Tag: publicity

Launch Day

Published on by Laura Nicole Diamond2 Comments

For almost a year, today’s date, June 8, 2015, has glimmered impossibly in the future: my first novel’s Publication Date. It has the same magical qualities as a baby’s due date.

And, practically speaking, it is almost as reliable a metric for when your baby or book will arrive.*  Stores have been selling Shelter Us for a couple weeks, Amazon has been shipping it, and friends and family who have read it and liked it have told me so. (I’m not keeping a list, ahem.)

Still, I’m human, and humans love to infuse meaning into 24 hour periods — like birthdays, anniversaries, and the 4th of July. I can’t let this date pass without a little huzzah. Besides, seeing as I’ve been talking and talking and talking about this book (I’m so sorry) for so long, the least I could do is share some Launch day trivia with you.

Here’s a glimpse of the glamorous life of a newly published novelist:

  • Wake up foggy-headed and remember that you’re supposed to pick up your eldest child from a sleepover in twenty minutes.
  • Send newsletter announcing Launch Day, asking everyone to please read your book. Again.
  • Throw on sneakers and sweatshirt, lick finger to wipe mascara from under eyelids (why does it never come off all the way?) in case there’s an earthquake and you have to get out of the car.
  • Check e-mail, read a new review!
  • Bring child home, make him breakfast and a sack lunch for camp. Take to camp.
  • Come home. Wash dishes.
  • Do a radio interview! (…while sitting in a closet, because this is the day tree trimmers came.)
  • Closet 1Take child shopping for shorts and bathing suit for camp.
  • Come home. Wash dishes. Again.
  • Let your kids break into the cookies you bought for tomorrow’s Launch Party.
  • Remember to thank your spouse for being unconditionally supportive and amazing, including that last text that dinner is almost ready.
  • Pinch yourself that people are reading your book, and even if you never write another word, this is enough.

There you have June 8, 2015, a big day, and also just a Monday, drizzled with bursts of excitement and the mundane. As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t get any better than this.

 

*Side note: Only 5% of babies are born on their due dates. My second baby was one of those!