Bound Manuscript = excitement!

I just got my very first bound manuscript of SISTERS OF MISERY. Such a thrill!
It was an amazing experience to get the book covers (which made the whole getting published thing seem more real and tangible). But receiving the bound ms from my editor cemented it for me. The funny thing is that I can't bring myself to read it. I still have my copyedits to go through for the ARCs and the final manuscript. Yet, I don't even know if I will be able to read the book once it's published.

Isn't that strange?

Something that I've been waiting my entire life for--my debut novel--and I can't even bring myself to read it. Now I can finally understand why actors and actresses say that they don't like watching their own movies. (I always thought that was a big, cop-out lie--and maybe it is for some.) Maybe I'm just too close to it right now (and sick of revisions, revisions, revisions!). But, now that I think of it, I never read my articles in magazines after they are printed. I have copies of my articles from Glamour, Elle, American Baby, Boston Magazine, etc., but after they are printed, I cannot bring myself to read the article. How strange is that?

My editor and agent and I finally settled on a title for my second book in the SISTERS OF MISERY series, and I'm thrilled with it. The second book, which will be published in 2009, is called THE LOST SISTER. Now all I have to do is write it. :) I have it all outlined, but I'll be documenting my writing process in this blog. I'm also going to chronicle how I'm promoting SISTERS OF MISERY. Luckily, I have promoted other authors through my literary publicity company. But publicizing my own work is going to be a lot harder than promoting the works of Jackie Mitchard and Michael Palmer. I don't have the name recognition or the "New York Bestselling Author" moniker that they have. But, I'm hoping that I can overcome that by connecting directly with readers. I've already reached out to a lot of YA readers that seem very excited about SISTERS OF MISERY. One girl on MySpace even told me that she had a dream about my characters. How cool is that?

In any case, I will continue to blog about how I'm promoting SISTERS OF MISERY, which will be published in August 2008. I will also include my writing strategies for Book Two. (And also offer some tidbits about my publicity company, since that takes up a major amount of my working hours as well.)

Kelley & Hall Book Publicity was just asked to be panelists for the upcoming Grub Street conference "The Muse and the Marketplace" in Boston this April. We were so honored to be invited to speak on the panel (I'll be speaking on one day and my sister, the next) and
shocked that anyone had even heard of our company. True, we did get a lot of exposure for helping Brunonia Barry win a multi-million dollar book deal with William Morrow. Her self-published book, THE LACE READER, got the largest book deal for a self-published book in the history of publishing--and we helped make it happen! Here's a link to the Boston Globe article about it.

In any case, I don't think it's possible to make lightning strike twice, but I'm at least hoping to get a fraction of the success for my own book that we were able to get for Brunonia.

We shall see...