New Book Signed: The Advisory Role by Amy Dressler
I thoroughly enjoyed editing Amy Dressler’s first book and I couldn’t be more thrilled that she will be publishing The Advisory Role, her second Shakespeare-themed women’s fiction book, with me as well.
Book Summary: Roz is an overzealous advice columnist who writes for a newspaper column made popular by her recently deceased mother. When she butts heads with her editor, she loses her job and inherited byline—the only things holding back the full weight of her grief. To continue writing, Roz takes a pen name and retreats to a small seaside town. The Advisory Role is the second novel written by Amy Dressler and is a loose retelling of Shakespeare’s As You Like It.
To help visualize the story, Amy made this fun moodboard image below for her novel. Her first book How to Align the Stars is almost complete and currently undergoing cover design. You can follow Amy here.
Author Shayla Dugan’s New Headshots and Book Galley
Shayla and I created a top-notch press kit for her upcoming book Learning to Swim, including new author photos.
As part of the press kit I had to create a book galley. A galley is an advance copy of the book that is shared with proofreaders and media professionals and may still have mistakes in it. According to one website, “The name comes from the printing press used in the days of hand-set letterpress printing. The printer set the page into galleys, which are metal trays that hold the type into place. Then, a small proof press was used to print a limited number of copies for proofreading.”
It took me most of the month to produce a galley of just the first three chapters. In the age of digital, you would think it would be much faster, but creating the interior of a book requires the use of Adobe InDesign, an intricate software program. I printed and reprinted things many times until I had the font, margins, vertical and horizontal spacing, character kerning, and other settings “just so” to ensure the book looks professional.
Making a galley for the next book will be much faster than this first one. As I worked I created a repeatable process for myself and wrote detailed documentation that I can refer to in the future.
I designed past books using Microsoft Publisher and hesitated leaving a program I was familiar with. But in the end, I’m glad I made the leap. InDesign has many more controls for fine-tuning the look and feel of the book. It also has another major benefit: it allows me to have just one file and export both the print and ebook. Previously I used a secondary program to create the ebook, which increased the possibility of errors.
I now have a finished galley of the first three chapters of Learning to Swim, ready to hand to media. We also have her two new headshots and a ten-page press kit. And of course, the lovely new author photo!
Looking for Media Contacts
We have professional press kits ready for several of our upcoming books.
I’m calling on all of you, my close network, for help. Do you know someone who does any of the following?
• Has a social media account with a large following
• Writes for a magazine or journal
• Runs a podcast
• Hosts a radio show
• Writes a blog
• Has any other media connections not listed here
Please reach out to me directly so I can connect and send them our ten-page press kit, author photographs, ideas for how to promote the books and articles they could write, and an advance reader copy book sample.
How to Help Egret Lake Books
• Brainstorm media contacts you might know and send them to me
• Share this newsletter with a friend who loves to read
• Share this newsletter with your book club
• Share this newsletter on social media (link)
That’s all for now.
Thanks for reading my newsletter and being part of the Egret Lake Books community. Please feel free to forward this email to one or two friends who like books and ask them to join the newsletter (the signup link is on the homepage of my website)!
Tess Jones, Editor, Egret Lake Books
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Talk to you soon!