The Key to Publishing a Book: Being a Staunch Celebrationist

Writing a book takes forever. Or, it does for me. I always think I’ll be able to crack the code for the next one, and write faster and be more efficient, but the reality is, it takes me five years to write a book. And five years is a long time to live in an imaginary world alone.

The good news for me is that I am a celebrationist, and with each book, I’ve realized how important it is to celebrate the small wins. Not just book deals and pub days, but all the wins in between. 

My third book, The Fun Times Brigade, came out May 1, and there were so many highlights en route to holding the printed book in my hand including:

• Writing the acknowledgments! The minute I open up a new word document with a novel idea, I start an acknowledgment doc so I don’t forget people who have helped along the way. As it takes me YEARS to write books, my acknowledgements end up being quite lengthy, but they are still my favourite thing to write (and read!)

• Research! I love making my characters have jobs I know nothing about. In my first novel, Letters to Amelia, I had my main character work at the Rare Books Library in Toronto. Was that so I could finagle a tour of the basement and sub-basement and dig around in the stacks? Maybe!!! In The Fun Times Brigade, my main character is a childrens’ performer, which meant I got to do a deep dive on the world of childrens’ music— interviewing legends like Fred Penner, and Sharon and Bram (from Sharon, Lois & Bram fame), and I made her husband a mathematician, which meant learning a lot about pi Days and special chalk! 

• Seeing the cover! Book cover designers are extraordinary humans. I don’t know how they capture the entire essence of a 300+ page novel in a single visual, but they do! Seeing the final design of The Fun Times Brigade cover made it all feel real. Real-real—assurance that all of these words and years of work were going to actually be a book 

• Reading the blurbs! Though asking for blurbs—the endorsements on the back of a book—is one of my least favourite parts of publishing a book, reading the blurbs as they come in is one of the best parts! It’s the first time readers who aren’t me, my writing group, my publisher or editor has read the book.  

• Planning a book launch! For years, especially when my manuscript was in shambles, planning my Fun Times Brigade book launch was my go-to daydream. Of course, the closer it got to the actual launch date, the more the daydreams were replaced with to-do lists, but it was still so much fun to dream up a perfect afternoon of books and crafts and merch and music (including my kid and his band!) 

And now that it’s officially launched, my highlight for always and ever will be seeing The Fun Times Brigade out in the wild—in bookstores, in libraries, in small squares on Instagram. My dream is to see someone reading it on transit! One day!!