A day in the life... Part 2.

When I wrote my blog giving you a glimpse into a day of my life as an indie writer with a full-time job, my wife suggested we do one about a day in her life as the one doing all the rest of the work – or, as I like to call it, the hard work.

While this isn’t exactly a day in the life because days vary based on where we are in what we call a “new release cycle,” it’s a pretty good glimpse into the various tasks she has to perform to publish a book and market it. In fact, when I asked her what to type, she gave me a handwritten list she’d made, and we laughed because I cannot read her handwriting. The list was long, but it in no way encompasses everything she does to put out one of my books. In case you were wondering, we laughed because it looked like she’d written “toe loving,” but it was actually “tailoring,” and it took her a minute to even remember what that word was herself, so it wasn’t just me.

Let’s pretend we’re putting out a new release, shall we?

The first thing she has to do is figure out when it’s going to come out. I used to put out 6-7 books a year, but last year, it was 9, and this year, it will be 9, too, and we also, you know, have a life, so we like to do things like get out of the house when we can. She needs to make sure she has the schedule locked down for the year, including things like pre-order dates, release dates, if we’re doing audio for a book or not, and making sure she has time to do everything between books that she needs to do before it’s time for the next one.

To do that, we need a few things. We need a cover for each book format, which she designs and we review together. She needs to edit the manuscript, format it for all sorts of versions (e-book, paperback, hardcover, etc.), and then upload for publishing, where she’ll also set prices, fill out all the required book settings, review other important info like adding the ISBN (which she also has to buy and fill out all the required details for). She’ll also make sure to get the book copyrighted legally to protect my work as well.

Once the book is edited, formatted, and ready to go, she has to send it to my ARC Team (hi, awesome ARC Team), who will read and sometimes, send any typos they find back. Then, she fixes those issues and creates “final” versions of the book to upload. Don’t forget: there are different formats of the book (ARC file, e-book, paperback, hardcover, event-specific formats, and sometimes, audio), so she’s formatting all of those, which means different cover sizes, layout specifications, platforms requirements, and things like that.

There’s also all the social images and graphics that need to be created. So, she’s making those, too. Adjusting the collage images with the new book for a series, for example, making sure she has multiple images that would work for different social media, etc. We also participate in various sales and challenges, and those require graphics to be made or adjusted, as well as updating prices back and forth on time. She’s the one updating social media after the previous release with the information for the new release, letting everyone know in the profiles, banner images, etc., that a new book is on its way.

Every week, because of the challenges and giveaways, she’s adding those to our social or getting the challenge providers the information they need to post on their end. I.e., the blurbs, book links, images, etc., and because I have so many books now, that’s basically happening every single week in one way or another.

She’s also in charge of this very site and has to keep it up to date with every release. That includes making a book page, series page, updating the main bookshelf and new releases listings, adding the soundtracks/playlist, getting me to give her what I think the angst, sarcasm, and heat ranges are to add to those meters to help people choose the book, etc.