Taking the Plunge
Ready, set…jump! Setting a big goal can help propel us forward.
When I first saw that a local college was hosting a book festival, I knew I couldn’t miss out on it.
I’ve been wanting to do bookish events for a very long time, and as someone as who has mainly published standalone stories, poems, and chapbooks, I didn’t have enough writing to sell to have a booth. But when I saw the opportunity to be in a local book festival, it lit a fire in my belly that couldn’t be ignored. Not only will I have a booth to display my books, I will get to meet a new community of authors, readers, and other bookish creatives to grow my career, and I will also participate in an author panel and a poetry reading.
The only problem? I haven’t published my novel yet.
But…I have one written and just sitting there. It was once published biweekly as a serial with Mythrill Fiction, but after writing it, I felt I should let it marinate for a while before preparing it for novelization. Now that the marinating is over, I am editing/rewriting and getting it ready for the festival. I have 6 months to get it ready, so I’m feeding the flames to get it all done in time. It’s so exciting though, and this is the push I needed to get my book into the world!
So what are my first steps to get ready for a festival? Let’s take a look!
Step 1: Finish the rewrites
My novel, The Revenant Hunters, is about 53 chapters and very close to 90K words at this point. I thought about some major new rewrites, but it felt too daunting to make these huge changes. So with the advice of my editor, I decided to scrap these huge edits. Why stress when what I have works now?
Now without the added anxiety of major rewrites in a short time frame, I’m feeling much happier about the editing process. My goal is to deliver it to my editor in 3-4 weeks. During edits, I have to stay focused and not get distracted by the shiny new sub calls from anthologies and magazines. That’s going to be hard to do, but I can do it!
Step 2: Find a book cover artist
Because I’m self-publishing, I can do many things myself, like formatting in Vellum, to save time and money. Seriously, if you haven’t used Vellum, I highly recommend it! But the book cover is another aspect of the self-publishing process that I want to leave to the pros, despite being able to make book covers in Canva Pro.
So while I don’t have tons of cash floating around for hiring someone (a kid in college and house renovations add up) I do think I can make monthly payments to a designer to do the cover for me, or find someone who can do a drawing that I can use to make a cover myself. It’s just very important I find someone who won’t use AI for the artwork.
A professional book cover will make sure your book will stand out amongst the sea of mediocre designs.
Step 3: Work with my editor
Another must for me as a self-published author is hiring an editor. The biggest mistake I’ve seen working in the publishing industry is people think they can self-edit to save money.
No. Just…no.
No matter how many times you proof your work, you’re going to miss mistakes you’ve made. And you won’t catch developmental plot issues like readers will so trust me—hire an editor.
If you’re not flush with cash, do like I did and barter with another writer/editor friend who is also writing a novel. It’s a win-win for both of us, as we will both have our books edited without spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars, and we get editing credentials to boot. Not a bad idea, huh?
Step 4: Marketing (ugh)
Another step in my process for book fest prep is better marketing, my least favorite part of being a modern author. I’m not alone either, I think most us writers are natural introverts and not accustomed to tooting our own horns, so to speak. I will need to start generating buzz again for The Revenant Hunters, as it’s been a couple of years since it was published. Since falling out of habit of being on socials, it’s been hard getting back into it, but it’s a necessary evil, right?
I do plan on making the most of time and trying ads, so we will see how that works in the future. I also need to get a newsletter up and running, but that will take some planning to decide my best plan of attack there. So much to do, so little time!
Don’t forget to mosey over to my Published Works page and check out some of my short fiction and poetry for free, and be sure to follow me on socials.
Happy reading and writing!
