My newest book, Sunstone, was scheduled to be released on March 31. This was an exciting moment which my publisher, Sheenah from Paper Crane Books, and I had been working hard toward for at least the past six weeks. There were three rounds of edits, the blurb, dedication and acknowledgement to write. On top of that there was work with a designer for the cover and a table banner. For fun I invented two beverages for the book to fit in the story line and drew some pictures for inclusion at appropriate spots. Right near the end of March a friend of mine, Shirley Hayes, offered to make a book trailer for Sunstone. The trailer is incredible: http://youtu.be/r7hmql-mnZo . This meant I needed to write a script, find free pictures and choose some free music. All of this was done around other work. It was a race to meet our launch date.
Sheenah uploaded the files on the 30th with plenty of time for Amazon’s regular review and posting on their site. The only problem is… Sunstone hasn’t posted. It is now April first. No, this isn’t a hoax but believe me it feels like a cruel trick. Both Sheenah and I watched Amazon for the long awaited birth, checking the bookseller’s site frequently. By late afternoon on the 31st I was contacting Amazon’s live customer service chat in an attempt to find out the reason for the delay. It was unsatisfactory as they preferred to speak with my publisher and not me. I passed on the message to Sheenah and she emailed them. By early morning on the 1st they got back to her with a nonspecific message and alluded to April 8th as a date. WHAT?!?! I wanted more information so back to the live chat I went. This time when they emailed Sheenah they explained that they were having problems in their system and processing for all new books was slow.
Believe me when I tell you Sheenah and I are very unhappy with this delay after all of our work and effort to launch on the promised day. Nothing can be done except frown in Amazon’s direction and try to be philosophical. It will happen. I tell myself Sunstone’s much awaited launch and availability will be sweeter when it finally posts. It doesn’t make me happy …but there it is. Please stand beside me and practice patience. I assure you I will be straining under the effort. Meanwhile I will leave you with a dream graphic that my awesome cover designer, JC Clarke, made me. Imagine this. Hugs everyone!
7 Comments
As disappointing as this seems, just think how happy you’ll be the day it FINALLY hits the streets of Amazon eBooks!
I LOVE the idea of creating book related beverages (even inserting the appropriate time to indulge)
Love you lots Holly and you have my undying support!
#PTTP 🙂
As disappointing as this seems, just think how happy you’ll be the day it FINALLY hits the streets of Amazon eBooks!
I LOVE the idea of creating book related beverages (even inserting the appropriate time to indulge)
Love you lots Holly and you have my undying support!
#PTTP 🙂
Thank you Jennifer and yes I’m thrilled that both the paper and the ebook is now available to readers everywhere! YAY!!
Sorry to hear that, but I’ve noticed most writing-related things are measured by how far they are behind schedule. Faster things are only a few days behind schedule, slower things are farther behind schedules.
Oh I can SO relate to this, I put out the 6th book in my series, subtitled ‘the Halloween edition’, which squeaked into 31st October by the skin of its teeth, hours after I had given up in despair! All’s well that ends well and Sunstone looks GREAT 🙂
Just finished Sunstone and I have a few critiques if you are open to them.
The alien moon setting was intriguing but wasn’t used to its fullest effect.
There could have been massive tides created by the planetary gravity or electromagnetic interference to account for the reliance on steam age/clockwork technology rather than electro-mechanical/electronic technology. You never mention the fuel that powers the steam boilers. Perhaps a cheap abundant and clean burning fuel source would explain the reliance on steam.
Steampunk is a tricky genre and requires a lot of psuedo-scientific details to pull it off.
The characters were well fleshed out and the social message was appreciated.
Thanks for writing Sunstone and I’ll be looking for more of your work.
Brian Silver thank you for your comments. 🙂 Where were you when I was struggling to get all the details right? I appreciate the feedback.