Suzanne Adam and I met in 2010, while I was leading writing workshops at Los Parronales Writers’ Retreat in Santiago, Chile. I was a structural editor for her first memoir, Marrying Santiago, which was later awarded the 2016 Moritz Thomsen Peace Corps Experience Award. Suzanne, a member of the long-running Santiago Writers, is about to release her second book, a collection of personal essays. She shares her editing process and pre-publication experience here.
I read and reread my manuscript and am satisfied. It is ready. Time to make the big leap . . . Or is it?
As I read the text yet again, doubts flood me. I’ve read it so often that it sounds flat to me. Will readers actually find engaging this mixed bag of expanded blog posts, travel pieces, and musings from my past? Will a publisher be interested?
There is only one way to find out.
A friend of a friend recommends She Writes Press. I check out their website. It’s a hybrid press (author and publisher share expenses), designed to give more opportunities to women writers. That’s for me. Copy. Attach. Send.
Days later, the publisher’s name appears in my email inbox. She’s accepted my manuscript, Notes from the Bottom of the World, A Life in Chile! Then I read on. My manuscript needs work, she writes, and she assigns me to Annie, an independent editor.
Weekly thirty-minute Skype sessions with Annie are equivalent to a semester in creative writing. We first tackle structure for this essay collection, written over the past three or four years. Picking the first and last piece is easy, as is arranging the essays in chronological order. I’m filled with satisfaction when themes and chapter titles reveal themselves to me bit by bit. I cut up colored index cards, big pieces for chapter titles and smaller ones with essay titles, and set them out on the floor to organize. It’s like a game. I move the cards back and forth and gradually see my book taking shape.
In addition to perfecting my writing skills, I must become a saleswoman. It doesn’t come naturally to me. I dread facing this aspect of publishing but also see it as a challenge. I can do it! Sales hook, book description, selling points, target audience, biography, key words for Amazon searches, and endorsements. To my surprise I find learning these new tasks enjoyable, as is working on the book cover with the SWP designer. What a sense of satisfaction when we get the cover just right.
Do I need a publicist? Posts on the Fall 2018 She Writes Press Authors Facebook page convince me that I do. The cost of hiring a publicist makes me reluctant, but living overseas I recognize that I will need help if I want to reach a wider public through book talks, news articles, and podcasts. I find Isabella, a local publicist in the San Francisco Bay Area where I plan to spend a month at the time of my book’s publication. Isabella is guiding me through this daunting marketing process. Enthusiastic, she reassures me when I express worry about public presentations. People will want to get to know you, the person behind the words, she says. She has excellent contacts at libraries, clubs, and bookstores. I am even scheduled for a book talk and signing at my favorite independent bookstore, Book Passage, where I’ve attended author talks over the years. A dream come true.
Isabella is planning more activities as we get closer to my November 6 publication date. I must also advertise on Facebook and send out emails to friends and acquaintances. Advance Reading Copies (ARCs), which will look just like the published book, will be sent to me and my publicist within two months, and Isabella will distribute copies to reviewers.
I’ve spent years bending over a computer, dog-earring my thesaurus, jotting down ideas before I forget, and editing, editing, editing. And now, the publication wheels are in motion. This waiting time brings a mix of excitement and nervousness. And my mind spins with questions: Will I get decent turnouts at my book talks? Can I deliver a compelling talk? (This is something I’m reading up on now.) What will the reviews say?
Whatever the next few months bring, I’m ready. I have to be. And most amazing of all, I’ll soon hold my second book in my hands.
§ § §
SUZANNE ADAM grew up northern California. After graduating from UC Berkeley, she served in the Peace Corps in Colombia before moving to Santiago, Chile in 1972 to marry Santiago. She explores how this experience shaped her life in her 2015 memoir Marrying Santiago, published under the imprint of Peace Corps Writers. Her new book, Notes from the Bottom of the World: A Life in Chile, will be available on November 6, 2018.
She admits to being a tree-hugger, avid reader, nature writer, friend to stray dogs and cats, gardener, CNN news junkie, bird watcher, lover of storms and laughter, and doting granny. Before turning to writing, she worked as a teacher of learning disabled children. A member of Santiago Writers, she has published essays in The Christian Science Monitor, California Magazine, Marin Independent Journal, Nature Writing, and Persimmon Tree. She blogs at Tarweed Spirit.
Both Notes from the Bottom of the World, A Life in Chile and Marrying Santiago can be purchased from Amazon.com.