Book Launch Wrap-Up!

It’s been almost a month now since the launch of Choice, and it’s time for me to express my thanks to all of you who have bought the book. It’s a huge blessing to have people spend their well-earned dollars on my creations, and I am immensely grateful for each and every one of you!

This launch has been the most successful of all my books, which is nice. I’m seeing some sales of the previous two books as well. I’m happy about that. I am still learning this process, and I wish there were things I could get a handle on better. Amazon ads are one of those things. They are confusing and difficult to manage, but I know I could do better there. Now that the launch is almost over, I can go back and try again to create some ads to gain some interest in Wilding, which will hopefully lead to read-through of all the books.

There are lots of advice about authors going on podcasts to promote their books, or going on blog tours where a series of bloggers would blog about their books. Which would be lovely. But I don’t know how to find people interested in interviewing me or blogging about my books. So I’ve never done that. If any of you are reading this and would like to host me on your podcast or blog about the books, hey, just contact me at info@lasmithwriter.com and we can talk!

I will be participating in a giveaway in February. Wilding will be bundled with a bunch of other historical fantasy books in a giveaway hosted by The History Quill. I’ll be sharing more details about this as the time gets closer. This will be a great opportunity to get some more subscribers to my email list, which will help with the next launch.

In the meantime, can I ask that if you have read Choice, to leave a review on the site where you bought the book? Reviews are really, really important. And continuing to share my social media posts about the book would be helpful, too.

What’s Next?

Did your ears perk up at that? Are you wondering what is next?

Hmm. Me too.

Well, ok, I do have some ideas that are gradually coalescing into a book idea. I hope it’s going to be something you will be interested in. I am going to be working hard on this over the next few months. There’s a bunch of research I need to do, as this book will likely not be set in 7th-century England. I’ll keep you posted once I get more settled on the idea.

Writing a novel is a long-term project. It will probably take at least a couple of years before whatever I start now actually will be ready for publishing. I am striving to be a little faster in getting this one out the door, but even so, it’s a process. So, in the meantime, I also want to write more short stories. I’m aiming at doing one a month. We’ll see. This gives me a chance to hone my writing skills and to submit stories to markets in order to gain new readers. And I can branch out and try other ideas, which may end up in future books. It also provides me the opportunity for more freebies to share with my newsletter subscribers. So if you are interested in that, make sure you are signed up!

I hope to get back into a more regular rhythm of blogging. Probably once a month is realistic. I enjoy doing the book reviews, and I hope to find some other authors I can interview. That is always fun! But I may not do as many historical features. They take a lot of time to research and write, so I will sprinkle them in but not rely on them quite so much for content. I don’t know exactly what the “flavour” of my blog will be, but I will keep plugging away at it. Happy to entertain suggestions of what YOU would like to see!

The best way to keep up with me and my writing is to follow my blog, so you get notified whenever I make a post, and to sign up for the newsletter, if you haven’t already. And if you join the newsletter you get a FREE collection of two short stories, featuring characters from The Travellers Path trilogy. It’s a win-win!

Coming up on the blog in December:

A review of Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke

The Best of 2022 – my favourite books, TV and movies from the past year.