Then I did a talk at the middle school for three classes--about 100 kids. Next Saturday I do two talks in Elko, at a bookstore and the library.

Another printing wrinkle...literally. Some books of the second printing turned out to have wrinkles (indentations) on the covers and some had a few blank pages; about a third of the books had to be returned. So many things can go wrong.

I spend hours every week on the internet, finding lists of email or fax contacts for schools and libraries, state by state. Reviews are starting to come in. It's always scary to start reading someone's review of my book, just as it was scary to open that newspaper and see what the article looked like. I don't enjoy being in the spotlight; I felt horribly self-conscious about the article. But so far I have been fortunate in that all my publicity has been positive and tastefully done.

The illustrations are completed and the final editing and proof-reading are in progress. The next step is printing. The Orange Slipknot will be out by Christmas!

As the publication date looms closer, both the publisher and I have started marketing the book. This involves contacting potential buyers as well as making updates to both our websites to facilitate ordering.

Many authors or would-be authors do not realize that writing books requires the author to do a certain amount of publicity and marketing. Even if a large publishing house with a marketing department is handling your book, you need to be as involved as possible, if you want to sell a lot of books.

Writing is only half of being an author. Once you have finished your manuscript, you need to be knowledgeable about how to market your book to publishers. The course I took from the Institute for Children's Literature taught both writing and marketing. Many aspiring authors I have talked to have no idea what to do once they finish their manuscript. There are many books and websites that explain how to find publishers and how to contact them. If you fail to do your homework, randomly select publishers, and do not package your submission in the required manner, you stand very little chance of your manuscript even being looked at, much less published.

Once you have sold your book, you need to help market your book to the public. I have been collecting information on this subject for years and have a file folder of clippings from writers' newsletters and articles. At one point I considered self-publishing through POD (print-on-demand); the author pays anywhere from several hundred to several thousand dollars, and publishes without the benefit of the discriminating eye of an editor. There are many such publishers available, and as I researched them, I found that by using them, I would be 100% responsible for publicity and marketing. To prepare myself for that possibility, I began looking for even more information about how to do that. I learned that even a traditionally-published book will benefit from author involvement in the marketing process.

Many writers hope to become famous; I don't. Being a rather quiet, private type of person, I admit I dread the idea of publicizing myself. But I have also learned over the years that I can do many things I didn't think I could do, or even things I don't want to do. Making a website for my book was the first step, which I already knew how to do and which didn't involve face-to-face publicity. Then I designed and printed out bookmarks to give people I talk to. I found a graphic for the top, used some of the text I already had on my webpage, and printed it on orange paper. I designed some flyers which I posted around town on bulletin boards. These projects were time-consuming, but not scary.

I also did a few book talks at the school where I work. I have collected ideas for book talks to schools and to writers' groups ever since I started writing this book, so it wasn't hard to come up with a book talk format. Getting positive feedback from the kids and teachers was encouraging. It was fun to dress up in cowboy hat, chaps, boots, spurs, and wildrag, display some cowboy tack, and talk about cowboys, as well as read from my book and present some writing exercises. This wasn't scary either, but did make me a little nervous. I used to be extremely shy but over the years, through many opportunities, have developed the ability to speak in front of groups. I hope to be able to do some book talks, but since I work five days a week, I'm not sure if or how that might work out.

Book signings and media interviews are the kinds of things I dread. Instead, I prefer collecting business cards from vendors at horse activities who are interested in carrying my book, or searching the web for contact information for schools and homeschoolers. I will gladly drop by stores and gift shops, locally or wherever I happen to travel, or call librarians, to see if they might like to carry my book. I am glad that my publisher already has an established clientele that is interested in her books. I am glad she knows about marketing and distribution. I'm glad I did not choose to self-publish, taking on the financial risk and the huge burden of selling my book.