Okay... so today I had my first in depth discussion with my editor, so it was really my first chance to get a taste of life on the traditional publishing side. I thought I'd share some of the experience with you.
So, the first thing we talked about was the cover. As a self-publisher you get full control of your cover design. I actually consider that a perk. Right now, I sit here on pins and needles waiting anxiously to see Simon & Schuster's concept of the cover. She kind of eased me into the idea that it's a "romance"- like cover. When you say "romance cover" to me, I picture a half naked woman draped in some kind of scarfy thing, wind-blown hair, and some muscular mandingo type hovering nearby. I don't know if that's what my cover will actually look like, but whatever the outcome, it HAS to be better than what my imagination has conjured up.
Next, she asked me if I had a list of people that I wanted to send the book up. I was like, hold up. Wait! I don't have to send the books out myself? I thought those might come from my author copies. Au contraire mon frere-ette. I will have a publicist that will be assigned to the book who will handle publicity. More than that. They will send out review copies on my behalf and print up galleys. That's a whole lot of different from self-publishing where I would bear the cost of all that stuff myself. And the publicist will actually set up a blog tour near publication time. I had to do that myself as a self-publisher (and I don't think I did it as well as it could've been done).
Soon I will get a log-on for the Simon and Schuster website so that I can set up a webpage on their site...more great PR. They also allow you to use their studios to produce a video which I hope to do as well. It would cost me a pretty penny to do that professionally and the service through the publisher is free to authors (and will ensure I have yet another great reason to roll up to New York!).
The best part about all of this is that it's happening while I'm diligently working on my next novel. Definitely wouldn't have happened as a self-publisher.
So...we'll see how things go on the cover front.
Stay tuned for my next report from the other side where I will discuss...the cover!
Happy to hear, Karla. It must be a relief not to have to contemplate doing everything on your own again. I see you've started posting. Gotta get on that.
ReplyDeleteThat's cool that they're doing so many things for you. I didn't know they'd set up a blog tour and give you access to a studio. Cool. Whatever the case reg. cover, it can't be as bad as the original US cover of Liar, which featured a white girl when they MC is NOT.
ReplyDeleteI hope they come up with a good cover, because the one you already have is so great. They have their work cut out for them.
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