Wheels Are in Motion

Welcome to October’s Newsletter Update. This month: From Manuscript to Book. 

When I get asked what happens to my manuscript after I send off the final copy edits, I generally nod wisely and murmur, “the wheels are in motion.”

I have no idea what those wheels are.

For me, it’s one of the joys of having someone else publish my book. I don’t have to know. It’s like a hot dog. Do we really want to know how it’s made? (I’m still scarred from watching a film about hot dog production in elementary school.)

So, in the winter of 2024, the wheels are in motion with MONSTER DOWN DEEP.  Here’s what I do know about those wheels:

Legal Wheels: Pushkin’s team is arranging registration, copyrights and an ISBN number (on the back cover of every book) to sell it.
Distribution Wheels: Print runs are figured out–how many copies will there be? As an example, the print run for the first HARRY POTTER was 500 copies. The print run for the last HARRY POTTER was 12 million copies. If a book does well, the publisher will do a second printing, third printing, etc. I don’t know what MONSTER’S print run will be, but I hope they’ll tell me.

Once they decide on how many books, it’s a process of how to get them out in the world. Penguin Random House will be distributing MONSTER DOWN DEEP in the US. (YAY!) The manuscript goes to reps for booksellers like Waterstones in the UK and Barnes and Noble in the US. A digital version is created for Amazon and other outlets, along with sales copy for websites and back cover copy for the actual book. (Which I don’t have to write–also YAY!) And because this is a children’s book, there’s outreach to schools and libraries.

Deal Wheels: Pushkin also pitches MDD to foreign markets and to audio producers to make more deals. And it’s been working (So much YAY!)
As of today:

 MONSTER DOWN DEEP has a foreign deal with Germany.

MONSTER DOWN DEEP will be an AUDIBLE audiobook. 

Fingers crossed for more deal announcements to come!

Cover Art Wheels: Usually, the publisher hires an artist to create the cover, and I get asked for my opinion, but it rarely holds any weight. This time felt different.

Editor Sarah agreed that the cover should feature the monster down deep in the title. In other words, Blue, the fish.

“What does Blue look like?” she asked me.

A very good question since I made Blue up and there’s no fish like him on the planet. (That we know of.) So I showed her the drawing I made for myself when writing the book.

I am NOT an artist. And yeah, it’s embarrassing to share this. But it’s like hot dogs–not a pretty process. 😉 Here’s what I sent Sarah. Next month: what the illustrator came back with and the cover of MONSTER DOWN DEEP!!

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