Happy Friday!

I filled out a survey this week about what happens between getting the offer and the actual publication of the book. It got me thinking about some of the things I didn’t know until after the book was released. So here’s my Five in a Flash list of things that either caused my eyes to open wide or caused me to say, “hmm…”
1. The number of your friends and acquaintances who say they are buying your book compared to the number of your friends and acquaintances who actually do buy your book is not a 1:1 ratio. Not even close. However, the amount of support you receive through your friends’ and acquaintances’ cheerleading efforts is amazing. It will pull you through some low points.

2. Marketing is time consuming even when you’re traditionally published. (I don’t know how self-published people do it.) Yes, I knew there would be marketing; I just had no realistic concept of how much time it takes. You have to carve out time for tweets and posts and answering e-mail every day. You need to find time to come up with some ‘out of the box’ ideas and then to chase down the information needed to see if you can bring them from idea to reality. You need to do this in addition to working your full-time job and writing your next book.

3. No matter how often it occurs, you will always feel thrilled to see your book on a shelf in a bookstore. If it’s face-out, you may just break out in song and dance.

4. Equally exciting is NOT seeing your book at the library, because someone has borrowed it!

5. You will, at times, feel overwhelmed by reviews and worries about sales numbers, but the good news is you will discover a way to deal with it all. You’ll learn to hold the book in your hands and whisper, “How lucky am I?”

Have a fun weekend everyone. If you’re in the Northeast, we are supposed to have WONDERFUL WEATHER! Enjoy it!