Delia's Publishing Doc (Part 3: general advice)
My personal Do's and Don'ts for publishing.
Here’s the final section of my publishing doc. Part 1, which addressed FAQs, is also published here on Deez Links, as is Part 2, which includes my psycho spreadsheets. You can read it on Deez Links or in Google Doc form! idc!! Interesting content strategy going here as you see.
Anyway, hope it’s all been helpful—and authors, feel free to leave your own hard-won advice in the comments! —D
Delia’s Publishing Doc Part 3: General Advice
Absolutely, definitely throw a party for your book launch! To be fair, you will probably have to fund it yourself, but it’s a worthy way to celebrate your accomplishments on your own terms and to have something to look forward to.
Related: Do NOT throw said party the specific night before the book comes out, lest you want to be hungover all day. Or so I’ve been told. Sounds like that would suck, super glad it was not me who made that choice.
Whether or not you have a party, you don’t have to do a reading at a book store as your launch event; all the cool book events, you’ve probably noticed, are being hosted in interesting venues lately. (Connections with venue owners and bar owners come in reaaaaally handy here). If you do want to do a thing with a bookstore, you should ask around to find out which ones in your area are easiest to work with. I’ve heard of some bookstores that give you a tight 90 minutes in the space and then kick you out ASAP; it can feel very business-like and not that celebratory. Also, some bookstores prefer to work with writers who have a standing relationship with them, AKA like you’ve actually bought books from there more than once.
On the reading itself: I only learned much later that you’re *not* supposed to read the first pages as your excerpt of choice when you have a reading, but I kind of quibble with this wisdom, because I kind of find it boring when the author has to set up the context first. Do whatever you want re: this!
Did you know that when you are asked to sign your book, you’re also traditionally supposed to sign it on this particular page (and to cross out your printed name):
I did not know this tradition for most of my book promotion and decided I wanted to sign the dedication page, because I thought it would be cute for it to say “For my mother and father, of course…and you! Xoxo delia”. So I think tbh you can do whatever you want, but now you know.
^^Also that is obviously not my signature lol but lately I have been so paranoid about my opsec that it’s come to this…what are we even supposed to be putting out on the internet anymore……..When you get your book deal, I seriously recommend finding a reliable accountant (ask friends/other creatives) who can help you decide what to write off as business expenses for that tax year (and every year to follow, tbh) if you aren’t a freelancer with an established tax strategy already. Talk to a few before you decide on going with one. Some accountants are going to be more……………..
shadyinterpretive than others. You can decide what you’re comfortable with. Speaking of which…DO NOT FORGET TO SAVE A GOOD CHUNK OF YOUR BOOK PAYMENTS FOR TAXES!! Put at least at least 25% of that shit in an Ally savings account as soon as it hits your bank my dear beloved, and do not touch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Be a little bit prepared for your personal life to dramatically fall apart around the time of your book’s publication, or at least to feel like it is. It’s a Newtonian law of physics! Think of your book pub time as like one giant PMS month. Everything will feel raw and emotional, and it’s probably fine even if it DOESN’T FEEL FINE.
To that effect: Before the book comes out, be extremely honest and direct with the loved ones in your life (family, friends, etc.) about how you would like to be supported during this chaotic and emotional time. (I.e. “I would really like you to travel to New York to attend this launch event if feasible, and it would mean the world if you stayed until the end of the night please.”) You will assume a lot can go unspoken, but do not risk playing mind games / having miscommunication about something this important to you. Of course, not everyone can show up for you in exactly the way you’d like, but take note of the ones who try quite hard.
If you want to go on tour, you will likely have to fund it yourself. Your publisher can help you plan events and set up stuff with local bookstores, but for the most part, you are probably on your own. Of course, there’s no rule that says you have to do a book tour. (FYI, I only took myself to LA, but my publisher arranged the bookstore event with Skylight). This is also when business expensing come in handy!!
Plan a nice little vacation for yourself to go on a month or two after the book comes out. Or a staycation, but I recommend the lobotomizing effect of some geographic difference.
If you’re feeling a sense of panic/urgency about being age X or at Y point in your career without having published a book yet, you’re absolutely not alone. This is actually the greatest cliche in media, I think lol. But I was just talking to an author last night, and we were like, what people don’t know is that they all want to be the cool hot young thing, but even if you achieve this, the label of being a once-cool hot young thing follows you around for a long time, and it becomes very unhelpful when you get older and want to do more interesting things.
Above all else, I firmly believe you should never ever rush yourself. I think the worst thing you can do in that position is to rush. You should never beat a creative project out of yourself, and you should never punish yourself with strict routines that just make you feel guiltier and more like a “bad artist” than simply one who is going Crock-Pot mode and letting the juices simmer. Let’s be honest. It takes a lot of work, especially if you live in an expensive city like New York, to simply get your life to a place where you can think creatively and inhabit the kind of playful trance obsessive state that a creative project requires (also, maybe it’s not even a novel! Maybe it’s a play or a zine or a sculpture or a song…a novel does NOT have the monopoly on being the only unit of culture worth respecting) (but also, if you’re interested in learning more on accessing this state of play re: creativity, you HAVE to read The Artist’s Way).
If you ask me, as long as you’re paying attention to your life and writing stuff down regularly in notes or your journal at the very least, and otherwise just trying to get shit together for yourself, that is 90 percent part of the process. In my experience, you eventually will get to a point where you’re ready to vomit on the page, and when the time comes, it will come out of you whether you really want it to or not. (yes that is a threat!)If you feel like your agent is not getting your vision/trying to pressure you into writing a book that you don’t want to write, get a new agent! (Not my personal experience at all, but I’ve heard horror stories…)
If your publisher is pushing a kind of racist cover or just a cover you don’t like, you can and should speak up. (also not my experience, but oh the stories I’ve heard…)
Actually, on that note, try to develop some opinions about your book cover before you have that chat with your publisher. They obviously know best, but I kind of wandered into that meeting being like “idk haha” and then wound up being really unhelpful in terms of direction/vision. If the book cover is important to you, take the time to develop some opinions on what you definitely do and don’t like (both equally important). Definitely make a little moodboard, as silly as it might feel.
Do not read your Goodreads or Amazon reviews. You probably think you’re brave enough or creative enough in the self-criticism category already, but I’ll tell you right now, no you’re not. You can ask your agents to screen all of your reviews, or even to go through Goodreads and cherry pick the nice things people say and email those lines to you. Otherwise trust me you 100 percent do NOT need to know what everyone else is saying.
Don’t save the acknowledgements section to write until the last minute. Ideally, you should keep this as a note on your iPhone to add to as you go through the process. Revisit this section often as a way of reminding yourself how many people are in your corner, rooting you on, even if your book is less than perfect. They are already so proud of you :)
Once again, here’s the link to the entire doc. Good luck out there I’m rooting for you!
I am loving this series, Delia. Soo many great things to think about!
Honestly a true angel for doing this.