![](\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/images\/2005\/07\/30\/opinion\/20050731_viswanathan.gif\")
Each step in the publishing process for me is cause for a small frisson of panic\/pleasure. This morning my editor, SuperE<\/i>, sent me the tentative jacket copy for my novel.<\/p>\nEach step in the publishing process for me is cause for a small frisson of panic\/pleasure. This morning my editor, SuperE<\/i>, sent me the tentative jacket copy for my novel.<\/p>\n
There is ‘flap’ copy in the front. There are a few lines from the novel on the back. There is bio information on the back ‘flap’.
It sounds like an actual book.<\/i><\/p>\n
We’re almost finished with copy editing, and SuperE<\/a> expects the novel to hit the design step by the beginning of July.<\/p>\n I’m… sort of stunned. “Dear God, no,” I shrieked, and fled.<\/p>\n Seriously. Right now I can think of nothing worse!<\/p>\n What it boils down to the idea that the effort that sells a book can’t really be measured — they told us in grad school that the whole publishing thing is a crapshoot, and nothing is guaranteed. (In so many words, after so many semesters and so much tuition. Right before graduation.) Which is funny, considering that I have been for weeks trying to weigh output and translate it into sales. I think the trick to the whole thing is to become very Zen and just let it go… either it does well, or it doesn’t. I am getting published. And lo que ser\u00e1, ser\u00e1 to everything else.<\/p>\n The Blue Rose Girls<\/a> are discussing titles. I’m still shocked that I got to keep my title this time. (Incidentally, my novel’s title has only a 26.3% chance of being a bestseller. At present, the most I can say about the title is that it is not<\/i> “ripped from the headlines.”<\/a> At best it’s ripped off from the dictionary…)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In other news, Ypulse’s Anastacia<\/a> is also asking some really good questions. Barbie Loves MAC<\/a>!? Can we start the uneasy feelings of not measuring up beauty-wise any sooner for our girls? Don’t all six year olds need to feel like they’re not pretty enough? And finally, Bookshelves of Doom<\/a> gave me yet another reason to scream: Danielle Steel. YA. Together at last. My sister just phoned to say her apricots were dropping from the tree. Revision be darned. You know where I’m going!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Each step in the publishing process for me is cause for a small frisson of panic\/pleasure. This morning my editor, SuperE, sent me the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15,10],"class_list":["post-2471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-random-notes-and-errata","tag-views"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4087,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2471\/revisions\/4087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
At least I was sort of stunned until SuperE<\/a> asked me if I wanted to include an author photo. Then I was awake enough to ponder for .00001 seconds the reality of my non-photogenic self. Then I just about fell all over myself trying to find a breezy way to subtly change the subject.<\/p>\n~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lately, Gail at Original Content<\/a> has been asking some good questions<\/a> about what sells books. Having three fabulous people come forward and volunteer themselves to create a book blog for me, I’ve been a lot overwhelmed, and a little “meh” about the whole business of online book PR. I’m not sure what nifty things like book trailers and book blogs truly do for a book except provide the author\/creators a whole lot of fun in envisioning the characters, and create another techno artistic outlet — which, don’t get me wrong, is a very fun thing. I guess I tend to wonder things like ‘who sees this? does it really match my kind of book? does it really match me?’<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/www.nyla.org\/content\/user_4\/NYLA_Stock_OldBooks_SM.jpg\")
S.A.M.<\/a> usually very, erm, gently<\/i> disabuses me of the notion that I’m good at creating titles at all. Normally not having a title doesn’t bother me, but I’d never even heard of this Lulu title scorer<\/a> thing. I mean, who knew<\/i> that statisticians actually sat around trying to figure out if a book will be a bestseller based on its title?! One of my dearest friends since the first grade just finished his doctorate at UCLA in statistics. We’re going to have a little talk<\/b><\/i> about how statisticians could better spend their time.<\/p>\n
(Nooooooooooooooooooo!<\/i>)<\/p>\n