October 2013 to June 2015. Twenty months.
I am repeatedly asked, “Don’t you mean June 2014?” It’s a legitimate question. To understand this better—especially in a world where we’re used to instant everything—we must first calibrate our internal calendars to traditional publishing time . . . something akin to geologic time if you’re not familiar with it.
To bring a novel from its electronic form to a hard-covered, printed product takes far longer than one would expect. But a lot has to happen between the shaking of hands on a book deal to seeing a novel on the shelf—editorial revisions, copy edits, production of Advanced Bound Manuscripts (ABMs), hard cover art work, typesetting, production of Galleys, aka Advanced Reading Copies (ARCs), sales team pitches to booksellers, ARCs to reviewers and magazines, and finally, production.
In my specific case, two more factors come into play. The biggest? My publisher wants to market HOVER as a “summer beach read.” Just like the retail industry, there are established “seasons” in publishing. Booksellers make their buying decisions based on the season. Some major retailers buy their stock nine months in advance of the season in which they intend to sell it. At the time of my book deal in October, many retailers had already purchased what they were going to sell in June.
Secondly, I’m a debut author, and this requires a little more lead time. Think of a locomotive in terms of publicity and platform—it takes an enormous amount of time and effort to get the locomotive out of the train house, on the tracks and in motion. But once the train’s at speed, everything is in place for the next novel. In my case, book two is scheduled for release one year after the first. And, fingers crossed, this will be the pattern for many years to come.
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