It’s hard for me to look back at 2010 and say “here’s what we did” because honestly? It feels like there was so much of it. 2010 was our year of launch. And since we only announced our existence in November 2009, that means we did…pretty much everything that was needed for launch during the months leading up to June 2010. Here’s some of the craziness the Carina Press team accomplished before June:
* Read and acquired just under 40 titles for launch PLUS all of the titles to be released in July, August and September
* Edited and copy edited all those titles. Wrote back cover copy for those titles. And created cover art for all those titles.
* Contracted with ten freelance editors and…I think six or seven copy editors
* Worked with our amazing and hardworking legal team to draft and fine tune contracts
* Created processes for everything from formatting, scheduling, and creating books, to metadata, emailing authors and every other process you can think of for publishing a book
* Developed the Carina Press website (both the placeholder site and the commerce site) and created content for both
* Wrote blog content 3-5 times a week
* Developed marketing, promotion, social media strategies and utilized leading up to launch
* Worked with Audible.com to get first books into production for audiobook release.
* Worked with online etailers to get Carina content for sale.
* Many, many, many meetings to discuss the smallest details imaginable.
* And 100s of other small things I won’t bore you with listing. All of them before our June launch date.
Of course, after June, there were still 6 months of the year to get through and we didn’t just sit around during those months either! Here’s some of the other things we accomplished in 2010:
*101 titles published from June to December
* 3 Christmas collections planned, acquired and published
* Working with Direct to Consumer to provide Carina books to subscribers
* Acquired (and edited and formatted and published and wrote cover art and cover copy some of them) books for scheduling from September 2010 through Summer 2011.
* Hired even more freelance editors and copy editors!
* Made some groovy plans for 2011 including: by-invitation-only collections, a ramped-up Carina newsletter you’ll look forward to reading (you can sign up for the newsletter following the link at the top of this site), targeted marketing, further utilization of rights, attendance at close to 20 conferences and individual RWA chapters, as well as a swag or marketing presence at others, and oh so many more (groovy) plans.
I think everyone on the Carina Press team can agree that 2010 was an incredible year. Busy and sometimes stressful, but always interesting and utterly fantastic. So a sincere thank you to the Carina Press authors and all of the readers and reviewers who’ve supported us in such amazing ways this past year. Your tremendous support, word-of-mouth marketing and genuine enthusiasm was what made every moment of hard work worth it. Thank you!
Tags: Behind the Scenes, year in review
Angela: Congrats to you and the Carina staff on a great year. And, thanks for all the great reads!
When you put it like that… pretty busy!
Here’s an even more successful 2011!!
Congratulations for a great year full of accomplishments. And thanks for your hard work. I wish that 2011 will be even better for Carina Press and all of you.
It’s been really impressive–even without seeing the list.
Wow. Exciting and awesome. Here’s to bigger and better things for 2011!
Congrats to the Carina Team for all you’ve achieved! Can’t wait to see what groovy things are in store for 2011!
Congrats to the entire team!!! Happy New Year and can’t wait to see what surprises are in store for us next year!!
Go team! You’re all amazing and we thank you for your hard work.
What’s truly impressive about that list (and it is very impressive) is that they managed to do all of that and still make authors feel as though we were the most important thing on the list at any given moment.
The Carina team (and I’d mention individuals but I’m so afraid I’ll miss somebody and have guilt forever) is not only professional and knowledgeable and hard-working and all the things an author wants in a publisher, but enthusiastic. Writing is a very solitary profession and I still have to face the blinking cursor by myself every day, of course, but it’s a lot less lonely when you’re working with a great team like Carina’s.
Thank you, Carina Press, for an awesome 2010. I can’t wait to see what 2011 brings!
It really was an awesome year and I was so proud to be part of your launch! I’ve said it before and I will say it again (and likely again next year) thank you!! Like Shannon there are too many names to mention for fear of forgetting someone, but I am glad to have worked with and to continue working with you all.
Happy New Year!!
An awesome year and an awesome publisher!
Thank you to everyone at Carina Press for all your hard work. Here’s to a wonderful 2011!
My experience with Carina has been an unalloyed pleasure… and you can’t say that often in the publishing world. Here’s to even more fabulous outpourings in 2011!