Editing, book trailer, and more for the Deliver Me book

I have been so stinkin' busy I haven't updated you on the book in quite awhile! So much exciting stuff is going on. Here's a rundown:

Editing: The book has been with the editor, and I just got it back from her yesterday! So now I must go through her edits and fix what needs fixin'. She assured me there isn't that much, which pleases me. :-)

Front cover: We finalized the front cover and I love it. Hope you do, too.

Back cover: I hired a friend I met at a writer's conference to write the back cover copy for me. She does the same for some major traditional publishers, so I was thrilled to meet her and have her do this for me. She has a great mind for marketing, and had a lot of input for me, and next time I will know how to use her in many more ways. It was wonderful to have someone else write the back cover copy instead of everything sounding the same coming from me. It's cool to hear how someone else would describe the book, and it was also a great learning experience for me.

Purchased ISBNs: Had to buy my ISBNs to open the account with Lightning Source, who will be printing and shipping the book. If you don't know what an ISBN is, it's the International Standard Book Number and it is embedded in the bar code on the back of the book (as well as printed on the copyright page). It is 13 digits, and identifies my book from all others. It is required by bookstores, so if you're planning to self-publish your own book, your book will need one. If you go through a self-publishing company, they may supply you one (at a price, of course). You can't buy just one. They come in blocks of at least ten, so now I have my ISBNs for future books also. Buy your ISBNs from Bowker at https://www.myidentifiers.com/.

LightningSource.com account: It has taken a while to walk through everything needed to get this account open. I had to get a new credit card (since I had cancelled my business card some time ago when they raised the interest rate to an ungodly amount!). Took awhile for the card to come. Had to also buy my ISBN and had some other hoops to jump through. Finally: Mission accomplished.

Book Trailer: I booked the production of a book trailer for Deliver Me several weeks ago and that is now in the works. Looking forward to that! When complete, it should run around two minutes. I'll give you more details in coming posts. I've been asked what I'll do with my trailer. I can show it whenever I speak, loop it to play continuously on my laptop when I have a book table, post it on my blog and web site, point visitors to it on U-tube. I can burn it to CDs and give it out. Lots of possibilities.

Business Insurance: When I worked with my attorney to create the Publishing Agreement for each contributor to sign, she also strongly suggested I look into business insurance. I would never have thought of that on my own. Now the time has come and I've been looking into that and I think I have it arranged. What do I need business insureance for, you ask? Liability (someone trips at my booksigning), legal fees, stuff like that.

Registered Connections Press: I am publishing this book, Deliver Me, under the name of my brand new publishing company, Connections Press. So I also needed to register my publishing company (my dba - "doing business as") name with the Colorado Secretary of State. This means if someone comes looking for Connections Press, they can find me. I can also accept payments and do other business using that name. So I got that name registered.

Yep. Been busy. I'm telling you all of this because I hope it will help you to learn, possibly help you self-publish your book, or maybe even open that possibility to you.

I'm now the proud owner of Connections Press, a Lightning Source account, and ten ISBNs! It's exciting!

Now I'm a finalist!

Well what do you know? Last Friday the 168 Project announced its list of finalists. The semi-finalist list was whittled down to 11. (They said they just couldn't get it down to ten!)

And guess who's on the list! http://www.168project.com/news/261.cfm

I'm especially excited since my story in my script was inspired by the Deliver Me book.

As a finalist, do you think someone might want to actually produce my script into a short film?

There will be one winner with a cash prize and a meeting with Hollywood producer Ralph Winter, and two runner ups. Those will be announced tomorrow evening, Wednesday, November 17th.

If you want to tune in and watch it live, go to http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-168-film-project. You will have to set up a free account. The announcement should be around 7:30 PST. If you tune in, use the chat to let me know you're there. My user name is DianneWrites. Hope to see you there!