Here we are once again, hurtling towards Christmas day and a whirlwind of seasonal festivities that will whisk us into 2013 in what seems like barely the blink of an eye! Most of us are now home (or away for the holidays) and work is done for this year, so it's an excellent time for some stocktaking and setting of new goals for the new year.
We officially kicked off this thing called EU just following our own such stocktaking at the end of 2011, and after setting some fundamental targets off we went into the EU adventure. Back in January of this year, after we settled on the name of our self-publishing enterprise, I got to work on preparing our first website which was online in very early February. Shortly thereafter we established EU on Facebook with our own page, and the story began to be told.
I was putting the finishing touches to A QUIET RESIGNATION around this time, and as first time publishers, we had no idea what to do about a cover for the book. But Cristina C got busy during March and April and got down to some serious idea drafts which were wonderfully realized by our 3D graphic artist, Pablo Donato. You can see those covers in the montage at the top of this blog, and we loved them all. Some were more elaborate than others, but the first one that I saw was the simple ball and chain on the grey background and for a few reasons it just spoke volumes to me. Sometimes less is more, and in this case that's what I felt and so the choice was easy.
While Cris was busy handling all of that, I decided that we couldn't exist without having some form of blog forum for ourselves and after a bit of analysis, I came up with what now is firmly established as the EU blog. This was kicked off in mid-April, 2012, and as of today we have put up some 120 blog posts on a wide variety of contemporary topics, and we are pretty pleased with that level of production! The blog is being read in over 20 countries in the world, and it's always fascinating to see new countries popping up, such as Bangladesh and Taiwan in recent days. A big thanks to all of our readers who make this blog so worth the effort!
Inevitably, Twitter came up next and we set Cris up with her very own and first ever Twitter account which was fun to watch, for me. From very tentative and inexperienced (with social media) beginnings, she quickly amassed some serious followers (thousands) and is now using Twitter regularly and loving every minute of it. It's a great place for EU to get a feel for what's happening out there, and a very cool way to interact with people who publish for a living, including big brands such as Harper Collins, Penguin and Random House, among others. EU had to be there, and we sure are.
Now, books! Isn't that what all this is supposed to be about?! Well, A QUIET RESIGNATION was our first effort and once we were done with the cover and formatting, this book was published in early spring of this year. It was a very rewarding experience to let it go and get it out there, and I am delighted to say that the response has been very good with some people even taking the time to get in touch and leave comments about it - that truly makes it all worthwhile. It isn't closing in on the New York Times bestseller list anytime soon (I just knew that there should have been more sex in there! ;) but that's okay by us. It is still only a baby tree, and we are more than fine with it needing time to grow and expand all the way up to reaching its full potential some day. These things take time.
While all of the stuff happening around AQR was going on, I was using any free time that I had to rework another story that I had gotten onto paper (make that virtual paper on a screen!) - I am of course referring to THE MOLECULES. This is a very different type of book from AQR, but doesn't that make life interesting? I have no ambition to be known as a writer who only writes in this genre or that one - I prefer to be free to write whatever is on my mind. Book #3 is going to be even more different again, as it will touch on human evolution, the paranormal, alien life and the putative human soul. This one should be a blast to write!
AQR was initially available on our website but was moved to Amazon-Kindle in June of this year. THE MOLECULES was finally formalized and it was published directly onto the Kindle portal around October. This was our second book published in several months and really ticked the boxes for reaching targets in what was a very productive year of work. Not least given the fact that we are still a part-time affair, with both myself and Cris being paid to do totally different types of work. It's science by day, and art by night, and that heady mix has kept the adrenaline pumping and the passion level high for all of 2012.
While Cris was busy handling all of that, I decided that we couldn't exist without having some form of blog forum for ourselves and after a bit of analysis, I came up with what now is firmly established as the EU blog. This was kicked off in mid-April, 2012, and as of today we have put up some 120 blog posts on a wide variety of contemporary topics, and we are pretty pleased with that level of production! The blog is being read in over 20 countries in the world, and it's always fascinating to see new countries popping up, such as Bangladesh and Taiwan in recent days. A big thanks to all of our readers who make this blog so worth the effort!
Inevitably, Twitter came up next and we set Cris up with her very own and first ever Twitter account which was fun to watch, for me. From very tentative and inexperienced (with social media) beginnings, she quickly amassed some serious followers (thousands) and is now using Twitter regularly and loving every minute of it. It's a great place for EU to get a feel for what's happening out there, and a very cool way to interact with people who publish for a living, including big brands such as Harper Collins, Penguin and Random House, among others. EU had to be there, and we sure are.
Now, books! Isn't that what all this is supposed to be about?! Well, A QUIET RESIGNATION was our first effort and once we were done with the cover and formatting, this book was published in early spring of this year. It was a very rewarding experience to let it go and get it out there, and I am delighted to say that the response has been very good with some people even taking the time to get in touch and leave comments about it - that truly makes it all worthwhile. It isn't closing in on the New York Times bestseller list anytime soon (I just knew that there should have been more sex in there! ;) but that's okay by us. It is still only a baby tree, and we are more than fine with it needing time to grow and expand all the way up to reaching its full potential some day. These things take time.
While all of the stuff happening around AQR was going on, I was using any free time that I had to rework another story that I had gotten onto paper (make that virtual paper on a screen!) - I am of course referring to THE MOLECULES. This is a very different type of book from AQR, but doesn't that make life interesting? I have no ambition to be known as a writer who only writes in this genre or that one - I prefer to be free to write whatever is on my mind. Book #3 is going to be even more different again, as it will touch on human evolution, the paranormal, alien life and the putative human soul. This one should be a blast to write!
AQR was initially available on our website but was moved to Amazon-Kindle in June of this year. THE MOLECULES was finally formalized and it was published directly onto the Kindle portal around October. This was our second book published in several months and really ticked the boxes for reaching targets in what was a very productive year of work. Not least given the fact that we are still a part-time affair, with both myself and Cris being paid to do totally different types of work. It's science by day, and art by night, and that heady mix has kept the adrenaline pumping and the passion level high for all of 2012.
It was also a tough year in that the boisterous EU office manager, Cristina's beloved Oslo (pictured above) left us, but not without leaving behind all sorts of memories and images that will line the EU hallways for as long as we are still alive and well. He won't be forgotten, and that pic of him with Cris is part of our blog's branding now, so he still runs the show! The king of cats, Sonic (at the foot of the tree above), is also dealing with the aging process and has had some health hiccups that appeared out of the blue mid-December, after 14 incredibly healthy years. But he's also a fighter, and if the amount of turkey and giblets in thick gravy (and seafood snack treats) that he wolfs down is any indication, then he's not going anywhere anytime soon.
That's more or less a summary of our rather wonderful and adventurous 2012. Oh, I almost forgot, yes of course, I designed a newer cooler website for EU and this was released to a lot of positive feedback in November. We are still brand new, we're EU, and we've only just got started. Who knows what 2013 will bring, and our upcoming AGM will be addressing our new goals and milestones for 2013, and obviously marketing of our two books is likely to be top of the list. Along with me trying desperately to find the time to get a serious draft of book #3, which isn't going to be easy! But I will predict that 2013 is going to another biggie, with the EU brand strengthening and growing.
To all of our Twitter followers, to our Facebook people, to our blog readers, and especially to all those who bought and read either/both of the two EU books, we want to say an enormous thanks for the support. It makes all the difference to know that people are watching and reading. We are incredibly grateful to all of you for making 2012 such an amazing year in retrospect for us, and would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you an amazingly peaceful and joyful holiday season, and a remarkable 2013.
It's Saturday, December 22nd, so I think we can allow some smoked salmon bagels by a crackling fire with a huge mug of my new fave robust dark roast all the way from Florence, Italy. Thanks to all, and remember, keep the faith! ;) - Kevin Mc
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