Hello! And welcome to “Tales From An Indie Author Book Launch.” I decided to document my book launch adventures because I didn’t know the first thing about being an indie author until about a month ago. I hope maybe someone in a similar situation may come across this and learn a thing or two.
I’ve been writing morning pages for a while now, which is basically a journal and something I do to stoke the creative juices. I’m officially on page 99 of the morning pages document and have written on average one page a day every day with the exception of a few days off here and there. I am at about 54,000 words. This writing career thing may not be too far off.
As I approach my book launch, I know I need to start working on the next novel. They say the best way to market your independently published book is by launching your next book. I should probably stay in my genre. I’ve considered extending Naughty Week into a book series, but I’d rather let that breathe a little. I’ll see what the response is. In the meantime, I’ve already started thinking about my next Middle Grade project, which I’m calling The Swedish Fish. I have scenes in my head already. I know generally what the major beats are. I’ll need to do some research about fishing, but that will be fun and hopefully the success of Naughty Week will afford me the opportunity to travel and learn freshwater fishing.
Before I can create my setup files and take the book wide, I want to have read the book out loud one more time. I started on Tuesday and read 60 pages that day. Yesterday I read 41 pages. I’d like to keep this pace, but I am realistic. I want to do at least 25 pages every day for the next four or five days. If I can do 30 pages, I’ll have it done by Sunday. I am going to start auditioning audiobook narrators as soon as possible. I have it on my list to start that process today.
I have an idea for a Facebook ad that I want to do. It’ll be me introducing myself and the book and telling people that it’s a great book for grown-ups to read to kids because grown-ups will like it, too. While I will ask them to buy it, citing that my girls need braces soon, I will also let them know that it is available to all libraries, and if they don’t have it in the budget to purchase, then they can go to their local library and ask for it, and that it is available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook. I think the ad will be effective, but time will tell. I want to start running it the weekend after Thanksgiving.
The hours in the car have been invaluable. Yesterday I was scheduled to do a Skype meeting with a client from Northern New Jersey. I went to the office around lunchtime. They had gotten breakfast burritos for everyone, myself included. That took care of lunch. I watched some Reedsy videos about book marketing while I ate. I had about two hours until the Skype meeting. My colleague called and said her early meeting ran late and there was no way she could make it to Irvine in time and that we would have to switch meetings so she could do the Skype meeting. For me, it was an opportunity to get in the car and listen to podcasts. I listened to two or three episodes of The Self Publishing Show podcast from the guys at the Self Publishing Formula. They’re long, about an hour each. It took me an hour and a half to get down there and two hours and ten minutes to get back. I soaked in the information. One of the episodes discussed the top ten tools independent publishers need. I bookmarked that with a screenshot. Another episode discussed self-publishing for children’s books and that ebooks are actually selling for children’s books. It’s what I need to hear to maintain confidence and shake off the imposter syndrome sap that drips onto my shoulders occasionally.
I’m highly considering starting a new morning pages document and opening it with this entry. My plan for the new morning pages is to document the Naughty Week launch. I have already documented some of the prep work, but once the book is locked and I start putting it out there, it will be good to have some record of everything. It’ll be like my own personal blog. I suppose I could use it on my website or as Facebook posts, but I’m not sure anyone would care. Maybe I’ll just bury it on my site, and if people find it and care to read it, then fine.
