This will be quick.
A lot of folks are self-publishing these days. I'm sure there are some good products out there, but I'm guessing that the majority are being self-published because they should be. As you know by now, 'Avery McShane and the Silver Spurs' was picked up by Bloomsbury and will be published in early January.
Now these folks have been great! I mean it...amazing even. My editor - the one who did the same thing for the Harry Potter books - is fantastic. Her support staff of copy editors and illustrators and the marketing team have been wonderful. Apart from the 18 month wait to get the book published, it's been a cool ride.
Aside from all of the quality they've injected into the project, there is one thing they do that someone self-publishing will have a hard time replicating (at least, at this point). They have my book out there - all over the world - and we're not even done with it. The final proof edit doesn't even get to me until next week. The maps haven't been completed, but they will follow up pretty soon. When it's all done, they'll be sending it off to Waterstones to see if it can earn a shortlisting and, fingers-crossed, maybe win their prestigious prize.
By 'out there', I mean way out there. Google the title of the book. It will show up on each of the first 16 pages of selections. It is being marketed in: USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Japan, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Czech Rep., Poland, Norway, Holland and Turkey. Those are the ones I could figure out. Of course, Amazon.com has a lot to do with that...but still....
And here's the irony. Not one of the countries on the list are in Latin America. The story takes place in Venezuela. What the...?
I'm sure the Spanish-speaking countries will start popping up soon. They'd better.
