Welcome to Book Pregnant, a New Writing Blog by Debut Authors

Ring Ring! Published novel calling!
Image via Flickr user plenty.r

The call. You get it from your agent, or maybe you don't get it and there's an email instead, or you call her back, or maybe it's even a text (Are you sitting down?) that tells you this one all-important magical fact: Your book sold. The thing you've been trying to do, maybe for ten years or twenty years or since you were five or since college or since you realized you had something to say -- you did it. It's done.

In that one moment, your world slants, just a little, away from the way it was in the moment just before, and if you're lucky, it never slants back.

In the new slanted world, you're suddenly talking about copy-editing marks, and author questionnaires, and how to promote your novel on Pinterest, and whether or not to do a blog tour, and pre-orders. Meanwhile it's likely all your best writing buds are still talking about queries and excerpts and conferences. Maybe you have some friends that are published writers, but they're not all that interested in your squeals over your first check -- they've had dozens. They're not terribly excited about your first blurb -- they probably gave it to you! So where does the debut author turn to cheer and commiserate over all the new experiences that come along with a first novel?

Our Facebook group wanted to say hi. Hi, Facebook group. 

Book Pregnant was begun when two debut authors (Sophie Perinot and I) met on Twitter via mutual acquaintances, and found out how much we had to talk about. It was almost like, we realized, being a first time mom and having that support group of other pregnant mothers, due in the same month. While we had awesome mentors and charming agents and supportive friends, we really wanted to yammer and babble about this experience to others who were going through the exact same thing. So we invited a few friends, and they invited friends, and before long there were a couple dozen first time authors chattering away in a hidden Facebook group, filling screen after screen with cheers over pictures of first signings, condolences over disappointments or personal troubles, ideas for promotions, networking strategies, philosophical debates, jokes, and confessions. This is more than a professional network and more than a support group, and over the last few months, as we've started to meet up in real life at each other's events, and see each other through the roller coaster experience of bringing a book to market, we've become real friends.

This blog is our public outlet. Here we'll share what we've learned, tell stories from the front lines, pose questions about the developing world of authorship and publishing, and reveal what to expect when you're expecting... a novel.