It’s been a busy summer around here. On July 1st, I launched Bound, the second book of my historical fantasy trilogy. Due to various circumstances I was only able to release the ebook format at that date, although I had originally planned that I would launch it in both ebook and paperback. I had been advertising July 1st as the launch date, so I went ahead with the ebook launch and decided to launch the paperback later, when it was ready.

To get ready for launch I planned a whole series of emails to be sent to my newsletter subscribers, who got a sneak peek at the cover, the prologue and first chapter, plus an early heads-up on the bonuses I was offering to those who purchased Bound in the first week. So in the couple weeks leading up to July 1st, those who have subscribed to my newsletters got all of those goodies delivered to their inboxes.

I also planned a bunch of social media posts via twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and scheduled them so they would appear throughout launch week. I did all of this again for the paperback launch in August, minus the extra newsletters.

Phew. This seems like a lot, but honestly, it’s really not. These days authors do a WHOLE lot more to launch their books. They set up blog tours, podcast interviews and other promo appearances, as well as cross promos with other authors. Many plan for and execute extensive giveaways for launch. These can include book bundles, artwork designed around their books, extensive character sketches, maps, and/or reams of other special “swag” for those who attend book launch parties or host contests for readers to win these prizes.

Um, yeah. You might have noticed that I did NOT do any of those things. I really admire authors who can do all this. I hope to get better at it. But honestly I was so swamped with doing all the stuff that I did do that I don’t know how I could possibly fit more in.

So, what were the results? Here’s a summary:

THE GOOD:

• Some books were sold! Ok, I didn’t exactly reach the bestseller list but it was very satisfying to hear from people who were happy and excited to get the next book.
•  I learned more stuff! I made some mistakes, even with all my careful planning. But I have made note of those so hopefully I can avoid that next time. One of those was the difficulty I had in changing the prices on Wilding. I “thought” I could do that easily…nah. So, apologies to anyone who looked to buy Wilding on sale but then saw that it wasn’t. The sale price did show up eventually for part of the week, but unfortunately not all of launch week, and not in every online retailer. The intricacies of Amazon and IngramSpark pricing did me in. And I had a different issue altogether with Apple. Ack. I need to do more study on this, obviously.
• On to Book Three! Now that I’ve bustled Bound out the door, I’m turning back to Book Three and am hard at work on the conclusion of the trilogy. More to come on that later…

THE BAD:

• Frustrating problems! Along with pricing difficulties, I ran into a couple of other issues one in particular being difficulties in updating the manuscripts in order to place the link for the bonus collection.Because of that I suspect that some of you might have bought Bound during launch week but did not get a book with the link. So, to rectify that, in my September newsletter I am including the link for the Rare, Prized, and Feared, the FREE collection of short stories and extra chapters from the world of The Traveller’s Path. Sign up for my newsletter BEFORE Sept. 15th, 2020 or you’ll miss it!  Follow the link at the end of every page on my website to sign up.

THE UGLY: 

• Well, nothing was TOO ugly. Except maybe my hair as I was pulling it out trying to fix the above issues.

All in all, it went well and I am so grateful to all of you for your support. 

NEXT STEPS:

There is so much to learn about how to do all this. I am getting better at some things, but still have a lot to learn. One of the challenges I have right now is discoverability. I have pretty much tapped out of my larger circle of friends/family in terms of readers. I need to get my books seen and noticed by a wider audience. This is not easy. But I am stretching my wings a bit and trying a couple of new things. In the next couple months I will be a guest on a podcast and also will be trying out an Amazon ad.

I have also joined a Mastermind group to get encouragement and help with marketing, as well as joined a few Facebook groups on various topics from Anglo-Saxon history to indie publishing in order to get more information as well as connect with potential new readers.

I’m looking forward to the next steps! Thanks for joining me on my journey. Your encouragement means the world to me.

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