Today I'm celebrating with a friend on the release of her novella on January 4th - Cloaked by T.F. Walsh. I had the pleasure of reading an ARC and it's such a fun book, guys! Werewolves and romance in Romania. Good stuff, super steamy and saucy :) You can read my lengthier review on Goodreads here.
Blurb: Raised
by an overly protective wulfkin pack, Daciana leaps at the chance to venture
into the human world for her one-year independence ritual. But after someone
steals the endangered bear cubs she’s been assigned to protect, she must locate
them or lose her job and return home in disgrace. The sexy inspector on the
case isn’t making this any easier. He knows nothing of her kind, and wulfkin
rules forbid relationships with humans.
Newly divorced Inspector Connell Lonescu trusts no one but himself. He’s convinced relationships are a waste of time and thinks burying himself in work will ease the pain. Yet he’s attracted to the gorgeous and mysterious Daciana, even if there’s something slightly odd about her. Can Connell learn to trust the sexy but secretive woman?
Now, on to IWSG! I suppose what's been on my mind most the last month is book marketing. I released my first novelette in August, and I've learned a TON about marketing since then. What to do, and a lot more of what NOT to do (stuff that's a waste of money and time). I'm a bit bummed because things were plugging along pretty well until December, and then my sales dropped off to practically nothing. It was especially disappointing because I had just announced that ALL of my book proceeds from Thanksgiving to Christmas would be donated to Heifer International to fight world hunger. I was looking forward to raising some money for them, and that totally didn't happen. Luckily for them I'll give my usual annual gift anyways, but still, kind of a bummer.
Early in December I emailed the lovely self-pub rockstar RaShelle Workman, who has sold over a million of her e-books, and asked her for advice. She said that her biggest piece of advice, and probably what my problem is, is that I only have the one novelette out. She said she suggests people have 5-7 books in a series, have at least half of them totally ready to go (edited, covers, etc.) and then release them two weeks apart to keep momentum going and build up a devoted readership. I had already guessed that having just the one was hurting me, though at the moment I can't do anything about that since my agent wants me to wait to release the subsequent novels in that series until we land a deal on my other series. So, I'll need to wait, but in the meantime I'm furiously working on finishing the second novel in the series, which should be done by mid month, and then I'll be on to the third. I'd also like to write another novella for the series, and release the first three novels and the novella later this year.
So, that's the plan, and that's my writing life at the moment! How about you? Oh, and click here to read other IWSG posts for the month.
Cloaked sounds wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI know it's hard to facing the lessons you feel you failed in the marketing realm, but don't dwell on them, eh? The more works you have out, the better exposure, period. You're doing better than you think.
Happy New Year. And I feel for you about the drop in sales in December. You’d think the holiday season would have a different effect. Good luck with your writing plan!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to TF!
ReplyDeleteYeah, RaShelle is a rock star. And she has SO many books out. That does make a difference in sales. Just keep writing.
Congrats to your friend, I picked up her book (somehow it's only 72¢ !?).
ReplyDeleteMy (tiny) sales dropped off in December too. Not sure what happened there.
Also, since I'm slow with editing the novel length works, my goal is to publish more short stories (both indie & submitting to pay markets), I'm hoping that helps me build an audience as well.
Maybe shorts would be a way to increase your writerly income?
Yay for Tania! I love Cloaked. :) I'm working on readying a series to start releasing this year. Last time I learned to make sure all books were finished before I start releasing or else it's a little crazy. I might have to try the 2 weeks apart tactic. Here's to a grand 2016 for all of us! :)
ReplyDeleteSo pumped for Tania's novella. Reading all these IWSG posts just confirms what I already know . . . being a published author is HARD WORK! I guess we all just need to take it one day at a time :-)
ReplyDeleteHello Alexia
ReplyDelete6 - 7 books, two weeks apart. I can see doing that with short stories but pretty hard with novels. Good luck with all your endeavors.
Nancy
Marketing can be tough. Its good that you are also following your agency requests. Now you just need to get to writing those novels to keep in the wings :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for having me on your blog today:) Fantastic review too:)
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, marketing is not easy and time consuming, but worth it for sure. A book every two weeks... wow, that wouldn't be easy.
Great to see Tania's new book here! Sales can be very frustrating. I've also heard that it really doesn't pay to spend much unless you have at least 3 books/novellas out. Readers don't often take a chance on debut authors. Good luck with the rest in the series! I enjoyed that first one very much! :)
ReplyDeleteI've also heard that you should have a few titles out to build a readership. I loved Tania's book.
ReplyDeleteWow, release two weeks apart? That's a lot of work! But I do think one book builds on the others. I'm often disappointed when I read a book I like and find the person hasn't written anything else.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to T.F. on the book release! As for you, wow, busy, busy! Great things are coming your way, I'm certain of it!
ReplyDeleteCongrats to Tania!
ReplyDeleteRaShelle is correct. Having more titles out helps a lot. Do what you are doing now. Focus on the writing and building up what you want to release. When you only have one book or even a few out, continuing to write is key.
Interesting idea to have multiple books out two weeks apart, but I've published two books in the same series simultaneously and I wouldn't say it made THAT much of a difference.
ReplyDelete