Tag: ‘chocolate & vicodin’
October 26, 2010 at 8:00 am
The book cover for Chocolate & Vicodin: My Quest for Relief from the Headache that Wouldn’t Go Away appeared on Amazon.com yesterday, so I guess that’s a sign that it’s time to unveil it on the blog:
Please, resist the urge to lick your screen. I hear computers are dirtier than public restrooms because people rarely clean their monitors. I would hate for you to catch an infection because my book cover looked so delectable. Mmmmm, cupcake. Chocolate cupcake. With pills!
I first saw the cover concept for Chocolate & Vicodin at the end of March 2010, long before the final text of the book was completed, which is sort of odd and slightly scary since it’s like taking your wedding photos before you’ve met your groom. However, the cover is needed for placement in the sales catalog the publisher puts together each season to pitch their books to booksellers. Thus, it’s usually created before the book is complete to give booksellers enough lead time to place their orders.
I immediately loved the cover because, really, what formerly [...]
October 15, 2010 at 8:00 am
When I was a kid, the UPS man used to bring me packages filled with Christmas gifts. Now he drops off my book proofs instead, but opening the manila envelopes they come in feels a lot like unwrapping presents.
Yesterday the doorbell rang and I dashed for the door as fast as any of my cats do when chasing ghosts around the apartment. (Mice ghosts, I’m sure.) I never know when book proofs are coming, so I’m always slightly surprised when they appear. The last set of proofs was for copyediting, so they simply contained the text of the book, double-spaced and printed like a really long term paper. Once we whipped the text into its most perfect version, it was handed to a book designer. The designer took that text and laid it out all nice and pretty like it will appear in the final published product.
The proofs I received yesterday are of that version which includes the copyright notice, the publisher’s logo, and all those little details that real books have. (I love [...]
September 17, 2010 at 8:10 am
The UPS man handed me a typical UPS shipping box last week with a surprise inside—the copyedited manuscript for my upcoming book, CHOCOLATE & VICODIN (in stores February 2011)!
It is certainly thrilling to see my book printed on paper and adorned with a cover letter on official publishing-house stationery. It makes me realize that the Word document I’ve slaved over for so long is soon going to put on its best clothes for its coming-out party at bookstores. However, it also means I have to review the copyediting, which is by far my least favorite part of the publishing process. I am not detail-oriented by nature, and copyediting is all about details. I’ve trained myself to be more detail-oriented in my work because it’s a necessary skill, but it’s definitely something I have to work at. It doesn’t come as naturally to me as other things.
By the time you get to copyediting, you’ve already submitted your manuscript and completed any revisions requested by your editor. The book is then printed, double-spaced, and given to a [...]
June 21, 2010 at 4:12 pm
Parents tend to take more photos of their first-born child than their second-born child, not because they love them less, but because the novelty of parenthood starts to wear off. How many photos do you really need of Jimmy’s first time in the wading pool? Similarly, now that I’ve written and released a book and I’m working on another one, I don’t feel as compelled to document the process as I was the first time. Then someone asks me how that whole book thing is going and when does it come out and will I be going on a book tour? Then I remember, oh yeah, this whole process can be rather fascinating if you’re on the outside of it, so maybe I should update people about it.
So, Jennette, how is that book going?
The book exists…as a Word file!
It’s currently a 262K word file, which seems ridiculously small since I’ve worked on it intermittently for almost two years now. I finished a draft at the beginning of the year and I’m currently working on revisions [...]
July 10, 2009 at 9:21 am
The first person I told about the book deal was the HR lady. It was during my exit interview.
“So, why are you leaving us?” she asked.
“Well, I just got an offer on my book proposal!” This was also the point at which I expected to ride home on a unicorn via a rainbow, because that is another thing that only happens in dreams. I was probably the happiest exit interview the HR lady ever had the pleasure of conducting. I smiled and laughed and bounced around happily in my seat before dancing back down to my desk to reread the email I had just gotten. Then I told my boss and my coworkers about the offer and they were happy for me, and slightly stunned, but I’m sure the “I’m quitting to pursue writing!” speech I’d given last week suddenly seemed a lot less flimsy.
So yes, I have been all sneaky-like and wrote a book proposal, which I sent to agents, and one of them liked it, so we joined forces and she suggested revisions, [...]
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"What distinguishes us one from another is our dreams and what we do to make them come about." - Joseph Epstein
