A Poem for When You Need It Most, BTS
If you follow me through my newsletter (sign up here), or through Instagram, you know that my third poetry book is nearly here!
A Poem for When You Need It Most is a poetry book meant to meet you exactly in the moment you’re in.
I’m working super hard behind the scenes to help this project from a dream to a reality you can hold in your hands! Someone asked me the other day what goes into writing a book, because once the writing is done, the heavy lifting is done…right?
Short answer is, well, no 😅. I almost feel like getting the first manuscript together is the easy part—after all, I write so much + have collected so many poems over the years, that when a book idea comes to me, I have a lot of poems that I can compile and write others to weave them together to capture my vision. But from there, is when the tough tactical work really begins.
Book Editing: Arguably the most crucial part of publishing a book is editing. I feel like of all the poetry I share, writing is 1% of the effort and editing is 99% of the work. 😅 In addition to the countless editing rounds I’ve completed of my book, I send it off to several external editors for developmental edits (read: making sure everything makes sense 🙃). Once I get their notes and edits back, there’s more editing on my end to incorporate their notes to ensure the book is complete + seamless from cover to cover. I’ll then have another external editor review it again to make sure I didn’t make any other grammatical or spelling errors along the way.
Illustrations: Simultaneously, I also work on the book’s illustrations! While art isn’t my chosen form of expression, I do love to create line drawings to visually accompany poems within the book. 🎨
Book Cover: I then try to think through the book’s cover, and how I could design it to where it encapsulates the poems and theme. My goal here is for someone to look at the book, and get an emotional sense of the tone of the contents. This also includes the back cover’s copy. Since I do so many in-person events and markets, I see first-hand how important it is to get across the message of the book in just a few lines. Because the book cover is so critical to book sales and overall interest, I’ll usually have a few trusted folks give me feedback on multiple iterations so the final cover is absolutely perfect!
Book Proof: At this stage, I order a book proof to see what the book looks like, even if all the illustrations and poems aren’t laid out perfectly. This is so I can make edits both to the cover as well as the poems, since sometimes, having the poetry printed out can read differently to me. (Idk how brains work, but it happens every time where I’ll have edits once the book is printed. 😆)
Layout: I’ll then work on finalizing the layout with the completed illustrations, the edited poems, the final cover. In my effort to always strive for excellence (while trying to fight against perfection 😤), I’ll usually go through 3-5 rounds of book proofs and edits until I feel like it’s ready for print. During this time is when I’ll open up preorders since we’ll be in the home stretch! I’ll also start to send out early reader editions to book bloggers, podcasters, and influencers so that they can read, write book reviews, and spread the word prior to launch!
Preorder Setup: Opening up preorders means a ton of website work, updating pages, keeping folks updated through newsletters, and starting to form a launch team to help spread the word (you can sign up here)!
Launch Prep: I’ll then follow up with venues that I booked prior to confirm the event date for my book launch and start to create social media content to help support the launch.
Merch: Somewhere in there, I also make merch to go along with my poetry launch, and also order several proofs of merch to make sure that the quality is well, quality. 😆
Book Launch Day: Once the book is released then that’s where we really get cookin’! Living off of no sleep but sheer excitement, I’ll sign and write a personal message on every preordered book. I’ll also box ‘em up and ship ‘em out for out-of-state readers. That night, I host my poetry show and book signing! I love how immersive poetry can be so I try to find ways of bringing immersive experiences into the poetry show.
Social Media: Throughout this whole time, I also create and share social media content. This can be one of the most exciting (and draining!) parts of publishing a book since I don’t loooove to live on social media. But I’ve found that it’s absolutely critical to let people know about the book. It’s also fun to share in the excitement and anticipation with others! I also try to share more frequently about my writings in my newsletter since these are my most loyal friends + readers. <3
Wow! Even writing this out, I feel like there’s a lot while also not really even scratching the surface. 🥲 So yes, so much goes in to preparing, publishing, and releasing a poetry book! I hope this was insightful if you’re a reader, an aspiring author, or just a lurker. 👀
A Poem for When You Need It Most is far along on some of these areas, and a bit behind in others in preparation for the late Spring release….so with that being said, I’ll catch y’all later!