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A Log of the Events of ARENA’s Release December
7, 2002 – Barnes and Noble finally got their new copies of Christianity
Today and I bought four of them! The cashier said I must have an article
in the magazine. I told her my book
had been reviewed. She asked if
B&N carried it. I said yes, but
never told her its name! Good grief. Some
marketing whiz I am. Then later, I
received an email from a librarian friend with the news that Arena has been
named to ALA’s Booklist Top Ten Christian Novels of 2002. When it rains it pours! J December
3, 2002 – Got my first real royalty statement today, and it took me quite a
while to figure it out. In fact it
was hours before I found the part that said how many copies had been printed
and how many print runs were made as of August 2002. November
25, 2002 – my friend Sidney called to tell me that Christianity Today
ran a short review of Arena! One of
my impossible dreams. I can’t believe
it! November
7, 2002 – had a very nice call from the Dutch translator. We spent about an
hour discussing various nuances of words, and clarifying some of the
descriptions in the book. I found it
fascinating to be able to get a glimpse of how someone else saw things in the
book (or in some cases didn’t see at all!). October
30, 2002 – Yesterday I received an email from the person who is going to
translate Arena into Dutch for a Christian publisher in the Netherlands. She wants to discuss a number of things by
telephone regarding the accuracy of the translation. I had no idea any foreign rights had even been
sold! I contacted BHP’s international
rights manager and sure enough, Arena’s
been contracted for a Dutch edition with Uitgeverij Kok.
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July 26, 2002 –
My first radio interview! With great
trepidation, knowing the Lord was going to have to take care of everything
because I had no idea what I was doing or was going to do (you can’t read,
you have to just talk – and I’m never completely sure what exactly will come
out of my mouth when I’m under pressure!)
I went down to the offices of
local community radio station KXCI and taped my first very brief
interview as an “author.” It went
pretty well. Unfortunately I didn’t
get to hear it until that evening, when we had a house full of guests –
hearing myself babbling over the airwaves for the very first time in front of
a group of dinner guests is not my idea of a fun thing! Although in the end everyone said I
sounded completely normal . July 23, 2002 –
Today I received a large envelope from Bethany House, inside of which was
nothing but a clipping from a slick-papered, brightly colored
publication. I thought at first it
might be a review, but as I examined it, I discovered it was a page from a
catalogue detailing Arena as one of its selections – cover pic, description,
etc – in exclusive hardcover edition!
What?! And it
could be ordered online from Crossings.com.
Slowly it dawned on me that Arena must’ve been picked up by the Crossings
Book Club – though I hadn’t
even known it was being considered.
Wow. What an incredible
surprise! On July 15-17, 2002, I attended my first ever CBA Convention, the 2002 CBA International Convention in Anaheim, and it was wonderful. Incredible. Magical. First I had breakfast with some fellow writers
from Mt. Hermon, then a number of us Bethany House authors trooped over to
the Bethany House booth for a
tour. We got to meet the
marketing folks, editors, publicists, and regional sales reps and even some
fans! We signed books for retailers and distributors, joked around, and just
generally had a marvelous time being able to finally put some names to faces
we’d known only through email til then.
Lunch was on BHP, in a special getaway room over at the Hilton and it
made us feel really special. Many
people told me it would be overwhelming and it was – so many people, so many
books, so much excitement.
Tuesday was a bit quieter than Monday, because most of my writer friends had gone home. But I was able to sit in on a talk by the Bethany House VP of Marketing and Sales about the value of fiction which was fascinating. He articulated for me some concepts I had nurtured myself but never quite put into words – about how fiction can often communicate profound truths in a much deeper way than straight non-fiction.
July
12, 2002 –Christy Awards
– June 28, 2002 –
First draft of THE LIGHT OF EIDON completed and turned in to the editors at
Bethany House. June 17, 2002 – Publisher’s
Weekly profile is released.
Amazing. Somehow I managed not
to come across as an idiot or fool, despite the torrent of babble I unleashed
on my very kind interviewer, Marcia Nelson, when she called. She did a great job summarizing and
bringing out the interesting aspects of our conversation and I’m tickled to
death. And amazed, again, that it
happened at all. I feel utterly
graced out, in fact. If you’d like to read the profile, click here. May 23, 2002 – Publisher’s
Weekly is going to do a profile on me and today I was interviewed – over
the phone – for the first time in my life!
It was very odd -- like something that should be happening to someone
else. But it was fun, and I enjoyed
talking to the writer who called. She
was very nice and very good at making me feel relaxed. But I have no idea if I made any sense or
not . . . May 15, 2002 –
Amazingly, the positive reviews keep coming in: Library Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist, CBA Marketplace,
Christian Retailing . . . April 23, 2002 – Today I received a call from Bethany House
Publishers offering a contract for my four fantasy novels!!! I knew it was a
possibility, but the most I thought would happen would be that they might go
for the first one, THE LIGHT OF EIDON.
Instead they want all four.
I’m overwhelmed. Disbelieving,
actually. April 22,
2002 I found out today that ARENA has
been reviewed in Publisher’s Weekly!! And it’s a good review!
One person even called it “glowing.”
Normally Christian books are more or less ignored by PW, and when they
are reviewed they are often ripped apart.
So receiving a review that is much more positive than negative is a
tremendous blessing! April 9,
2002 The first copy of ARENA
has arrived!!! I can hold it in my hands. It is a real, live, honest to goodness
book. And my biggest first reaction
is that . . . I don’t recognize it in its new clothes! This can’t be MY story. My story has always been a bunch of
manuscript pages. This is a real book! March 26, 2002 – Returned from the Mt. Hermon Christian Writer’s conference with a head swirling with wonderful memories and an avalanche of information on book promotion. I met several editors, an agent and many wonderful writers. Now I have to get to work on this promotion thing – booksignings, press releases, interviews and the like. (But! I gave my first talk to writers at this conference, telling the members of the Fiction writing track about my road to publication. And I was also “interviewed” in front of the 400 or so people at lunch. Not much of an interview, I’ll grant (being a member of the “unlucky” group of authors whose books would be releasing within the month following the conference, I got to stand, give my name and the name of my book. Hey, it’s a start!) March 1, 2002 – Galleys were turned in on the 25th and today I learned that the changes are in and the manuscript has been sent to the typesetters. The book’s also received five endorsements based on readings of the advance review copies. Whoopee! February 18, 2002 – Galleys arrived today. Wow. It actually is beginning to look like a real book. Lots of work to be done on the galleys though. And only a week to do it. January 15, 2002 - The line-edited manuscript has just been sent to the copy editor, with Advance Review Copies and galleys due to go out in February. I don't think I've really grasped it's going to be a published book yet . . . December 8, 2001 - Catalogue arrived! Oh my. And the publication date is now confirmed as May 2002 October 27, 2001 - Final rewrite of Arena turned in! September 29, 2001 - Arrival of editorial memo with questions and suggestions for changes in the final rewrite of the book. Gulp. Time to get to work. August 10, 2001 - Email brings a mock up of the projected cover pic for Arena WOW! February 20, 2001 - Arena sold to Bethany House (Home) (Arena) (Bio) (What's New) (Writings) (Links) (E-mail Me) |
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