Showing the Book's Face to the World Before its Born

by Priscille Sibley

It’s all about buzz. THE PROMISE OF STARDUST is due on February 5, 2013. And a few weeks ago I received 10 advanced reading copies. I cannot express what the feeling is like, to see your book, solid and sturdy. It’s very different from looking at the pages on a computer screen, different from a printed manuscript, even different from the proof pages. It’s real. Not a figment of my imagination. It’s an entity of its own. And those things, those characters I conjured up in my imagination, they are about to become real for someone else. The book is no longer in my hands. It’s out there in the world.

This is a hazy purgatory. Because it isn’t published yet, not exactly, but it is out there. It’s been sent out to media outlets, magazines, newspapers. Harper Collins gave away 50 ARCs to readers in sneek preview via Bookreporter.com. Along with the ARC, readers received a questionnaire. The book is being read by real people, not my agent, not my writer friends, not my editor or other people at my publisher (not that these are not real people) but by honest to God readers.

This is wild. My wonderful editor, Emily Krump, sent along their responses and I must say the comments brought happy tears to my eyes because the majority of them were very, very positive. The recipients said they’d recommend the book to their book clubs, to their family, to everyone. They said they felt happy, and sad, and satisfied. They said they cried. They said they loved it. This is what an author works for, to make a story something that will resonate and evoke an emotional response. So if you’re one of those readers who read THE PROMISE OF STARDUST and sent along your comments, I want to thank you.

Famous authors also have my book in their hands and have given me some very flattering blurbs. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you writers who took the time out to read an unknown author’s debut.

But you see, at this point, the book writing is done. Now, to quote my wonderful literary agent, Laney Becker, now we just have to make sure readers find it.

So… now there’s that social media flaunting. I’m beginning to like Facebook and Twitter. Pinterest is fun although I have no idea if it will mean anything in terms of book sales. And blogging, well, throat clearing time, I’m nervously raising my head here and there. 

 This is a different world for me. In my real life I’m never the center of attention. That I have to wave my hand up in the air to draw focus onto my book still feels foreign and self-aggrandizing, but this is it. My book is about to make its entrance into the world. The fact is most books only live for a short short time. I want mine to have a chance, so I am here. My book is stirring, weighing on me. I am joyous with anticipation. 

So, yes, please follow me on Twitter @PriscilleSibley

And please like my author page on Facebook.

And stop by my webpage. 

This is the part where we authors wait, a period of confinement. This Book Pregnant.