Go Forth and Be Dogged

The pre-publication runway

This Sunday, October 29, 6 PM CT, I’ll be taking part in an online reading for Sunday Salon Chicago with Jimin Han, Alex Wells Shapiro, Taylor Byas and A.S. Coomer. Free event - please register here for the Zoom link.

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A year ago this month my novel in memos Please Be Advised was published by 7.13 Books. Two weeks before Please Be Advised’s release on October 18, the short fiction anthology I edited, Love in the Time of Time’s Up, was published by Tortoise Books (October 4, 2022, coincidentally, was one day before the five-year anniversary of the New York Times story by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey that broke the news of Harvey Weinstein’s decades of sexual predation).

I’ve written about the anthology and Please Be Advised in other posts, and I won’t dive too much into the stories they contain. My focus today is on the logistics of publication, specifically, the timeline for the editing, marketing, and publicity efforts. 

To put this in a larger context, writers and publishers ideally will have finished edits, copy-edits, and proofreading at least six to eight months before a book’s publication date. The longer the runway between preparedness and publication, the better for creating pre-publication buzz (similar to the word “impossibly,” I want to toss “buzz” into a black hole and never see it again, but here I am using it - oy…)

After a book is declared mostly error-free, galleys are printed and sent off to reviewers, literary tastemakers, and booksellers—although for small/indie press authors, sometimes there are no print galleys, or the author has to pay for them and send them out on their own. (Tangentially, Indie Next picks—new titles independent booksellers feature prominently in their stores—are almost always Big Five books because these publishers have sent dozens of bookstores their lead titles—multiple copies of a single title, in some cases. Small presses generally don’t have the resources to send out hundreds of galleys.)

First is the editorial work the writer does with an acquisitions editor. For Please Be Advised, my editor Kurt Baumeister and I did three or four full passes on the manuscript before its layout was done (by Kurt), and the file was sent to Leland Cheuk, 7.13 Books’ editor-in-chief, for transmission to Ingram Spark’s production platform and subsequent galley/ARC (advanced reader copy) printing. Leland also put the book into ebook format around that time.

An excerpt from a PBA memo:

Kurt and I also worked with an artist, Gigi Little, on the cover design during our co-editing, and when the pages were ready to go into galleys, Gigi’s cover was also ready.

A similar trajectory happened with Love in the Time of Time’s Up. Jerry Brennan, Tortoise’s EiC, handled all the layout and design, and he and I conferred on the cover, selecting an image from Shutterstock. 

In both cases, during the editorial process, I queried other writers about providing blurbs. In a few cases, I sent these long-suffering friends and/or writers I admired hard copy files of the books through the mail in lieu of a PDF. (I think most blurbers prefer hard copies. I certainly do, but the convenience of email and its earth-friendliness are estimable.)

The publicist I’d enlisted, Sheryl Johnston, who has worked with me on each of my books, beginning with my first (Portraits of a Few of the People I’ve Made Cry) in 2010, likewise was drafting a press release and contacting potential reviewers and sending out requested galleys when they were ready.

She read each manuscript in draft form and strategized with me about which periodicals, podcasters, and literary influencers to query. My editor Kurt also had media contacts, and through their joint efforts, he and Sheryl were able to interest literary magazine editors, podcasters, and a couple of major market newspapers (Minneapolis Star-Tribune & Chicago Tribune) in providing coverage of Please Be Advised. Love in the Time of Time’s Up was sometimes cross-promoted in these periodicals. (Anthologies, in most cases, are difficult to interest reviewers in, but I was able to do a few author interviews in which Love in the Time of Time’s Up was discussed.)

Sheryl also helped me schedule bookstore events, and several author friends joined me in conversation at these readings—Matthew Specktor, Rachel Swearingen, Colette Sartor, Dana Johnson, Victoria Patterson, Gioia Diliberto, and Scott Spencer (Scott’s local bookstore, Oblong Books, in Rhinebeck, kindly agreed to host Gioia and me, with Scott leading us in conversation).

I did an in-person event with Love in the Time of Time’s Up contributor Roberta Montgomery in Sag Harbor at Canio’s Books too. Roberta’s story “The Sacrament of Brett” is an unforgettable tragicomic imagining of Brett Kavanaugh in the confessional. 

Additionally, I did a few group readings, one at KGB Bar in Manhattan, and a few online, including Sunday Salon Chicago and one with Astrophil Press authors (editor Duncan Barlow, University of South Dakota). My travel for both books wasn’t extensive; I had to cover expenses and focused on cities where I knew enough people to beg and cajole so that at least a handful appeared at the appointed hour.

As any writer who has done more than a couple of readings knows, it’s impossible to guarantee turnout. The launch party in your hometown is probably a good bet for ample attendance, but attendance at other book events, especially in locations where you don’t live or otherwise have strong ties, unless you’re a very well known author, e.g. Stephen King, or a global celebrity, is anyone’s guess. (More about this topic here).

On top of these other marketing and promotional efforts, I did numerous mailings of galleys, bookmarks, and postcards to about 70 independent bookstores, beginning three months before my publication dates. I created these postcards and bookmarks on Canva for free with book jacket images. I then had them printed at a Kinko’s/Fed-Ex store down the block. All told, the 200 bookmarks and 100 postcards cost me about $85. 

I’ll leave you with this sample postcard for the promotion of Please Be Advised. 

Postscript:

The Best American Short Stories 2023 is now in stores! (Series editor Heidi Pitlor, guest editor Min Jin Lee, author of Pachinko and Free Food for Millionaires)