Melissa Ann Goodwin

Melissa Ann Goodwin

Friday, June 24, 2011

I Have People!

When I leave for work, my husband always says, "Have your people text my people." It's a joke of course, because he's pretty much my people and I'm pretty much his. That was the case that is, until Createspace came into the picture.

Createspace is Amazon.com's self-publishing arm. I have given them my Mastercard number and so now we officially partners in the venture of publishing my book, The Christmas Village.

So far, they have been excellent. First Jenny, my publishing consultant/team leader, called me precisely when scheduled and went over everything with me. I signed up for the Customer Interior Design and Custom Illustrated Cover, along with e-book capability. She gave me a deal on the combined price, throwing in the Kindle e-book set-up for free and I was also eligible for their current promotion that gives me 50 free books right off the bat.

I didn't purchase copywriting or editorial review, because the book has been edited from here to Timbuktoo and back again - by me, by my reading committee, and by my agent. Kate (the agent) was an editor, so she knows what she is doing.  I feel the book itself - the story and how it is written  - are done and ready to go. I chose the custom illustrated cover because it is a children's book and so the cover is very important.

Yesterday, my Project Team Manager, Alita, called to go over what will happen next. She told me that I have a project team consisting of five people. I have people!  Very cool.

They have applied for a number from the Library of Congress and then we open up the project and get moving. In the meantime, I am final proofing the manuscript and reading on their website about what they will need to know from me with regard to creating the actual book. Things like: What kind of font do I want? Do I want any interior illustrations? What is my vision for the cover?  Also I have to read about their specs for anything that I upload to them (manuscript or images).

We should get underway in a about a week. I am very excited and feel good about this decision. Best of all, I have people!!

9 comments:

  1. And so the journey begins - and a wonderful journey it will be! xox

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  2. That is so exciting! Putting one's heart and soul onto paper or canvas and seeing it published and sold is so rewarding, all the best!

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  3. Awesome. Best of luck with this! Keep us posted.

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  4. Congrats! What a great feeling that must be.

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  5. Oh, so exciting! I'm a newbie, never published, with a couple of novellas waiting for the light of day. This would be a doable thing, I feel, for most of us who are afraid to take the next step.
    Can you share how much all this will cost?

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  6. Thanks everyone! Yes, I hope I can take some of the scary out of it for all of us! And yes, I'll share the costs. I'll do that in the next post. It feels very reasonable to me.

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  7. I love just reading about this, it's so cool you have people! Very exciting, I can't wait to read along as you continue on this journey. :)

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  8. Wow! I'm getting excited for you just reading this!! I read your newest blog post before reading this one and it all sounds great! Congrats and I know you'll do fabulously, dahhhhling!

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  9. P.S. I forgot to say that my husband and I, too, kid about having My people call Your people!! We have a fun life!

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