CP Score! (or Let Me Tell You 'Bout the Old Days)

Tip of the Day: Don't forget to wish Miss Delighted to Debut a Happy Birthday AND Book Birthday on 10/27!

Ah yes, I knew Tina back in the day...back before she had cutie baby #4, before she had an agent in love with her work, before she had a book sale.... But as soon as I read her second WIP, THE ESPRESSOLOGIST, while sitting in my office at my old job, I knew -- I KNEW -- THAT would be The Book of hers to sell first.

Heck, when Tina and I became crit partners, as soon as she "pitched" her idea for THE ESPRESSOLOGIST, I was like, "YES!" So hooky! So clever! So cute! Then she started sending me pages of the novel and I laughed as I read. I begged for more pages. It was such a smooth read, so well plotted and paced. Such great voice. I couldn't stop reading it and remember waiting for Tina's agent offers to roll in after she finished and polished the manuscript.

Then it was there -- multiple agent offers. Then multiple editor offers! I refreshed my hotmail while sitting in my old office, watching the play-by-play and cheering at every step. This book needed to be published -- a bright piece of fun, romantic-comedy amidst the dark and scary vamps and wolves.

And now I'm patting myself on the back bc I was right! THE ESPRESSOLOGIST hits the shelves for all to read on Tuesday -- and I am so glad I was right. Read the book and you'll agree! :)

Order THE ESPRESSOLOGIST from an indy bookstore here!

CONGRATULATIONS, TINA! Hope on Tuesday you party like it's 1999! ;)

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

Three Months Out

Tip of the Day: Back-to-School shopping is exciting (or maybe that's just me) but if you can hold off until after school starts, everything goes on sale a week or two in. (Exp. Target usually has all their backpacks, lunchboxes etc. 50% after labor day.)

I'm three months out now until the release of my first book. Eeeeeee! So I've been trying to figure out what I should be doing at this point to prepare. Here's what I've got:

Meet with publicist. Now is about the time when authors hook up with their publicist and talk about things like interviews, booksignings, events, media (if you're lucky!) etc. I have my first call with my publicist today.

Reviewers. I've also been getting a lot of requests from online bloggers to review my book. I've forwarded these to my publicist as I have no more advance copies to pass out.

Promotional Stuff. It's also time to get some promo items. I'm still deciding what I really want and what I really need. I like the business cards with the book cover on one side and the info on the other that I picked up a couple of weeks ago and I've been handing them out to people when they ask me about my book. I think I'll get more of these because they're so convenient and fit in my wallet. And I've ordered bookmarks (I'll do a separate post on these when they come in. And I might get postcards made. I hear it's a good idea to send post cards to independent bookstores to let them know you have a book coming out.

Think about launch. Do I want to do a signing? A party? An online contest? I need to start thinking about this stuff now.

Start filling out interviews. I'm part of a 40+ person blog tour with the 2009 debs and I've been getting interview requests from bloggers so I really need to get going with answering all these questions.

Web site. Alright, this one is all up to the hubby. He's been working on it though and I'm hoping it'll be cute!

Facebook Fanpage. My publisher set me up with a cute facebook fanpage and it has a great What Coffee Drink are You Quiz that I love. I'm so happy they thought to do this!

And...that's where I'm at. There might be more that I should be doing right now but I'm also working on that new book I mentioned last week (yes, I got back into gear!)

Any suggestions from you professional authors out there? Should I be doing something else at the three month pre-pub mark?

Kristina, Miss Delighted to Debut