Year of Win, Day 28: Out in Blue, Out in Stores!

Happy Friday everyone! Hot enough for you? Today’s high in lovely Dallas is 110. Yes, I think the devil moved to Texas…

On today’s Year of Win, we celebrate my friend, Sarah Gilman. Her new novel, Out in Blue recently released, and I asked her to talk about her journey through the publication process:

Kendra asked me to talk today about preparing for publication and the experience of a book launch. Out in Blue, released on August 2nd, is my debut novel, so I am doing all this for the first time. The process is, in a word, busy!

Preparation for publication started as soon as I signed my contract with Entangled Publishing. My editor, the fabulous Marie Loggia-Kee, read the manuscript and suggested revisions, which were minor except for places where she asked for additional content. After I completed the changes, she read the work a second time, and again I executed the suggested revisions. From there, the manuscript went to the desk of the copy editor, who went over every sentence with a fine tooth comb. Then I went through to approve all of her changes.

We still weren’t done! Next, the publisher formatted the manuscript and I received the galley, the advanced reader copy which reviewers receive. I read the manuscript again, slowly, for the last chance to catch formatting errors and typos. How I don’t have Out in Blue memorized word for word, I can’t imagine!

During this time, we also developed the cover, the series name, the tag line, etc. And as swamped as I felt, my editor and copy editor were doing all these things with several books at once! I stand back in awe.

Once all that was over and done with, we got even busier! My awesome publicist, Roxanne Rhoads (who has several authors to juggle), put together a massive blog tour for the month of August and beyond to promote the release. I’m now in the process of writing all those guest posts and answering many interview questions, all while getting nervous and biting my nails as reviewers announce their verdicts. {I pause my writing of this post to refresh Goodreads. Again.}

Deep breaths.

Above all else, I’m excited and thrilled to be working with Entangled Publishing and seeing my first novel hit the streets. I’m nervous, I’m busy, my inbox has never seen so much action, but this is one of the best experiences of my life.

Pass the coffee.

Thank you so much for having me today, Kendra!

Thanks, Sarah!  I wish you great success with your series and with the release of Out in Blue!

Out in Blue--Entangled Publishing

Review copies available at NetGalley

Out in Blue Trailer