Prepare to Publish

“First decide if you want a large or small press, and make a commitment. You’ll need a mission statement. Either size, you’ll need to market and promote your book. Send me a book proposal, your three best chapters, and have a marketing plan.” Said the literary agent.
I decide big press. I am committed.

I have yet to write my mission statement, to see it on the page, to write it out loud and face my desires and dreams for my book.

I already have the manuscript, why do I need a book proposal? While reading “How to Write a Book Proposal” by Michael Larsen, I learned. The agent needs a book proposal because that’s what he takes to sell your book to editors and publishers. The next thing I read is take-your-time with the proposal, but make it the best you can. Oh.
“Your three best chapters¬” is akin to which child is your favorite? Now groom him and send him out alone—to represent you in the marketplace.
And trademark a great title. (I feel guilt just writing this, I haven’t thought about that yet.)

Marketing plan? Get visible?
I got the book; “Get Known Before the Book Deal” by Christina Katz at the library in May and while attending the Book Expo in New York City later that month, Christina Katz was a panelist. How do you get known? Get a platform!
What’s a platform? “The ways you are visible and appealing to your future, potential, or actual readership.” Katz. Website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, attend conferences, write articles, go to and give readings—get visible! “Think productive, ditch resistance!”
I bought her book.

Is this the marines or what? I want to write and be published. And in 2009 this is only the tip of the iceberg. Yikes.
I spent the day learning Word Press in order to ‘Blog in five minutes’ and entered another world of new terms. I thought I learned a whole new way of writing and formatting with recipes, and here I am again, with the vocabulary of the web Blog. Words like widget, plug-ins, permalinks, themes, templates, bots, trawl, trackbacks, links, dashboard, comment management, tags, categories, pings, and posts. I know how new they are by the red spell-check underlines as I write them.

I started a blog a week ago; https://italianhandful.wordpress.com My blog’s name is “Testing the Recipes….” I committed to posting once a week. I bought “Word Press for Dummies”— and made red asparagus from the Farmer’s Market, wrapped in bacon, took the pictures, ate it (delicious), named it Flying Bacon Bundles, wrote the recipe, and added a post and pictures.
And I’m sure— another two pounds.

I heard from my college roommate that afternoon and she just got on Facebook. She said the neighbor boy that helps her with the Internet and registered her for Facebook, told her he thought she was probably the oldest person on it. She tried to talk me into going to our college reunion in Kansas, but decided to come to Chicago instead. I told her I’ll do Facebook after I master the blog— and be the second oldest.

But next I need to start my second website— an author’s website. I’ve already secured my domain names, http://www.AdagioMicaletti.com and my book’s website, http://www.ItalianHandful.com but when I accidentally put in the wrong address for my blog— my website http://www.ItalianHandful.com came up and there were all sorts of advertisements on it, “parked” on my dime—and Go Daddy.com is collecting the revenue.
Now I know what WWW stands for—welcome to the Wild Wild Web!