Nothing prepares you for the rush of emotions when your book is printed. As the author, you’ll have been through the PDF proofs to sign off how it will look - both on the outside and the inside. Yet it’s another leap to receive the physical product. In this article, we speak to author V.S. Minou to share with you how it feels to see your book in print:Seeing the cover design
The cover design can be a favourite step of the publishing process for authors, having spent time dreaming up what the book will look like. But as author V.S. Minou found, choosing the cover design was a challenge. She says, "Creating the cover was a story in itself. At first, it wasn't how I imagined my book to look. But the SilverWood designer was great, taking on all the information I gave and I felt we really worked together to achieve something I was happy with. The first thing everyone says when they see the book is what a beautiful cover it is, so I think we really accomplished something, working as a team."
Choosing the finish
When it goes to print, there’s a choice of matte or gloss finish, which sometimes will be led by the design. Minou looked at lots of novels of the same genre in bookstores to see what other authors were using and it seemed the matte finish was most popular. And a matte finish does make the book feel very soft to hold. She says, "It fits in with the look of the book and everyone always comments on how it feels very velvety, so it's popular with my readers too."
Opening up the first box of books
V.S. Minou explains her raw feelings when she received her first box of books. "When the box arrived, there were a lot of emotions. It felt exciting and scary all at the same time. When I lifted the first book out and held it for the first time, I cried happy tears. There was just this release of emotions that everything had been building to this point; I had actually done it and I was holding my book at long last."
Holding your book for the first time
Many authors love the moment when they first hold their book. As Minou describes, "It just felt right holding the book for the first time. We had worked so long on finding the right font (it's set in Victorian Scotland), cover, blurb, everything, that I felt I knew the book before I held it and it went beyond my expectations. It was everything I had worked towards and every single thing was just perfect about it."
Signing the book for readers
It’s really special to be able to sign your book for the reader and often, doing a book signing session can lead to additional sales. Minou used posters to advertise her book signing at work and was only expecting to sell a handful of books to her friends. She says, "I knew there was some interest in the novel, as I had colleagues that I didn't know approach me asking about it even before I had advertised it. I thought I would maybe sell six copies, but that day I sold 48 copies of the book, all signed, I even had a queue at one point! I ended up selling out of the books, so had to order more and then did a second, equally successful signing."
To sum it up, V.S. Minou says, "The best bit is knowing that your book is going out into the world and thinking perhaps someone will love it as much as you do. I've had a lot of feedback since then from readers and it's so nice hearing who their favourite characters are and what they thought of the story."
Read more about V.S. Minou's book, Thomas Angel and The Order of The Cataibh, here.
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