This Monday morning, all of us at Ooligan Press met for our first executive meeting of the new year. Just before heading our separate ways for the holidays, we had put in an order for print galleys of The Wax Bullet War. They arrived just in time for our meeting, and despite the start of term hubbub and an ill-timed fire alarm, The Wax Bullet War galley really stole the show. We saw the book in print a couple months back when we ordered special one-off galleys from a local printer, but these galleys are on a whole different level. They are a much closer approximation to what the finished product will be like, and they look and feel amazing.

Although we are only seven days into the new year, we are already staring down a long to-do list. We ordered one hundred print galleys (more than we usually order in advance copies) because so many people are already asking about the book, even this many months before publication. Our first order of business will be sending these advance copies to sales reps, reviewers, and other media outlets. Meanwhile, having the galleys finished means that we can forge ahead with finalizing the interior layout for the finished book, as well as begin the e-book creation process.

We have about twelve weeks until our official publication date, and they are sure to be busy ones. Between now and then, we have to finish the print and e-book designs, proof read the final documents, continue with all of our marketing efforts, and plan launch events and readings. While the publishing process might seem linear, there are always a lot of pieces in motion at any given time: design, editing, and marketing are all working simultaneously—sometimes independently, and collaboratively at other times. Such is the life of a book.

Until next week,
Laurel