Transition Central
Well, the past few days have been a bit of a mixed bag. It happens sometimes, especially when I’m transitioning between projects. Sometimes I think it would be easier to write a trilogy, then edit it into a publishable state before I begin writing the first book of the next. Only then I’d miss writing draft an awful lot, because editing takes a lot more time than that does. I’ll manage . It doesn’t help that a few things at the day job are in transition too. It’s like a double-whammy, really.
True to my word, I’m doing a bit of both things I said were likely in my last post. I’ve started the outline and made some more notes for Still They Watch. I’m doing a bit on that this morning, adding a few more points to the outline, working some of the beginning out. That too is a transition because I’m leaving behind the setting for most of the first two books. It’s necessary, and in a way it’s kind of cool, as it gives me a new place to explore. It’s yet another transition going on, but I think I have a handle on it, as far as the outline goes. I don’t have to worry about the actual writing of it until November.
I’m also doing my second pass of editing through Where The Ether Flows. Typically, I spent two days going through the first chapter, and that was for two reasons. First, well, it’s the first chapter of the first book in the trilogy. It has to be right, it has to draw you in, all of that. And second, the bloody thing is 22 pages long. For a bit of perspective, my chapters average around 12-15. It’s long, so that took a while to get through. I’m into Chapter 3 now, and the manuscript is in relatively good shape, though there are parts I’m definitely tweaking to match up with All Stitched up, book 2, a bit better. I can do that now that it’s written. And I will say, I like being able to do that. It’s the nice part about the way I write, that all 3 will be at least in first draft long before I think about publishing book 1, so I can tweak a bit more on earlier books if I discover something awesome in creating later ones. Maybe that’s a small thing to most, but I rather like it.
In case you’re wondering, yes, they’re still working on the balconies. It’s starting to feel endless at this point. And no, I haven’t seen that cute guy since the one and only time he went to my local Starbucks. The upside? I’ve seen others, and that’s enough for me. I can deal with eye-candy. I don’t have to worry about being asked to spend less time with my fictional men then. I’m terrible, I know. I like me that way. 
I did have one thing I wanted to discuss with my blog followers (and anyone else who cares to chime in). As I’m getting Bound ready for publication, I’m starting to think about marketing and other long term stuff like that. Setting aside the idea of making the book free for a while, what kinds of promos do you enjoy for book launches? I have a few ideas of what I might do, but I have limited experience at these things. I’ve looked at what others have done, but I’m not sure how many those things reach, and I thought I’d start a conversation about it. So, let me know what kinds of things tend to twig your attention and make you want to check out a book. I’m quite interested to see the responses.
I don’t really know anything about promotion for books, but one thought off the top of my head that others seem to do sometimes, is to have the first chapter up for people to read. Especially if that chapter ends in a cliff-hanger.
Oftentimes a first chapter can get me hooked… Just a thought. If I think of any more I’ll drop by again. 
That was definitely one of the things on my mind, especially for those who don’t have an ereader and can’t get a preview/sample of the book that way. Thanks for the thought.
Having the first chapter up is definitely a great idea. Some people make book trailers, which seems like a lot of fun to me, since I imagine scenes from my books when I listen to music anyway. Another thing that seems interesting is doing a blog tour, perhaps finding blogs or followers of yours who you could have an interview with, perhaps with a link to that first chapter. Best of luck to you, and I’ll definitely be buying your stuff when it’s out
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Wow, thanks! I’ll have to think about these suggestions. Those are some good ones. I know I enjoyed being a guest blogger when I did that recently. Hmm, more to think of.
I’m guessing you already have pages set up for your books on fReado and authorsden.com, the latest one that I’m told is excellent s to set up a page at Pinterest . Apart from the other boards you can do for fun you could do a board specifically for your own books and give a taster of each in the description box.Other people can repin to their own pages which gets the book known. If the book is to be a hardcopy as well as an ebook, you could contribute a free copy to a local library and see if they’d welcome hosting a reading by a local author which might generate some publicity with the local,press. Good luck whatever you decide to do. Hugs
I’ll have to check out those two pages you mentioned. I’ve been resisting Pinterest for the same reason I’m resisting any further forms of social media than I’m already doing. The time I spend on trying to keep all those up to date, if I did them all, would seriously hamper my writing time. That said, I may give in on Pinterest. We’ll see.
I had thought about donating a paper copy of the book to the library. Mine also does ebooks, so I was thinking about doing that as well, but I’m still mulling the idea over, and I have to find out how willing they might be to do that.
Thanks for the luck. I may need it.
I find most of the books I read from book reviews. Not the professional ones that people pay large amounts of money for – just book reviews from fellow bloggers. It’s always nice to see what other people are reading and see what they think of the book. Then I go on Goodreads, find the book, and add it to my “to read” list. So I agree with the person above who mentioned blog tours. I’m not sure what’s involved with getting your book on Goodreads, but it might be something to look into.
I’ve given some thought to that one, the reviews. There are a number of review blogs I’ve been keeping an eye on, watching the sort of books they review to see if it matches up with the kind I write (always important). I thought about offering a free copy in exchange for an honest review to those that might accept them. As for Goodreads, I was going to look into getting my account converted to an author one once I was almost ready to publish the book, at least once the manuscript is finalized and goes off for formatting.
I haven’t researched the promo end of things much, but as I see other bloggers marketing their books, I know things like free “swag” don’t interest me. I like a sample of the book, and as was noted previously, I also rely on reviewers by fellow bloggers. (Definitely not the empty reviews that family and friends and paid reviewers will leave on Amazon. But I will take well-written, balanced Amazon reviews into account.)
I think a blog tour is a good idea, and I would be happy to have you do a post on my blog when you reach that point.
To be honest, I’d be more likely to tell friends and family NOT to review my books, because that’s a total conflict of interest to me.
Oh, thanks for the offer. I shall note it down in my file of stuff to do when I’m ready!
I second JM’s offer of being a stop for a blog tour if you’re ever interested. Even to just talk about what’s going on as you gear up for the ‘big day’ I think could be interesting to a lot of people.
yeah, I’m generally suspicious of reviews because it is so hard to know if a review is genuine or not. But we can’t sell without reviews, so we’re kinda stuck with them.
Oh, wow, thank you!
Regarding reviews, I think the recent buying reviews scandal has made this worse, and I find myself suspicious of the ones on Amazon etc as a result. I’ve been collecting names of blogs that do reviews and are upfront about how they got the book, as well as honest. I’m thinking that might be a way to go, especially as they already have an audience looking for a good book.
These days though, I think word of mouth does more than reviews, really. The problem is, getting those first readers who might spread the word.