From Manuscript to Book

As I write this post, Death in the Cards, 2nd edition, was relaunched on April 1, just 3 days ago. I’ll go into the details of the why and how, as this narrative progresses. If you’re interested in reading this spooky and mysterious tale, and I hope you are, you can find it for sale on Amazon here.

Thanks. Now, on with the story …

Once Death was accepted, the first thing to do was come up with a target release date. The publisher and I agreed on a date in late September.

Next, was the front cover. I had some design ideas, and wanted to try to create one of my own. PsychoToxin Press had two or three professional cover designers that they worked with, and I could use that service if I wanted, but the publisher, Christopher, was fine with me doing my own.

I had several Tarot decks so that wasn’t a problem. My boyfriend worked with me to stage the photo shoot, set up the props and background, adjust the lighting, and take the photos. If you’ve seen the cover, you’ll know it has a lit candle with a bloody knife and a few cards. (If you want to see it, click the link above.) We took about a dozen shots from different angles and with different arrangements. We thought they came out great. Christopher did too. He chose his favorite from the bunch and added effects to it, then formatted it for the cover.

In the meantime, he worked on the book format. That sounds simple enough but there were a lot of choices to be made (as we went over in the posts for Lady, Will You Hear Me?). Book size, page color, font, chapter titles, etc. Still, he had a first draft complete in a couple of days. I took two days to review it. The style looked great, but there were a handful of editing glitches that needed to be corrected. I marked-up the copy and sent it back, so he could get the corrected copy ready. We went through three drafts to get a final copy. That was completed on my birthday, July 30.

My next task was to write a blurb for the back cover, an author bio, and the dedication page. Christopher went to work on the full cover, that included the back cover and spine.

On August 1, we talked a little about ARC readers (Advance Reader Copy), used to generate pre-sale reviews. Psychotoxin Press had an ARC team to do reviews for a book launch. I had a few readers of my own who I though might be interested as well.

A few days later, Christopher proposed moving the release date up a couple of weeks, due to some changes with some other releases. He initially proposed September 11, but I didn’t like that for all its connotations, and we agreed on September 12.

A week later, he had the cover ready and we planned for a cover reveal announcement on August 16. I got the proof copy for the cover. It really looked great, but I thought the blurb was too long. I edited that and made it shorter, and he sent me another proof which I liked much better.

At the same time, Christopher decided he wanted to do a signed limited-edition hard-cover. He really believed in Death and wanted to give it every opportunity, and for that I was grateful. We thought a limited edition of twenty-five, numbered and signed would create some interest. He created a book plate template for me to print and sign, and then return to him.

The cover reveal went live as planned on August 16. Christopher was right – it did generate a lot of interest. We got several pre-orders right away for the hard-cover. When the proofs came back for the covers – hard-cover and paperback – from the printer, they were stunning!

I was so thrilled. I think that was the moment when the whole thing became real for me. It was one thing for me to publish my own book, but to have someone else believe in me and my story enough to go through all this work and create such a beautiful book was another whole level. Christopher was a pleasure to work with, and became a good friend.

The next few weeks were busy with pre-launch promotion and marketing. I’ll talk more about that in the next post. By the 11th, we had sold pre-orders for twenty of the twenty-five limited edition hardcovers.

Launch day, September 12, was exciting! Both Psychotoxin Press and I were posting all over social media. There were congratulations all around.

I was damn proud and humbled.

I had a book. I was a published author. A life-long dream continued …

But, now the real work had to begin. For me, writing is a passion, publication is a wonder, and marketing sucks.

What’s next?

Time to sell the books and other dark tales