November 25th, 2008 | by Jackie Barbosa |
I’m much later getting this post out than I’d hoped to be, but I’m blaming it on my head cold and its propensity for making me brain-dead. (Translation: I forgot!)
So, my first Aphrodisia release, Behind the Red Door, will be released in June of 2009. And that seems like FOREVER from now and very, very soon, all at the same time. It seems like forever because seven months is a while in the scheme of things, especially if (like me) you’re accustomed to the shorter turnaround on e-books. But when you think of all the things that go into getting a book into print, it’s almost overnight.
I’ve found there are a lot of wonderful milestones on the way to a book. The best, of course, is the first: THE CALL. There’s nothing like that moment when your agent or editor first tells you you’ve SOLD. But really, that’s just the beginning. There’s signing the contract (although I must admit, the reading it part isn’t so much fun), getting the email from your editor accepting the manuscript, and even (believe it or not) going through the copy edits.
But of all the milestones I’ve experienced so far since “the call,” none really compares to the moment I saw this:
This is a page from the Kensington catalog for May-August 2009 and it was my first (and so far only) glimpse of my book’s cover. And, even though it’s black and white and low resolutions, I LOVE it. But not only do I love the beautiful cover they’ve designed for me and the rather flattering introduction (yes, I blush easily!), seeing this has made it all seem so real. The call, the contract, the copy edits–they were all “evidence” that this is really happening–but none of them seems as concrete as an actual page in an actual catalog.
My editor tells me he’s sent hard copies of the cover to me and my agent, so I’m hoping to see this in all its full color glory soon. (I am checking my mailbox these days as obsessively as I used to when I was expecting rejection letters, only without the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.)
The next “milestone” will be galleys–when the publisher sends a mocked-up version of the manuscript after it’s been set by the typeseter–and then…it all goes to the print and gets released a few months later!
Can I just say…WOW!
It is too awesome to see your name on that book.
by Emma · November 25th, 2008 at 5:55 pmHow exciting, Jackie!! Congratulations–how fabulous!
by Fedora · November 25th, 2008 at 8:30 pmLove the cover. Can’t wait to see it in full-colour. And I so get when you were talking about the mailbox and rejections letters. I’m still getting used to not expecting them. My days haunting the mailbox like that is over.
Bev
by Beverley · November 25th, 2008 at 9:32 pmI still haunt the mailbox and I don’t really need to these days seeing as almost everything is done by email-but it’s a ‘collect the rejection letters’ habit.
Congrats Jackie, you’re right to savor all these firsts-and Kensington are great on the cover flats, you’ll get plenty!
by Kate Pearce · November 26th, 2008 at 4:01 pmCongrats, Jackie.
by Jane · November 26th, 2008 at 5:20 pmCongrats Jackie!!!
by Danielle A. · November 27th, 2008 at 12:20 amCongrats Jackie!!!
by Justa Flirt · December 9th, 2008 at 10:38 pm