“Congratulations!” (to me) “You finished your book! Time to take some time off.” Oh, if only it was so. Well, maybe a little celebration. I slept in an hour. But yes, Fire Race, the sequel to Firewatcher, my science fiction series about humans escaping a threatening AI apocalypse, is done and available on Amazon. And, of course, I already have ideas for the sequel to the sequel. As for taking time off… now is when the other half of the work starts.
Where to begin now that I’ve reached this end? Ah. I’ll steal from myself and copy&paste some marketing text.
“A flood of fire is heading their way.
The colonists escaped Earth before the AI could wake up.
They survived the dimensions as they rode across the galaxy.
They found a new home, AintEarth.
Then, they found the very alien residents.
How do you describe tears to a being with no eyes?
They learned, but it wasn’t painless.
Now, they learned about the Fire Season aimed at their new home.
It’s time to move the colony to a safer place – quickly.
But they have to deal with one of humanity’s worst enemies, other humans.
Can they survive both threats?“
Considering that there’s a sequel to the sequel, you can guess that they survived mostly.
Two years, nine drafts, moments when it came together better than I expected, moments when it seemed to fall apart, and, of course, writer’s remorse as I see how I could’ve done it differently. It’s art. I’m human. Neither of us are perfect, but progress happens.
The proof copy was delivered yesterday (October 16, 2024). It was a hectic day for other reasons, so I didn’t open the package until after 9PM. Ten minutes later, I’d approved it and authorized kdp/Amazon to publicly publish it. Buy it now!
That value of ‘now’ is what drove my urgency. My original plan was to publish it by September. A marketing guideline was to have new titles available by Labor Day for Christmas holiday sales. August? Yes, August. December may be too late. Some shoppers are done in November. October catches the earlier buyers, in general. But it takes a while to read a book, so give readers the month of September to buy it, read it, buy copies as gifts, and for them to spread the news. Word-of-mouth works well, but it needs time. It takes time for people to meet people and talk.
My value of ‘now’ was driven by real life. I sold my house earlier this year, which put a four-month delay in lots of projects. So, midway through October will have to do. Go, buy, now!
That’s all it takes, right? Nope.
As soon as I approved the book for publication, I started a new chain of events that has little to do with the story, and everything to do with the book.
Order books. Gotta have at least a dozen in the car. It’s part of a series, so gotta order more of the other one, too.
Update web sites. Note the plural, ‘sites’. I have an extensive online presence, which must be updated. The more extensive the presence the better, but there’s also more of a chance of missing something. As I updated sites like my blogs, I uncovered marketing text for other books that I didn’t catch during previous releases. I suspect I’ll be updating sites for weeks, and probably will miss a few.
Update my Amazon Author Page. Gotta have that, too. My Amazon Author Page is not optimal, but it is handy to have one site that links to all of the books AND directly links to a Buy button. Amazon’s Author Central isn’t smart enough to trawl Amazon for the pertinent titles. It takes a while for the sales page to load, and then to coax it over to join the others on the Author Page. (Note to self that I share with you: check that author description so it isn’t obviously out of date.)
Announce it, of course. Crank up the social media machine, of which this post is a first step. I’ll Share a quote from this post, paste on the picture of the book’s cover, and encourage folks to Share the news, and hopefully buy a copy for themselves and others for gifts.
If these tasks seem like drudgery or too capitalistic, welcome to the second personality a writer must wear.
Business cards, yep. I usually create one that is the cover on the front and contact information on the back. After that hundred or so run out, I’ll update my bookshelf business card that has all of the books lined up. No rush on the bookshelf card; I haven’t received a copy of the book. Surprised? The digital world surges ahead of the physical. That second card needs the physical copy that will sit on the shelf. Marketing materials, social media posts, and any electronic news can get started with a jpg of the front cover – not the entire cover, which includes the back. Emphasize the front cover because it is now my icon – for a while.
File management. At least for me, electronic files can get as cluttered as post-it notes. Nine drafts? Yes, and more than that because I made intermediate backups, which are now redundant. Computer space is less of an issue than simply clearing up how many files to wade through when I want to grab a quote or backup…
Backups! But, we’re done. Yes, and now’s the time to create the long term backups, drives that sit outside everything else. Too often, I’ve found that I couldn’t find a ten-year-old reference or passage. It would take too long to thumb through pages, but I can’t do a Find if I can’t find the file.
Car magnets. I have car magnets for every book cover. Cheap advertising, and a conversation starter. That’ll be some time with Zazzle.
Whew. What else?
Copies. Sure, I ordered copies to sell, but I’ll also need copies to take to bookstores and libraries, and gift copies to the people who helped me through the process. Some of those will come in the bulk order I just made, but some may be drop-shipped, where I buy a copy and have it shipped directly to them.
More? Sure more, but you may have gotten the point. The bare minimum for being author is to publish something. I’ve always heard that the writing is half the job. Yep. I don’t know if it is 50/50, but this second fifty is marketing, business deals, taxes, bookkeeping, etc. And there’s a lot in that ‘etc.’
So, my morning has been busy, and I haven’t even written the posts that readers may want to read. This blog is about being a writer, which is why I just dumped a bunch of details on whoever reads this, but I’ll also start the more sales-y posts – eventually. I need a nap, at least.
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