Release of my debut book, a Middle Grade fantasy called Away with the Fairies, is just under five weeks away!

June 1st is the day I will finally experience the joy of holding a copy of my newly published book in my hands. I’ve dreamed of this for so long.

All the illustrations—both cover and internal—are done. ISBNs are secured. I carefully examined the file that will become the print version last weekend and made some tweaks. Today I started reviewing the e-Book file. It looks terrific! My book designer, Laura Medeiros is a master of coordinating all the details of formatting and merging the many component parts required to turn a manuscript into a book.

I still need to get the copyrights and review final versions of everything but those tasks are minor compared to everything that is already completed.

Even though it’s not released yet, I’ll be pitching Away with the Fairies and Scribe Hive Publishing at the Lakefly Writers Conference in Oshkosh, Wisconsin next week. Preparing for that conference created a whole new list of urgent “to-dos” that have little to do with writing. Most of them are done. The stickers and magnets and book marks tied to the book are in production; I will pick up the bookmarks tomorrow morning.

Am I still terrified that nobody who doesn’t know me personally will buy it? Absolutely. But now I have the beginnings of a plan to keep that from happening.

I finally acknowledged to myself that I do not have enough knowledge of marketing to do that job on my own. Therefore, I will hire people who are experts to help me—companies who have the contacts and reach that I lack.

Wish me luck in this massive adventure. After the release, I promise to let you know how well (or badly) my marketing efforts worked. 

In the meantime, I will be busy writing the sequel.

~ Leoma