It’s Publication Day!
Confession: I strategically announced my book would be published “August 2024” without specifying a date.
The reason for this was I just knew there would be setbacks, mistakes to rectify, last-minute tweaks and one very steep learning curve. And boy, was I right!
I originally wanted to post on August 1st. Such a nice, round number and easy to remember. I ordered author-proof copies of the paperback edition and was soon informed by Amazon that it wouldn’t be set up and printed and delivered until August 5th. I was egotistical enough to have the thought “well, it might still be fine to publish. I could just press publish without checking. It’ll probably be fine.” In the end I figured I’d waited SEVEN YEARS to get to this point, so what was a few more days? So, no worries, August 5th still had a nice ring to it. It’s a nice, solid, rounded-out number, after all. Let’s go for August 5th.
At the same time, I ordered a couple of copies from a separate book-printing company and these proofs arrived a lot quicker, the day before August 1st, to be precise. I thought, “sweet, if it’s all okay, I’m still good to push publish on the originally planned date of August 1st.” I was so excited to hold a physical copy of my book. I got my partner to film an unboxing which I proceeded to upload to social media . I expressed my relief in my margins lining up, admiration over the cover and congratulated myself on my font choices (I’m very passionate about font types!)
I received messages of congratulations from friends and family and my dopamine levels were riding high — all that was left was to wait for the author proof copy to arrive from the Amazon store, as this would be where potential readers receive their physical copy from.
The other printed copies sat on my desk, staring at me. Oh, so pretty, I think. I took pictures of them, put them on my book shelf, admiring how they looked in between my ACOTAR and Graceling books. Eventually, out of procrastination and boredom, I picked up a copy and opened it up to the middle and read some of my favourite chapters. Horror of horrors, I notice a typo.
And then another.
And then another.
And then I notice all these odd asterisks at the bottom and tops of pages, full stops flying in space.
How could I have been so utterly PIG-HEADED to think that I could publish a book without actually reading a physical copy to check everything is A-OK? Always, always ALWAYS read over your work. And if this particular experience has taught me anything, it’s that for some reason, words read differently off a page than off a screen.
First lesson for future Estelle: always print out a ‘final manuscript’ and go through it, eyes to paper.
This is when I commence Operation Re-Read My Entire Book Cover To Cover In One Week. And o-ho, boy, did I find a lot of things to fix. It was actually remarkable (and shameful).
One thing that happened by accident that I did not plan, was that I continued reading the book from the middle, where I had initially jumped in for my favourite chapters. I read from the middle to the end, then the beginning to the middle. What I found by doing this was that I had the ending fresh as a daisy in my mind juxtapositioned with the beginning where I was setting up the story for the ending I had just re-read.
And I found that the two didn’t marry up in a way that I could live with. LOL! Call it woes of a creative, I call it a blessing in disguise. I ended up making changes and edits that I strongly stand by to improve the robustness of the narrative.
Fast-forward to the end of the feverish week of re-reading, and I actually felt like I had a stronger manuscript than the one I initially reread thanks to:
2. Second lesson for future Estelle: when you think your book is perfect and done, read the ending first, then read the beginning straight after to see if the story setup was done with the justice it deserves.
So at this point, I was feeling good. Like, Cheshire cat smile, shit-eating grin, Scarface confident to release my story. It was, and I still feel this way: the best product I could put together. I posted on social media that my book is ready to be published then proceeded to upload it to KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing aka the Amazon bookstore back office). I did a fun dance, poured myself some discounted kombucha and had a celebratory bag of chips.
But, oh-o no, Amazon have to review the manuscript before it’s available in the store. And this process, Estelle, can take 24-72 hours!
3. Third lesson for future Estelle: don’t get excited when you push publish, you fool. The powers that be still need to sanction your upload.
Also, now is the ideal time to admit that once I had clicked publish to Amazon and my manuscript was in review, I found not one, but two more typos to fix. Grrr… This was when I learned that I could not make updates to the manuscript that I’d submitted until it was approved, aka, published. So, then it was a race against the clock to keep my eye on the status of my manuscript review and attempt to re-upload my latest edit sans typos and hope no-one purchased in the meantime.
Alas, my own mum was tenacious in her refreshing of Amazon to see when it would be available and ordered a cough Limited Edition of the book, shall we say. Which leads me to my fourth and final lesson:
4. Fourth lesson for future Estelle: don’t say anything to anyone until your book is live and you’re happy.
But, we live and learn, and my word, I learn best by doing — even if the process is riddled with a hundred tiny f*** ups. The Secrets of Sirona is finally available on Amazon as an e-book, paperback or free with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. I am so excited to share the world of Pancara and my characters with everyone and look forward to hearing what you all think!
Happy reading. xxx
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Currently reading:
Glint - Raven Kennedy
Currently listening to:
Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene - Hozier
