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Debut Author Book Launch Checklist

April 12, 2024 by Denise M. Colby in category The Writing Journey by Denise Colby tagged as book launch, Debut Author, debut novel, Marketing for Authors

As a new debut author, it’s amazing how once you get the green light to publish, there are so many little details for an author to complete. And quickly. I’m in the process of building a debut author checklist to help me keep track of everything. One is specific to book launch, while the other is for a debut author overall.

blog header with title debut author book launch checklist by denise M. Colby with laptop graphic on right side

I’m sure there are lots of helpful lists out there. I’ve seen many posts and emails related to this over the years. I’ve even taken lots of notes during workshops. But it’s sooo different when you are finally in that moment yourself.

So I’m compiling my own list and would love to have input from all the other authors who are part of this blog. Please share lists you use or your own ideas in the comments below. And keep reading to see if I’m missing anything.

Book Launch Checklist

Your book is being published, and you have a date. Now what? Here’s what I have experienced so far with my first book, When Plans Go Awry, launching June 4, 2024.

Book Cover for Denise M. Colby's Debut novel When Plans Go Awry

Cover design
Announce cover reveal in newsletter and social media
Sign up for some blog interviews close to book launch date
Back cover copy
Send file out to authors to write endorsements
Final edits
Final inside matter – map, dedication page, acknowledgements, author’s note, endorsements, author bio
At the end of the book include a link to sign up for newsletter
Teaser for next book
Galley Proof
Update facebook header with new book cover
Book page on your website
Book page on your publisher website
Book page on GoodReads (and link to author page)
Pull quotes from book to create graphics

Are there other things you do with each book? Since I work full time and my son is getting married the same month my book launches, my husband and I agreed a book launch manager would be beneficial for my first book since I wanted to do an official launch team. Additional tasks for this include:

Recruit people to be a part of book launch team (with google form for signups)
Identify giveaways for book launch members (see my rooster below)
Create content for book launch members to use
Create special content for members

Debut Author Checklist

I’ve been working on this journey a long time and even though I’ve established my website and social media, I’m finding my debut author checklist is long for all the things I still want to do. Of course working on Book 2 is on the list, but there are other things that need to happen so I can maximize this first book launch.

Create an author GoodReads page (this is a bit of a process without an ISBN number, but it is possible. I was able to get this built and link my book page together) Need to have this account use the email that you use for your website
Newsletter set up – build newsletter list
Update website pages where needed (make sure all references to previous book titles or content have been updated)
Create a new updated logo (my son is designing one for me)
Create Amazon Author page
Booksweeps account
Bookbub account
Fictionfinder account
Take new head shots
Post a lot on social media to generate buzz and gain momentum

Again, I’m sure there’s things I’m missing and I would love to learn what others have done or wish they would’ve done in the very beginning. Let’s hear it! Post in the comments below.

All-in-all, I’m enjoying this new stage of my writing journey, even though it’s all new for me and feels a bit never-ending. This year I chose the word grow as my focus word. As you can see from the list above, I am growing in lots of knowledge on how to be a debut author and manage a book launch.

If you are interested in joining my book launch team, I’d love to have you. Sign up on my book launch team google form. And have a chance to win the stuffed rooster.

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Since I’m on a mad crazy deadline and it’s TITANIC time, enjoy these short scenes I recorded from ‘The Runaway Girl’ A Titanic love story

April 11, 2024 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing tagged as bedtime, Boldwood, Boldwood Books, historical fiction, historical romance, Ireland, Queenstown, romance', ship of dreams, stories, story, Titanic

I’m down to the wire, typing madly to finish up SISTERS OF THE RESISTANCE (sequel to SISTERS AT WAR), but every year I commemorate the sinking of the grand ship TITANIC with a post.

So,,, grab a cup of herb tea and a biscuit and listen to me reading short scenes from THE RUNAWAY GIRL on Boldwood Bedtime Stories where we meet Ava before she boarded the TITANIC.

I enjoyed bringing these characters in Queenstown Ireland to life… Enjoy!

Boldwood Bedtime Stories: The RUNAWAY GIRL Introduction

Boldwood Bedtime Stories: The RUNAWAY GIRL Part 1: Queenstown, Ireland Ava needs a place to stay

Boldwood Bedtime Stories: The RUNAWAY GIRL Part 2: Ava ends up in a dosshouse in Queenstown, Ireland

Boldwood Bedtime Stories: The RUNAWAY GIRL Part 3 Ava bargains with Florie Sims at the dosshouse

Boldwood Bedtime Stories: The RUNAWAY GIRL Part 4 Ava fights back against unruly gent in dosshouse

————–

THE RUNAWAY GIRL

Two women hold the keys to his heart. Only one will survive that fateful night…

When Ava O’Reilly is wrongly accused of stealing from her employer, she has no option but to flee Ireland. The law is after her, and she has only one chance at escape – the Titanic.

Aboard the ship of dreams, she runs straight into the arms of Captain ‘Buck’ Blackthorn, a dashing gentleman gambler who promises to be her protector. He is intrigued by her Irish beauty and manages to disguise her as the maid of his good friend, the lovely Countess of Marbury. Little does he realise, that the Countess is also in love with him.

As the fateful night approaches, tragedy strikes further when Ava is separated from Buck, and must make a daring choice that will change her life forever…

A sweeping historical romance set aboard the Titanic, from the author of Her Lost Love (Christmas Once Again).

Praise for Jina Bacarr:

‘A delightful holiday romance that has all the charm of a classic Christmas movie. Christmas Once Again is perfect for anyone who loves a holiday romance brimming with mistletoe, hope, and what ifs.’ Andie Newton, author of The Girl I Left Behind

‘A breathtaking holiday romance that is sure to stay with you long after reading’

‘A mesmerizing holiday romance that is sure to sweep you off your feet and take you away to another place, another time.’

‘A fabulous book you won’t want to miss’

THE RUNAWAY GIRL e-book, print and audio book:

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Encouragement for Writers in Perimenopause by Kitty Bucholtz

April 9, 2024 by Kitty Bucholtz in category It's Worth It by Kitty Bucholtz tagged as It's Worth It, Kitty Bucholtz, Perimenopause

I am having the worst time going through perimenopause. Seriously. It seems I’m angry or stressed or anxious or angry-stressed-anxious almost all the time! A year ago, I finally saw a doctor and started HRT (hormone replacement therapy—bioidentical from plants, not the old stuff from pregnant horses). Things started getting better, and I even wrote in my journal one day that I felt almost 100%.

Then it started sliding downhill again. I’ve been trying to figure out what changed, in my body or my life, to make things feel worse. The best guess my husband and I could come up with was that my doctor changed my prescription around September or October, and that seemed to be around the time I got worse.

But today, minutes before I started typing this, I spoke to another friend going through this and she said since I had Covid in October, it was probably that. I had no idea Covid could compound my symptoms! My friend is a therapist (I can’t remember if she’s a psychologist or something else) and she said, “It’s true. It can make it worse.”

CRAP!

Why am I talking about this? Because around half the people reading this blog post have recently gone through or are going through perimenopause or know someone who is. (Maybe you’re married to someone like me. I’m so sorry. My husband might start a support group.) And if your hormonal changes haven’t been kind to you, you’re not getting much writing done. And if you’re anything like me…that really bothers you.

I don’t know what it is about my personality, but pretty much every really difficult thing I’ve gone through in my life, I process by writing about it in such a way as to help others through it. So that’s what I’m doing again.

I’ve just started outlining Encouragement for Writers in Perimenopause, one of the first books that will come out in my Encouragement for Writers series. Hopefully, it will release later this year. But…the other thing perimenopause seems to steal away, for a while at least, is confidence. This seems true in every field—my architect friend and my actress friend report the same. We’re afraid to get gigs or pursue clients because we’re afraid our brains will be in “brain fog” condition just at the time we need to use them in front of the people who’ve hired us!

Five years ago, just 2019, I couldn’t find very much helpful information online. Mostly I was reading articles by (here I go, being unfairly prejudicial to a group; sorry, but at least I recognize it!)—white, male, American doctors. And nearly everything I read then pretty much said, these are the symptoms and there’s not much you can do, but don’t worry, it’ll go away in five or ten years.

WHAT?!

Talk about making me angry!

Whew…okay…taking a breath now.

But in the last few years, a lot more helpful information has become more easily available (i.e., I found more of it when Googling), mostly written by women who were struggling themselves. I even found two white, male, American doctors on YouTube who were super helpful! (Haha!)

Unfortunately, just like when we were teenagers, everyone is different. There are things that will make a small positive difference for me that might make a huge positive difference for you, and vice versa. And there are SO. MANY. SYMPTOMS. Some of them are really weird—like itchy ears! (I’ve got that, too! Only recently read it’s something enough women have complained about to add it to the list of potential issues.)

If you’re going through this and want more answers, or if you were able to figure out some helpful answers for yourself, please leave a comment and/or email me at kitty @ kittybucholtz .com. Maybe you have some useful information that can go into the book!

I’m determined to help myself and others get through this easier. And I’m doubly determined to help women and men stop being embarrassed to talk about it. We all know that we all went through hormonal changes as teenagers, and everyone accepted it as a normal part of life. We need to look at perimenopause in the same way—it’s just a normal part of life, nothing for any of us to be embarrassed about, and the more we understand it, the easier it will be to deal with it.

Imagine not wondering if your friend, sister, wife, mother, or coworker was considering divorce…or had started to hate her job…or hated your guts for some unknown reason. It’d be a wonderful life if we understood each other a little more.

So of Kitty’s Books

ROMANCING THE PAGES

ADVENTURES OF LEWIS AND CLARK BOXED SET

WELCOME TO LOON LAKE

LOVE AT THE FLUFF AND FOLD

LITTLE MISS LOVESICK

A VERY MERRY SUPERHERO WEDDING

UNEXPECTED SUPERHERO

MY BULLHEADED SUPERHERO VALENTINE

SUPERHERO IN DISGUISE

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New Release: Dark of the Day

April 8, 2024 by marianne h donley in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Spotlight tagged as Carol L Wright, Dark of the Day, Debra H Goldstein, Eclipse Stories, new release, Paula Gail Benson

An anthology of stories to celebrate the April 2024 eclipse in North America. These stories are located in various places and are even of various genres and themes. What they have in common, besides featuring eclipses, are that they are all written by brilliant authors and will all entertain you. Read them before the eclipse, to get into the mood, or after, to nostalgically remember it.

During the darkness, all manner of things can happen. When people are distracted by this spectacular celestial event, criminals can operate unimpeded, they can also be caught.

Trips to see the event can lead to disaster, or they can save the day. And the science of looking at the sun becomes important when a partner strays.

The event can mean many different things to a disaster cult, to drug-dealing Russians, to an artist striving for his grand opus.

It spreads across the country to, maybe, give confirmation to a program to analyze the universe, to give a gift to a mermaid in an abandoned water park, to show what the crazy guy at the fast food place is really like, to help a young girl find her way.

As a not-so-clever crime goes awry, a hike to view the spectacle is interrupted.

Contributors include Cari Dubiel, Katherine Tomlinson, Carol L. Wright, Joseph S. Walker, John Rogers Clark IV, M. K. Waller, Toni Goodyear, Laura Oles, Bridges DelPonte, Eric Beckstrom, Kaye George, Paula Gale Benson, John M. Floyd, Debra H. Goldstein, Michael Bracken, and James A. Hearn.

Purchase Links

DAY OF THE DARK

DARK OF THE DAY

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Marianne H. Donley: Featured Author

April 7, 2024 by marianne h donley in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Featured Author of the Month tagged as anthology, Bethlehem Writers Group, Children's stories, Marianne H. Donley, Once Upon A Time, The Ghost in Grandma's Closet

Marianne H. Donley makes her home in Pennslyvania with her husband, son, and a very very active dog. She is a member of Bethlehem Writers Group, The Charmed Connection, Sisters in Crime, The Guppies and Capital Crimes. When Marianne isn’t working on A Slice of Orange, she might be writing short stories, funny romances, or quirky murder mysteries, but this could be a rumor. She also could be knitting.

ONCE UPON A TIME

Step through our castle doors into a world of imagination!

At long last, the Bethlehem Writers Group, known for its award-winning anthologies, has published a book especially for children. ONCE UPON A TIME is a collection of twenty-one sweet, funny, and yes, strange stories for kids from preschool through middle school.

This anthology is designed to grow with your child.

First, stories such as “GG and Teddy and the Dream Willow” by Will Wright, “The Princess of Booray” by Emily P. W. Murphy, and “A Nutty Adventure” by Judith Mehl, will enchant those who enjoy being read to while sitting on a grown-up’s lap. Others, including “A Harmonious Secret” by Josie Myers, “Bird Boy” by Russell Uhler, and “Bring-Your-Monster-to-School Day” by Kidd Wadsworth, allow young readers to immerse themselves in the fantasy and adventure of reading on their own. Finally, for older kids, such stories as “Book Worm” by Christopher D. Ochs and “Coot” by Anne Hamilton complete the collection with the tween or early teen in mind.

Enjoy these and other entertaining stories from our award-winning authors including: Jeff Baird, Marianne H. Donley, Ralph Hieb, Diane Sismour, Paul Weidknecht, and Carol L. Wright. In addition, we are happy to present “Stick to the Bypathings,” an imaginative fantasy from Eleanor Ingbretson, the winner of the 2016 Bethlehem Writers Roundtable Short Story Award. And charming illustrations from Agy Wilson enhance each story.

All together, this collection will captivate and delight children of all ages—even if they’re grownups!

“Once Upon a Time is a readable treat . . . the perfect book to snuggle up with before bedtime or share over milk and cookies. . . . [S]ure to delight both youngsters and the young at heart.” A. E. Decker, author of Moonfall Mayhem, the highly praised young adult fantasy series.