It’s only 8 months till The Edge of Solitude hits bookshops – so what’s happening with the book, and what am I doing to prepare?
A couple of weeks ago, I was delighted to finally be able to announce the upcoming publication of my second novel, The Edge of Solitude, by Canongate in July 2024 – so a huge thank you to everyone who left such lovely comments, both on here and on Twitter and Instagram. I’d been sitting on the news for a while (it was agreed almost a year ago, and I had my first editorial meeting about it in November 2022), so you can imagine how much I’ve been itching to tell people.
To be honest, I just love talking about the writing process in general – and that extends to all the stuff that happens around the actual writing. The editing, the proofing, the posting on social media. Waiting by the inbox for a cover design to appear. Organising a launch. Talking to people about the novel. Pitching articles and features and events.
But even though I love it, sometimes it can feel a bit overwhelming. How do you know what needs doing, and when? And how long should the whole process take anyway?
There’s no hard-and-fast answer to this. Every publisher will work differently, and have different priorities and timelines, depending on their own publishing schedules, and on the book and author in question.
But, with that caveat in mind, I want to share my own experiences on here: what I’m doing in the months before publication, and when I’m doing it.
So what’s the timeline so far?
March 2020: I travelled to Antarctica, and first had the idea for the novel which became The Edge of Solitude
May 2020: started to write the novel
August 2021: finished a truly shambolic first draft, which was shown to nobody
October 2021: spent a month at Gladstone’s Library, turning that shambolic first draft into something I could actually work with
December 2021: got the novel to a state where I was happy for other humans to look at it, and sent it to my agent
January – September 2022: worked with my agent to edit the novel, to get it as good as possible before submitting
October 2022: submitted to Canongate (sometimes at this point, an agent will submit to multiple publishers – however, because this was a second novel, and I had an option clause in my contract for my first book, My Name is Monster, we only submitted it to Canongate)
November 2022: first online meeting with my first editor, discussing our visions for the book
November 2022 – March 2023: we then worked on rewrites for the book for the next few months, until she left Canongate in April 2023 for another job, and I was assigned a new editor, who would take me through to publication of the book
March 2023: contract finalised and signed
July 2023: first meeting with my new editor, Leah, where we signed off on the manuscript
October 2023: press release finalised and publication announced!
So where does the novel currently stand?
At this point, the novel is written and edited. In practical terms, it means I won’t be changing the story or characters or anything at this point. In many ways, the book is done.
But that doesn’t mean it’s the end of the editing process – as I’m just about to go into a back-and-forth of copyedits. This is a kind of fine polishing, checking for over-complicated sentence structure, or tautology, or information delivered in an illogical order – all the kind of things that might be seen as minor details, but which might distract a reader.
I know some writers who find this part of the process tedious, but actually really enjoy this close attention to detail. I like being able to focus on paragraph-by-paragraph, or even sentence-by-sentence, edits, without having to hold the whole novel in my head all at once.
Once that part is done, I’ll be moving onto proofreading (spelling / grammar / inconsistencies within the text), but that’s a whole other ball game.
So, it’s 8 months till publication: what am I doing this month?
Book announcement: Since the announcement in The Bookseller a couple of weeks ago, I’ve shared the good news on social media, and on my website. I’ve had some really lovely comments and responses, so I want to keep up that kind of awareness of the book online, without battering people around the head with it.
Make lists! I’m a big fan of lists, because who doesn’t love the satisfaction of ticking things off them once they’re done?
articles & features I’d like to write, which would tie in with the book – and places I’d like to pitch them to
other authors I would like to blurb the book
authors I’d like to do events with, once the book comes out
festivals & event series where I’d like to speak about the book
people I want to email, to let them know about the book – from family & friends, to professional contacts, to organisations who have supported me during the writing process
The Form: Signing with a traditional publisher generally means that at some point, you’ll be asked to fill in The Form: the big form given to you by the publicity team, on which you basically write everyone you’ve ever met who might be useful in helping you to promote the book. For instance, if you happen to have an aunt who works for the BBC, or your neighbour is a book reviewer for The Guardian.
I have neither of these things – but because The Edge of Solitude is my second novel, I do have more friends & contacts in the book world than I did 5 years ago, when I was filling out the form for My Name is Monster. All of these will go on the form: lists of people I’d like to receive ARCs (Advance Reader Copies) of the book; lists of festivals & events I’d like to do; key themes I’d like drawn attention to in the publicity campaign; social media handles; any media figures I want to avoid.
It’s a pretty time-consuming job, but as any book publicist will tell you, an important one – which is why some of those lists I’m planning to make in advance of filling in the form will hopefully come in handy.
Pre-orders: There’s no hard and fast rule about when pre-orders go on sale – it depends on the publisher, and on individual bookshops. Usually, the publisher will make sure it’s listed on places like Amazon – but I’m also planning to help with this as an individual author. Luckily, I have a friend who runs a bookshop!
(I say luckily, but I’m a huge believer in creating your own networks; if you go to enough literary events, and support other writers – and especially support local bookshops – then of course you’re going to meet people, and end up getting on with some of them, and that supportive relationship is going to continue.)
So this month I’m planning to work with my lovely local indie bookshop Sam Read in Grasmere, to get pre-orders up and available to buy.
Once pre-orders are available, I’m also planning to:
email people in my contacts with the announcement about the book
update my social media profiles with the pre-order link
add the book (and link to pre-orders) to my website
If I get time, I may also start contacting some of the festivals & event series on my list – but we’ll see how we go!
But for now, I’m going to go and put another put of coffee on, then roll up my sleeves & get down to work.
Let me know if there’s anything you think I’ve missed – and please do share any tips you might have from your own publishing experiences!
This is very interesting to read. I haven't yet got an agent, so this is all information that's useful as there is so little written about the details once a book is to be published. Thanks for sharing.