
Here it is, folks—the full cover for
Bouncing Grandma! All we need now is the exact spine width and the cover will be finished. I’ll get that measurement from the printer as soon as we have a final page count. My guess is it’ll come out around 240 pages, but
One Holy Night ended up shorter than I anticipated, so I’ll just have to see. It all depends on the the font and how the text lays out on the page. Plus, we also decided to include the first chapter of book 2,
The Case of the Mystified M.D., at the end to entice readers to look for the next hilarious installment about our Bouncing Grandma. So it might be a bit longer than I estimated.
The copy specialist is flowing the text now and should have it ready for me by mid month. As soon as I get the file, I’ll do a quick run-through to correct any formatting issues, and then I’ll send hardcopy to Alice—what used to be called galleys, but is now simply called a copyflow proof. This will be Alice’s last chance to make corrections. When I get it back, I’ll enter her changes, do a final proofreading to catch anything that might have slipped by us, and finalize the pages. Then it’s off to the printer! We want to have both
BG and
It’s Not About Me in the warehouse in time to ship to the Barnes and Noble at the Mall of America for the ACFW conference book signing.
BTW, I apologize for taking so long to post another update on how business is going. My husband and I are dividing our time between Perry, GA, and our house near Nashville, TN. We’re getting this property ready to sell so, as you can imagine, we’re totally covered up. What I need is another 24 hours every day!
Currently I’m working on developing some Sheaf House ads to place in the new
Christian Fiction Online Magazine that Michelle Sutton is heading up. That project is attracting a LOT of interest, and I can’t wait to see the first issue, which publishes in July. A lot of the big-name publishers are buying ads, and Sheaf House has locked down a regular slot. I’m also tinkering with the idea of placing an ad with one or two of
Christianity Today’s stable of online mags. You wouldn’t believe the price of advertising in their print publications—it’s in the stratosphere—but their market is targeted to exactly the market we’re trying to hit. So I’m going to see if I can work an online ad into the budget.
So far I’ve sent out a couple of press releases and will need to send one out for
BG and
INAM as soon as they’re in the warehouse.
OHN is going to be represented at BEA by both my distributor,
APG, and
PMA and at
ICRS by
CSPA. So hopefully that will get some action. My contact at APG met with
Books A Million Friday to try to persuade them to carry Sheaf House books, but I haven’t heard yet how that went. Hopefully they were impressed by all the ammunition I sent him and couldn’t wait to sign on the dotted line. LOL! And by the way, have you checked out the
Sheaf House site lately? We keep adding new stuff like the slideshow.
Next up: Dineen Miller will be starting work on designing the cover for
Wind of the Spirit—which I still need to finish! Thankfully the end is at last in sight. If we can figure out how to do what I want to do with this cover, it’s going to get some attention. I found a blow-your-socks-off image for the background, but it looks like we’ll probably need to have an illustrator do the figures. I have my fingers crossed it doesn’t end up being prohibitively expensive.
And, of course, Kathi Macias’s powerful story
My Son, John is up next, so I need to gear up to get that cover rolling soon. Can’t wait to see the manuscript! This one is going to blow readers away. Then
Mystified M.D. and Michelle’s
It’s Not About Him follow the next fall. And I’m working with my new assistant, Jen Stephens, from my local writers group to get her women’s fiction
The Heart’s Journey Home ready for publication in January 2010. I’m really excited about this one—not to mention that she’s going to intern with me this summer during her break from teaching. Talk about an answer to prayer—it’s a miracle how the Lord brought us together, and we’re both praying that at some point I’ll be able to hire her so she can actually get paid.
Wow—things are rockin’ and rollin’! It doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down anytime soon, does it? But when you’re working for God, it’s like Jesus said: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” It truly is.
Labels: A. K. Arenz, ACFW, APG, Books A Million, CSPA, ICRS, Kathi Macias, Michelle Sutton, One Holy Night, PMA