What to Do When You Have a New Book Out

57º ~ rainy days, cloud cover, trees beginning to turn to gold, red, and brown


Several times I've said how grateful I am that I had the experiences of Blood Almanac in my back pocket as The Girlhood Book of Prairie Myths came out.  BA came out before I had a "web presence,"and it came out in May/June of 2006, meaning at the end of the spring semester so that I had several months to focus on having a new book out.

News of The Girlhood Book arrived just as one wickedly over-committed semester kicked off. The actual copies arrived right after midterms of the same semester.  What follows are some of the things I did to both bring the book to fruition and since it landed on my front porch.

1.  Proofed a) the text file one last time before layout and b) galleys of the finished layout, paying careful attention to the acknowledgments page on top of the poems.
2.  Collected an email list of contacts so that Richard Krawiec could send out an offer for pre-order. (Silly me, I should have had this list going in an Excel file all along.)
3.  Looked at cover images provided by RK and made final approval.
4.  Sent RK names for blurbs.
5.  Sent RK names and addresses for review copies.  Here, both RK and I are cautious and only sent to those folks where we thought there was a pretty good chance of a review.
6.  Posted on this blog about the goings on, and tweeted posts, which then showed up on Facebook.
7.  Set up a launch reading at a local venue.
8.  Waited for books to arrive.

I want to take a moment to thank my blurbers: Stuart Dischell (as judge of the contest), Traci Brimhall, and Al Maginess (whose blurb didn't make it on the cover, but I'm grateful just the same).

Since the books have arrived, I've done the following.

1. Posted news of the book's release here and on Facebook.
2. Mailed copies to blurbers with thanks.
3. Responded to a bunch of Facebook posts from folks who pre-ordered and received their copies.
4. Emailed news of the book's arrival to the journal editors for all of the individual poem publications in the book.  Some journals post such news on their websites; some journals ask for review copies. All share the joy.
5. Sold two copies, one in person, one via the post.
6. Created listings for both books in my Etsy Storefront, which was first created when I thought I'd be able to make and sell collages, but I just don't have the time.

Things I still need to do.

1.  Set up readings. Set up readings. Set up readings.

Now, what have I forgotten?  Anyone else out there have items for my to-do list?  Please share!