My publishing education, Part 1

Lessons from the past year

On my long, peripatetic journey to become an author, I had one main goal: sell the book to someone who would agree to publish it. I gave very little thought to what would happen after that far-off, magical moment. Which is all to say, your girl has been on a steep learning curve since then!

The Cover

Even before my editor had confirmed she was giving the green light to the revisions I had submitted, she asked me for my thoughts on covers. Turns out, I had very few. Unlike those of you “visual” types who notice fonts and colors and revel in terms like “kerning,” I pick books based on recommendations and reviews. I’ve never purchased a book based on the cover. Now, I understand how important covers are, but a year ago, the request sent me scurrying to my local bookstore to look around and take notes so I’d have something halfway intelligent to contribute to the conversation.

Here’s what I sent to the team at Simon and Schuster.

Thankfully, the designer at S&S sent a broad array of first drafts for me to respond to.

As you can see, the seeds of what would become the final cover were already there.

Once we narrowed it down (and corrected my name), we kept iterating and refining until we got to the final version, which I really love.

An additional delight was receiving the cover for the UK version of SFAH, which is so different from the US cover, but just as compelling.

The Title

For many years, my novel-in-progress was called The Letter Writer, which I liked, but my agent did not. When I sold the manuscript, the name had evolved to Letters to Another Home, but by the time my editor and I went through two rounds of revisions, that name didn’t seem quite right, either.

It was actually my friend and beta reader, Anne, whose comment sparked what would become the final title. She said, “oh, I like the bits of poetry and songs you have in the story.” Which is how we found our way to Song for Another Home.

The most gratifying response to the title came from my father, who wrote,

“The title is so attractive. It seems to express a deep emotion in my heart.”

So, the cover and the title...was that the end of my publishing education? Not. Even. Close. But for the sake of length, I’ll continue in the next installment.

Life, lately

As you might imagine, much of my life these days has been getting ready for the launch of SFAH, which hits shelves in less than a month! But other fun activities have included the World Cup (despite South Korea’s dismal performance), going to my first Valkyries game, and traveling to Ashland, Oregon, to watch some wonderful plays!