Three months to go...

Behind the scenes pre-publication

I’m sitting at the airport at what feels like an obscenely early time about to head to Sydney for some bookish things and to be honest I was going to put today’s newsy in the Too Hard basket - but the traffic stars aligned and I’ve got a moment and I’m determined not to miss another deadline after the panicked rush to get the proofread of The Hummingbird Effect done earlier this week.

The three month countdown to publication has started and - gee - that feels like an AGE and also a blink of the eye and even though this isn’t my first rodeo I’m still googling ‘what should I be doing three months before publication day’. So, for what it’s worth - here is what’s happening behind the scenes.

A photo of my beloved late Grandpa keeping watch over the proofread on my laptop.

What I’m doing

• Asking for endorsements: The ARCs (Advanced Reading Copies) have been sent out to authors I’d asked (awkwardly and with lots of ‘no worried if you can’t’ sentiment) to read and possibly endorse an early version. I’ve started receiving messages and lovely words and each one is thrilling. That, of course, doesn’t stop the anxious feels that people are just being nice OR the daily worry that the authors I haven’t heard from don’t like it at all! These feels go with the territory. I’m trying to keep busy and forget that it’s out there at all!