Holidays!! Yay, we
are on holidays!! You know what that
means – yes, we get to have sleep-ins in the morning, and no school lunches,
and no mad rush after school pick up to get to extra-curricular
activities. We can just chill at
home! Read books! Wear pajamas all day! (well I don’t usually
wear my pajamas all day, but my writing clothes are kind of pajama-like:
trackie pants and ugg boots) But first
of all, we’ll have a nice big round of cleaning the house, so it’s in a fit
state for the next few weeks of lazing about and flopping on the couch and so
on.
I celebrated the first weekend of the school hols by going
to Sydney. It was a bit crazy – Friday was
a mega day, with a 4.30am start for the plane, and then a bus trip out to Crow’s
Nest to say hi to the Allen & Unwin crew, before a full afternoon of
touring around bookshops. I met some
lovely booksellers, and signed a lot of copies of Every Word and Every Breath. I even met some fans, and book bloggers, and
had a great – if exhausting – time. I also
bought some awesome books. There were an
awful lot of books I wanted to buy but didn’t – honestly, I was really proud of
myself for being so restrained.
In this blog post I wanted to tell you about the kind of
behind-the-scenes stuff that you don’t think about when a book is
released. You’ve written your Amazing
Manuscript Made of Gold, and then by some strange alchemical process, it gets
turned into a book – a real book, on a real shelf, in a real bookshop. But such a lot of work goes on behind the
scenes to make that happen.
While I was in Sydney, I met a few of the team members that
are involved in the book-alchemy process – Liz, the Head of children’s publishing
at A&U, and Theresa, who sorts out the marketing of my books, and Clare,
the new children’s and YA publicist, who's about to dive into the massive task that Lara, my previous publicist (bless you, Lara!) is moving on from. We
all sat around and ate cake together (such delicious cakes, mmm…), and talked
about Every Word’s reception out in
the real world, and plans for the series as a whole.
They represented a whole super-group of people who put their
energies behind your book as it comes out of its manuscript state - a butterfly
from a cocoon - and into a form that people like to pick up and hold, and
hopefully take home with them. That
super-group is made up of cover designers, marketing boffins, sales reps,
finance managers, advertising organisers, and trend trackers. Without them, the
Every series would just be mouldering away in obscurity on my computer. With
them, the books become something recognisable and real.
A lovely sales rep called Michelle took me by the hand and -
in an amazing display of endurance and people-skills - drove me all over Sydney
to visit bookstores, sign books, and talk to booksellers. That took six
hours, and gave me a lot of insight into the book-selling process, as well
as infinite respect for Michelle, who does this every day. Michelle knew everyone by name, and I
realised that it’s her friendliness and tenacity and book-love that actually helps
get the Every series into shops, and
into readers’ hot little hands. Michelle
and I had a grand time chatting about books, TV (we both lurve Hannibal, and want one of those shirts
that says ‘Someone please help Will!’), and life in general. She was an absolute doll, and mainlined me
coffee when I really needed it. Plus,
she knew every sneaky parking spot in Sydney.
Michelle – respect.
Then there are book bloggers and book tubers, who do an
incredible – and unpaid! – amount of work to review ALL THE BOOKS (so many
books they must surely have trouble keeping up) and create a buzz about them
out in the online world, and by extension the real world. I met Mandee, the Bookish Manicurist, and
Sunny, from A Sunny Spot blog, who amazed me with their zeal. Many online reviewers are young, and holding
down study or other jobs, on top of their blogging/tubing commitments. They do it because they love the books, and
it’s a pretty awe-inspiring effort.
I just thought you’d like to know that a whole lot of work
by many many people goes into the creation of a traditionally published book. It’s not a solo process, at all, and once the
manuscript leaves my hands, it flutters around the offices of heaps of lovely
folks, all of whom have input into bringing the best possible book to you, the
readers. I’d like to say a huge Thank You to everyone who’s played a
part in bringing the Every series to life – such a lot of tireless hard work by
others is involved in bringing my
dream into reality, and I’m immensely grateful. Special thanks to Lara Wallace, who is an amazing publicist and has always been there to hold my hand - Lara, I will miss you!
Okay – a couple more things.
First, the Every Word Goodreads giveaway (see linkie-link at right) is
about to end. More than 580 people have
entered so far, and if you’re quick as a wink, you can too. Good luck!
Second, I’m going to be appearing at Death in July, the women crime writers festival in Ballarat on 4-5th
July. I’m attending the first night
keynote address by my mate (who launched Every
Word), Angela Savage. Then I’ll be
on a panel on Saturday with Simmone Howell and Nansi Kunze, where we’ll get to
talk about YA crime – first panel discussion on this topic that I’ve ever heard
of, so far as I know, so hey, come and check it out - plus a special morning tea launch of Every Word. Here’s a link for bookings - if you’d like to
come along and heckle, I’d love to see you there.
That’s it. I’m gonna
try to update more frequently now I’m on hols, and I think the next post will
be on the Every Word playlist… Until then, have a good week, stay warm (it’s
6 degrees here), and take care!
Xx Ellie
