George Bannon

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.

Well, it’s been a long time since my last blog post.  I apologize for that. I hope to keep to a better schedule in the future.

I seem to have gotten ahead of myself with my last post. So, I will backtrack a little bit to shortly after the beginning. Within days after the initial phone call telling me that PublishAmerica wanted to publish my novel, I received a sample copy of their author’s contract to review. Like all contracts, it was lengthy and hard to understand in places. After several readings, I notified them of my acceptance. Within a few days, I received a copy of the contract completely filled in.

I had to respond to the completed contract with an electronic signature. This was a new experience for me. PublishAmerica made it simple. By following their directions, I was able to quickly return the signature form.

Two days later I received an email explaining where my manuscript was in the production process.  Also included was an author’s questionnaire for me to fill out. While working on the questionnaire, I contacted the pre-production department with a technical question. I was pleased when they answered my email within one day. I then completed and returned the questionnaire shortly before Christmas 2009.

Again I apologize for the length of time since my last post. It has been a busy time for me. The official release date for my novel The Final Crusade was May 1, 2010.  A signed copy can be purchased at the web site http://www.thefinalcrusadebook.com

In early February, I received an email from my publisher notifying me that my book had moved into the Production Department.  Attached to the email was a PDF copy of my entire manuscript. In viewing the file, my manuscript was laid out as if it was a finished novel. It was exciting to see it this way.

In my initial contacts with Publish America they quoted a time frame of 6 to 9 months until publication.  I have been pleasantly surprised at how fast things have progressed. I hope this is a sign the publisher is as excited about getting my book into reader’s hands as I am.

The publisher wanted me to read the manuscript and pick out any publisher errors.  Since I couldn’t make any corrections in the PDF file, Publish America wanted me to list all the mistakes in an email and send it to them. There was a short deadline to complete it and return my email listing any errors.  It was fun reading the story from start to finish once again as I hadn’t done that in a long while since completing the final editing drafts.

Thankfully, I only found a couple of minor errors. I heaved a sigh of relief, listed the problems I found in the manuscript and returned the email to them within the deadline.

Each step of the way along the publishing trail has been exciting and fun. I’ve enjoyed it as I know other first time authors will also. My excitement builds with each step of the publishing process. My dream of seeing the story I wrote in book form will be realized. I sometimes think it is all still a dream, until the next email arrives from Publish America with another deadline for me to meet.  But it is all a lot of fun.

My name is George Bannon. I am a writer and soon to be published author. Well, I guess I officially became an author on December 7, 2009 when PublishAmerica advised me that they wanted to publish my novel The Final Crusade. On that day I began the journey of taking my novel from the words on my computer screen to an actual book that people can see, hold, read and hopefully enjoy.

Since this will be my first published book, I thought that other would be authors out there might enjoy following along with me down the path from manuscript to final publication. We can enjoy together the many unusual events an author encounters during the publication and promotional process.

I wrote The Final Crusade a number of years ago. In the ensuing years, I received enough rejections to wallpaper a small house. Many of the rejections were due to the controversial nature of the subject matter. I began to believe that my beloved manuscript would never see the light inside a book store as it sat in a respected position on a shelf. Then, on December 7, 2009 that all changed with a phone call.

I looked at the caller ID and it read PublishAmerica. Wow, I thought, this is strange. They are actually calling me to tell me they don’t want to publish my book. That’s new. Imagine my surprise when the Acquisitions Editor congratulated me and told me they wanted to publish The Final Crusade. And thus, my life changed.

I hope you will come along with me as I describe the many new changes and adventures in a first time novelist’s life by bookmarking my blog, subscribing to my blog’s RSS feed, or connecting with me on my Facebook or Twitter accounts, or all of the above.