This is the time of the year to get good news. I recently received some from my publisher about my novel The Final Crusade.  Publish America sent me an email notifying me that soon my novel would be released in ebook formats and will also be available for Amazon’s Kindle.  This will also make it available for PC’s, MAC’s and iPhones.

I was very happy to hear this because it opens up a whole new audience for my book.  Both young people and seniors are using the new readers such as the Kindle and the Nook. The readers hold hundreds of books and may also be easier to read for seniors like me.

I have to say that more good news like this would be a nice Christmas present.

The same day I received a second email from the publisher notifying me that my book, The Final Crusade, would be on display at the Book Expo America in New York from May 25 to the 27th. The Book Expo America is one of the biggest conferences in the USA. It brings together publishers, agents, authors, distributors and book sellers from all over. A lot of eyes would be on my book and, hopefully, something good would come from it.

In mid May, PublishAmerica contacted me about setting up book signings. They asked me to provide them with names of businesses, locations, phone numbers, email addresses and the name of a contact person at each place.  They offered to contact these places to help set up book signings. Having the publisher contact these businesses would be a big help to me.

March 8, 2010 I received an email telling me that my book, The Final Crusade, was selected to be among this week’s Book of the Week selections. This made me feel good. It put my book out there among the first seen and recommended on the PublishAmerica website.

On March 26, 2010 PublishAmerica notified me that the official release date for The Final Crusade would be May 1, 2010.  They also told me it was currently available for purchase through PublishAmerica’s online bookstore. This email also told me they would create a Press Release and they asked me to send them Names and email addresses for all my local media. They planned to send the Press Release to them at the proper time.

They also told me to record any book signings I scheduled and send the pictures or video to them so they could be posted in the PublishAmerica gallery. They offered to provide a lot of help and I appreciated it. Things seemed to be moving very quickly.

On February 23, 2010 I received a second email from Publish America telling me to disregard the cover design file provided with the previous email. They informed me the cover design in this email was the one they preferred. Again I was given 48 hours to review it for errors or notify them of my acceptance of it. On February 26, I notified them I was pleased with the cover design.

On the same day, PublishAmerica emailed me to say they had finalized my book files and it was going to print. They informed me it would appear on the on the PublishAmerica website in a matter of weeks.

On March 2, 2010 I received an email from PublishAmerica that they were preparing to ship me a free copy of my book, The Final Crusade. A second email arrived notifying me they had sent an announcement of the release of my book to the list of people I had supplied them. This email was a copy of the release. Now my excitement was at it’s highest level.

On December 23, 2009, I received an email from PublishAmerica informing me that my manuscript was now in the Text Production Department.  This was to be the final draft with no more changes. It was exciting to have reached this point in the publication process.

On January 11, 2010 I sent PublishAmerica three photographs of myself taken by a professional photographer. They would select one of the photographs to use on the back cover of the book. I included a release form which allowed them to use the photographs. On January 12, 2010 PublishAmerica emailed me that they received the photos and release form.

It was at this point that my manuscript arrived in the Production Department. I described this in my blog of February 25, 2010.

On February 12, 2010 PublishAmerica emailed me and told me my book, The Final Crusade, had moved into the Cover Design Department. My excitement was really building at this point.

I seem to have gotten ahead of myself with my last post. So, I will backtrack a little bit to shortly after the beginning. Within days after the initial phone call telling me that PublishAmerica wanted to publish my novel, I received a sample copy of their author’s contract to review. Like all contracts, it was lengthy and hard to understand in places. After several readings, I notified them of my acceptance. Within a few days, I received a copy of the contract completely filled in.

I had to respond to the completed contract with an electronic signature. This was a new experience for me. PublishAmerica made it simple. By following their directions, I was able to quickly return the signature form.

Two days later I received an email explaining where my manuscript was in the production process.  Also included was an author’s questionnaire for me to fill out. While working on the questionnaire, I contacted the pre-production department with a technical question. I was pleased when they answered my email within one day. I then completed and returned the questionnaire shortly before Christmas 2009.

Again I apologize for the length of time since my last post. It has been a busy time for me. The official release date for my novel The Final Crusade was May 1, 2010.  A signed copy can be purchased at the web site http://www.thefinalcrusadebook.com

In my initial contacts with Publish America they quoted a time frame of 6 to 9 months until publication.  I have been pleasantly surprised at how fast things have progressed. I hope this is a sign the publisher is as excited about getting my book into reader’s hands as I am.

The publisher wanted me to read the manuscript and pick out any publisher errors.  Since I couldn’t make any corrections in the PDF file, Publish America wanted me to list all the mistakes in an email and send it to them. There was a short deadline to complete it and return my email listing any errors.  It was fun reading the story from start to finish once again as I hadn’t done that in a long while since completing the final editing drafts.

Thankfully, I only found a couple of minor errors. I heaved a sigh of relief, listed the problems I found in the manuscript and returned the email to them within the deadline.

Each step of the way along the publishing trail has been exciting and fun. I’ve enjoyed it as I know other first time authors will also. My excitement builds with each step of the publishing process. My dream of seeing the story I wrote in book form will be realized. I sometimes think it is all still a dream, until the next email arrives from Publish America with another deadline for me to meet.  But it is all a lot of fun.

Since this will be my first published book, I thought that other would be authors out there might enjoy following along with me down the path from manuscript to final publication. We can enjoy together the many unusual events an author encounters during the publication and promotional process.

I wrote The Final Crusade a number of years ago. In the ensuing years, I received enough rejections to wallpaper a small house. Many of the rejections were due to the controversial nature of the subject matter. I began to believe that my beloved manuscript would never see the light inside a book store as it sat in a respected position on a shelf. Then, on December 7, 2009 that all changed with a phone call.

I looked at the caller ID and it read PublishAmerica. Wow, I thought, this is strange. They are actually calling me to tell me they don’t want to publish my book. That’s new. Imagine my surprise when the Acquisitions Editor congratulated me and told me they wanted to publish The Final Crusade. And thus, my life changed.

I hope you will come along with me as I describe the many new changes and adventures in a first time novelist’s life by bookmarking my blog, subscribing to my blog’s RSS feed, or connecting with me on my Facebook or Twitter accounts, or all of the above.