Lili Finally Comes to Herself

...and to Amazon

Hello, Mentatrix readers!

I’m writing this a few days ahead of the post being published, as I’m about to start on a very exciting trip to Bangkok on Friday 13th (!). It’s a business trip for a high-level internal event organised by my employer, and which I’m very grateful to be able to attend. When this post goes out to you, I hope to be exploring a Sunday market in Bangkok, relishing the food and marveling at other local gems.

I can’t help remembering the 80s song One Night in Bangkok; it was a party hit, and I was a high school teenager. Little did Bangkok mean to me back then, other than a capital city in subject Geography, which was to stay forever out of bounds for us, in the communist Eden.

Thank goodness for life’s mysterious turns!

But — back to this day, and this post.

The long journey

I promised two weeks ago that I’d share with you a bit about the pre-publication stage of my novel, Lili Comes to Herself. I’d like not just to share, but also to ask for your feedback on a couple of things, if you’ll bear with me this Sunday.

As I wrote before, the book is a coming-of-age story set in the communist Romania of the 1980s, on the central theme of finding a home in the world. The protagonist, Lili, is caught in a multi-level conflict that involves a conservative society, an oppressive regime, problematic family relationships, and an anti-romance. It has a political element that is still relevant, unfortunately, today — but I won’t disclose any more of that.

The story is largely based on personal experience, although for story-writing purposes, I made quite a few significant changes and additions.

It was lying shelved, dismissed right after the events ended, archived, forgotten, labelled “irrelevant”, or a “bug” in my biography. In the summer of 2020, suddenly, I thought back of that experience, of those times, and with a smile on my face, I decided I’d like to tell that story. Not for any therapeutic reasons, but I suddenly saw in it the potential of a story that might catch. Even grip.

I sat down at my desk and committed to a daily writing routine, which meant that within five months, the manuscript was ready.

Now what? I asked myself. I shrugged.

I’d made a self-publishing experiment before, but for lack of time and bandwidth to deal with marketing, the book was a dusty piece of junk on Amazon’s shelves. Did I want to publish this one again, knowing there’s no big deal about merely clicking “publish”?

I decided I’d think about it.

And so went two and a half years by… until I thought, hey, I’ll start a blog on this thing called Substack. And in the meantime, I’ll revise the manuscript, and in six months I’ll publish it.

That was last year, so it wasn’t six months after all. I revised the manuscript, sent it to a developmental editor, who pointed me to areas that needed immediate improvement. Since summer 2023, I’ve rewritten significant chapters twice, and revised it — lost count of how many times.

I just got it back now from a copy editor in the UK. His name’s Tom. Tom writes:

So now the time comes for me to get down to action again: cover → marketing plan (???) → publishing.

Cover

I’ve got here three versions. Each aims to convey the idea of journey, progression, evolution, in a different way.

In cover 1, you might wonder about the rail track. It’s just to suggest movement; besides, the novel ends with Lili just about catching a train taking her to a well-deserved holiday, and a new chapter in her life.

Just to make things clear, the somewhat minimalistic design is totally intended.

Please answer this poll; it helps me get a quick idea of your preferences. But do use the comments to say more if you like. You might also want to suggest swapping elements between the 3 versions, for example “I prefer version 3, but with the colours in 1”.

Cover 1

Cover 2

Cover 3

Blurb

You’ll be aware that the blurb is quite important, possibly the next bit we check out when trying to decide whether to get a book, or put it back on the shelf.

Without having read the novel, how do you find this blurb? Does it make you feel curious to read the book? (Presuming the topic and theme was in any way interesting to you personally, of course.)

Again, please let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Lili Danes, the heroine of this coming-of-age story set in the communist Romania of the 1980s, is choking with estrangement in her final high school year. She is caught in a multi-level conflict that involves a conservative society, an oppressive political regime, problematic family relationships, and an anti-romance. Will she find a home in the world after all?

Would you write a review?

Finally, would you be interested to get an advance reader copy and write a review on Amazon in the first days after the book goes out? This helps get the word out and give the algorithms a gentle push…

Oh, before I go. Some of you are writers, too. If you happen to know someone who’s good setting up what’s needed for a book to be marketed, from concept to setup and implementation, please DM or email me. Otherwise, I’ll go with Reedsy.

Thank you for reading down to this last line. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, and until next week!