George Bannon

On April 13, 2010 PublishAmerica emailed me a copy of the Press Release which they put out announcing the availability of my book, The Final Crusade.  It did my ego great to see this professional release telling about my book. The email stated the publisher sent the release this same day to a number of people and media organizations. Word about The Final Crusade was getting out.

The same day I received a second email from the publisher notifying me that my book, The Final Crusade, would be on display at the Book Expo America in New York from May 25 to the 27th. The Book Expo America is one of the biggest conferences in the USA. It brings together publishers, agents, authors, distributors and book sellers from all over. A lot of eyes would be on my book and, hopefully, something good would come from it.

In mid May, PublishAmerica contacted me about setting up book signings. They asked me to provide them with names of businesses, locations, phone numbers, email addresses and the name of a contact person at each place.  They offered to contact these places to help set up book signings. Having the publisher contact these businesses would be a big help to me.

During this period, My son, Scott, built a website for me at http://georgebannon.com.  This is what he does for a living. I had emailed PublishAmerica on March 2, 2010 asking for permission to use the cover design on the website. On March 4, 2010 they responded giving permission to use it. PublishAmerica seems to provide as much help as they can to new authors.

March 8, 2010 I received an email telling me that my book, The Final Crusade, was selected to be among this week’s Book of the Week selections. This made me feel good. It put my book out there among the first seen and recommended on the PublishAmerica website.

On March 26, 2010 PublishAmerica notified me that the official release date for The Final Crusade would be May 1, 2010.  They also told me it was currently available for purchase through PublishAmerica’s online bookstore. This email also told me they would create a Press Release and they asked me to send them Names and email addresses for all my local media. They planned to send the Press Release to them at the proper time.

They also told me to record any book signings I scheduled and send the pictures or video to them so they could be posted in the PublishAmerica gallery. They offered to provide a lot of help and I appreciated it. Things seemed to be moving very quickly.

On February 22, 2010 I received an email from PublishAmerica that my book, The Final Crusade, was now in the Cover Design Department. The email included a PDF file showing the front and rear cover of the book. I was given 48 hours to review the file and notify PublishAmerica of any errors.

On February 23, 2010 I received a second email from Publish America telling me to disregard the cover design file provided with the previous email. They informed me the cover design in this email was the one they preferred. Again I was given 48 hours to review it for errors or notify them of my acceptance of it. On February 26, I notified them I was pleased with the cover design.

On the same day, PublishAmerica emailed me to say they had finalized my book files and it was going to print. They informed me it would appear on the on the PublishAmerica website in a matter of weeks.

On March 2, 2010 I received an email from PublishAmerica that they were preparing to ship me a free copy of my book, The Final Crusade. A second email arrived notifying me they had sent an announcement of the release of my book to the list of people I had supplied them. This email was a copy of the release. Now my excitement was at it’s highest level.

This blog continues the story of the publication process of my first book The Final Crusade.

On December 23, 2009, I received an email from PublishAmerica informing me that my manuscript was now in the Text Production Department.  This was to be the final draft with no more changes. It was exciting to have reached this point in the publication process.

On January 11, 2010 I sent PublishAmerica three photographs of myself taken by a professional photographer. They would select one of the photographs to use on the back cover of the book. I included a release form which allowed them to use the photographs. On January 12, 2010 PublishAmerica emailed me that they received the photos and release form.

It was at this point that my manuscript arrived in the Production Department. I described this in my blog of February 25, 2010.

On February 12, 2010 PublishAmerica emailed me and told me my book, The Final Crusade, had moved into the Cover Design Department. My excitement was really building at this point.