The reception of the book in the blogging world and online blew me away. In the first week of release, it ranked in the top 100 on Amazon. I was excited and thrilled to say the least. It has continued to pop up in the top 100 in Kindle books for children’s dragon stories two more times. Today being the most recent of those events. Not only was it in the top 100, it was two places above LRW Lee’s second Andy Smithson book! I have found Ms. Lee to be a wonderful woman who has encouraged me in my path as an author. She was the first to congratulate me on the official release of Dragon’s Future. So, to be ranked alongside her work was flabbergasting. To have Dragon’s Future nominated and accepted into the Cybils awards was even more mind-boggling.

Dragon’s Future not only was warmly welcomed out in the world, but it has been greeted with excitement in my local community. My local library had me do a book reading and signing. Both the market and library has my books for sale. The elementary school contacted me to purchase books for the school library. Parents have greeted me and chatted about the book. The amount of people who have purchased Dragon’s Future just because it is my book amazes me.

If all of this wasn’t enough, today Dragon’s Heir book two of the Dragon Courage series is available for pre-order. What path will Dragon’s Heir take? Will the message of the need to temper justice with mercy be greeted with as much acclaim as Dragon’s Future? Only time will tell.

Birth is something that binds people together. Women especially relate to birthing stories, but even farmers tell the story of the birth of their cow, horse, sheep, pig or other animal. The beginning of life awes even the most sedate person. It is no different with a book.

In late February, I sent my manuscript, Dragon’s Future, to Booktrope to be reviewed for publishing. It was a nerve-wracking experience. I didn’t even tell my husband or any of my family members that I had done it until I heard back from Booktrope! Then when I heard, I had the two to three weeks of deciding if I wanted to follow through with this decision. I couldn’t believe it had been accepted. The mayhem of social media, blogging, editing, proofing, and cover designing has filled up the last five and a half months, but now it is finally time! The moment is upon us. The due date is only six days away. Unlike my natural births that I had, this one will happen on the day scheduled, at least for the eBook. The print copy may be more like my natural births of not sure exactly when after the due date I will get to hold the baby in my hands. I can’t wait! I am so ready and excited to see it and to know that my baby is here. However, just like my children, I will then hand my baby into the world to make its own way. I look forward to hearing your feedback–good and bad, but hopefully mostly good.

As an expectant mother, please forgive any emotional outbursts that I have in the next week or so. Expect my Twitter account to be filled with comments about the book or the Facebook party (come join, there currently is a contest for whoever invites the most people). My Facebook page may be filled with dragon related links or photos and words about the book. Believe me, the excitement will wear off, just like the newness of a baby wears off with sleepless nights. Until then, allow me to exult and rejoice in the life of a new birth.

Back in March when I signed up with Booktrope and began the process of publishing my books, I was encouraged to have a website with a blog. That means that at least once a week I am suppose to write about something book related or at least my life related. Sometimes that gets a bit overwhelming. Coming up with ideas isn’t quiet so hard as finding the time to sit down and write! The next hurdle that I tackled was creating a Facebook author page. That was a little easier because I know how Facebook works. However, it can be time consuming because I get caught up in the lives of my friends and acquaintances and forget I am suppose to be writing blogs and other things. My book manager really had to twist my arm to get me to set up a twitter account. I had been resistant to the efforts for years. I didn’t see a need, but when Pam said I needed one, I decided to try it out. I was quite glad that I did. I have found some really amazing people on there and some wonderful authors. It is a fun way to get a good laugh and to cheer up my day. The last social media step was to create an Instagram account. I am not quite as enamored with it as I am with Twitter, but I am learning the ropes thanks to other Booktrope authors who are helping me out. Why do I need all of these social media outlets? Because people want to know what an author is up to. They want to interact with the writer and know he or she is a real person. So, every day, I am on at least one of these social media outlets trying to connect with readers and writers.

Social media isn’t the only thing an author does. Once the novel is written, then it must be edited. The editing process is different for each editor. Since I have two genres of books, I have two editors. The one takes my book, reads it and writes down all of her first impressions in a word document, then re-reads it and edits for grammar, clarity, word choice, and plot consistency. Then she sends it all back to me. I then read through the novel and accept or reject her changes and add notes to explain why I didn’t or to help clarify things. Then I send it back to her. She goes over it again and sends it back to me. This final round may take one to three passes depending on how much we differ in our opinions. My other editor sent me my manuscript in chunks with the grammar edits first. Then after reading through it that way, I then received a full manuscript with the word choice and plot consistency issues. I read back through the novel to accept or reject those changes. When it is to the editor and author’s standards, it will go to a proofreader.

However, while it is in the process of editing, the author not gets to consider cover design and blurb. What will portray the genre and the book in a single image to make the book stand out so that people want to pick it up and check it out? What words should go on the back cover to intrigue a reader to gather it to himself or herself and read it? We don’t want too many details given away and yet at the same time we want to say what the book is about. So, while editing goes on, the outside is decided on as well. Then begins the proofreading.

The proofreading process is less stressful than the editing process. In editing the author’s very words and ideas are brought into question. With a good editor, though, the author knows her best interests are at the heart of the changes. Proofreading is for format and those little things–spelling, grammar, punctuation, and word usage. Word usage is easy. It isn’t did you use the right words, but rather did you use the same word repeatedly in one section. The proofreader offers suggestions of how to change that. She or he will also work on typos. Throughout the whole proofreading process though I read through my novel at least one more time!

After proofreading, the novel is ready to be submitted for layout. To do this, the author must make sure that everything is exactly as she wants it in print. So, back to reading meticulously the novel. (Note this is at least the fourth reading after submission to the publishing company.) Once satisfied that all looks good, it is submitted to layout. Layout then puts it into a pdf file and sends it back to the author for a final proof. Again I read through my book to make sure there are no errors. I was fortunate with Dragon’s Future to not find many. I could adjust and change them without a cost to me.

Now that the book is in layout, we are down to the last month or so before it is released. That means that my job is done, right? Wrong! I am now very busy on-line making friends and letting people know about my book. I am doing Facebook parties, Twitter posts, and blogs. What is a Facebook party? That was my question back in April when I first heard about them. They are a way of getting people from all over together to learn and celebrate the release of a book or other event. A Facebook event page is created, and on the day and at the time set, the party begins. Usually there are different authors set up to take over a half-hour to an hour slot. During this time, they engage the audience who has logged onto the event page. There are giveaways, fun memes, photos to comment on, and ideas shared. The theme usually relates to the author’s book or books. There can even be question and answer time for the author. It is fun when there are lots of people involved and commenting on the different photos or threads. It was at one such event that I sold my first book!

I am also busy creating advertisements for my book. I didn’t know it three months ago, but books have trailers just like movies do. So, I am learning Photoshop CS6 and other multimedia applications to create trailers, and still images with reviews and endorsements for my book. I am also looking at what is called ‘swag’. My teenage children laugh every time they hear the word. It is a teenage word to mean something is cool, radical, awesome (choose your era of word). In the book realm it means promotional giveaways such as bookmarks, coffee mugs, pens, notebooks, t-shirts, magnets, stickers, lip balm, etc. The list is as big as your imagination! These are used on those Facebook parties and at signings as ways of bringing people in to purchase your book.

One final touch happens during all of this. The cover artist receives the information on how long the book is, the final blurb, any endorsements to add to the book, and then finalizes the cover. This is the last step layout needs to be able to print the book, whether that is a Kindle or a print version.

While all of that is happening, I am also counting down the days to the release! For me, my first release will be Monday, August 10, only three weeks away! That will be when I will have a Facebook release party and celebrate the birth of my novel! Then in September, I will have my first signing.

Are you exhausted yet? There is the energy of excitement and suspense of wondering what will it be like when it is finished, and the ups and downs of technology communications, or real life happenings that cause your team to change mid-way through. These keep you on your toes and everything fresh. So, yes, being and author is more than writing. It is being a person who is active in the birthing of a book.