Help Along The Way
Tilting Gravity releases on April 2 and I’m in pre-order mode, my heart jumping every time someone submits their pre-order form, and wishing the best when I send out their incentives by hand. And I’m very happy, and very sappy, about all of it.
Gratitude Practices & Sharing
A note here to say that one of my tools for a healthy mind is a gratitude practice. However, there is so much virtue signaling around being grateful, as well as incredibly harmful toxic positivity surrounding gratitude, that sharing what we’re grateful for can sometimes come across as gloating or bragging. It is also a practice that is laced with privilege.
Acknowledging that is important to me, as well as trying to counterbalance the negative aspects of sharing gratitude. I’ve tried to, when reasonable, link to any resources I mention in this post and give honest opinions about my experience or thoughts related to those resources. I hope this is helpful!
That Being Said…
Publishing a book is so much more than writing it. It’s a different beast entirely. So, here is a list of people, places, and things that helped me not only write, but launch my first novel.
Tech Stack
Omg, do you think using the phrase “tech stack” will get me SEO points? (No, probably not.) Anyway, here’s a quick list of the tech I used to muddle through writing Tilting Gravity.
Google Docs - That is, until the document became too big to load easily.
Scrivener - Everything now lives here. It’s my book bible and my manuscript holder for all my books.
Microsoft Word - I created my query package using Word, and my publisher worked with Word to do edits. While this isn’t a shocking item on the list, it’s important to acknowledge that Word does cost money. Exporting/saving as .docx from Google Docs is the free workaround I’ve found easiest.
4TheWords - A sprint/word-count goal browser game! I used to help Tilting Gravity and I loved it so much, I wrote most of my Peter Pan retelling on it.
Spotify - In order to curate the book playlist that eventually became…
YouTube - this.
MasterClass - Specifically N.K. Jemisin’s class. I can’t get over how valuable her lessons were to shaping my writing. (Though not shocking. There’s a reason she’s the best modern SFF author. I said what I said. She pulled off second-person flawlessly. She can have all the awards forever.).
Publishing Industry Help
I’ve already written about my querying journey and how I made the decision to go small press with my debut. However, I did have a number of individuals and organizations help make this little dream of mine come true. Even though they are listed in the acknowledgments of Tilting Gravity, I wanted to show appreciation here, too.
The Word Sojourner - I hired Laura to go over my manuscript with me before I started to query. The document was a complete mess, having gone through two POV changes and a tense change partway through. Laura helped boost my confidence in my big pile of words, enough to continue the path to query and, later, publication.
Aurora Graves - Aurora was one of the first people I connected with on Twitter when I was beginning my querying process. She graciously shared with me her industry knowledge when I was near giving up, and when I received my book contract offer.
Strictly Textual - I hired Kaitlyn after I had my book contract in hand. I wanted help going over the legalese to make sure everything looked good. She gave very helpful advice on what to negotiate and how, and was overall wonderful to work with!
Salt & Sage Books - Before I handed off my final-final manuscript to my publisher, I wanted to get another set of eyes on it. This time, to address the fact that Syd, one of the main characters, has a different skin tone than I do. The team and Salt & Sage helped me to make sure Tilting Gravity reads the best it can for every reader in my audience.
Gold Leaf Literary - Shortly after signing my contract, I hired Gold Leaf Literary for an hour to go over what book PR for an indie author could look like. They were beyond helpful, and gave me a roadmap to what is possible now vs what can be possible later.
Artists
I hired a few artists along the way to help keep me motivated (and to later help shape the future of my book launch). I’m eternally grateful to any artist who can take what’s in their head and make something out of it. Here are the ones I’ve had the pleasure of working with on Tilting Gravity:
Messy Ever After - Kelly and I came together over our love of the artistic process. Her print work inspired an entire vision for Tilting Gravity’s cover, which later then inspired the final cover from my publisher. I’m excited to show off Kelly’s version of the book cover one day soon!
Dewi Hargreaves - Hire Dewi for maps. Period. (Dewi is a phenomenal mapmaker, editor, and writer! He’s also super kind, uplifting, and hilarious. I hired him to rework my map for Tilting Gravity. That map is now in the front of the novel and part of the digital pre-order package!)
Athena Bliss - Athena turned Syd and Adeline into the characters I had in my head all along. Her artwork for Tilting Gravity is available as stickers and downloads for the pre-order packages, as well!
Aida Reluzco - I commissioned Aida as a present to myself. I’d been wanting to throw my money at her for quite some time and finally, when I turned in my final-final edits on Tilting Gravity, I splurged and bought character art concepts of Tilting Gravity’s trio. She captured a side of the book I didn’t even know existed and helped me fall back in love with my story.
Jacq Babb - I hired one of my dearest friends, Jacq, to do a number of quick voice-over promos, reading directly from Tilting Gravity. As always, they knocked it out of the park, breathing even more life into Syd, Adeline, Keal, and the rest of the cast.
Shameless Self-Promo*
Anyway, folks. Don’t forget TILTING GRAVITY releases April 2! Get your pre-order package forms in before midnight, April 1 (and Happy Fool’s Day if I don’t talk to you until then)!
*Scrivener link is an affiliate link. I receive 20% commission if you decide to purchase a license. Thanks for considering! :)