Release Day

Kitten Update

The drought continues. At this point, I may not even pick up a litter since I'm going to be out of town in another week and a half. We shall see.

BookBub Ad Update

$4.69 spent, 1,963 impressions, 0 clicks. Going great.

On the other hand, I received a lovely email this evening from someone who happened to see The Chaos Job (a book I'm not advertising, written under a different name so it's not even cashing in on brand awareness) in a "you might also like" recommendation and he emailed me to tell me how much he was enjoying the series. You may begin to see why I bang my head against the wall when marketing comes up.

Release Day

More than once, I have threatened to write a non-fiction book titled Chuck It over the Wall and Run: A Beginner's Guide to Stress-Free, Ineffective Releases. Because I'm an expert at that.

Some authors (... authors who are successful at marketing...) plan their releases carefully.

But before I go there, let me just say that the whole "sending the author on a book tour" thing they show in the movies is a) strictly for traditionally published books, and b) mostly a thing of the past. Some of the huge names still do book signing tours, but it's not common. Sometimes authors do signings at local stores, though.

Okay, so back to indie book launches. Some authors line up advertising and, I don't know, Facebook takeovers and that sort of thing, with the idea that if you can get your book selling with a big push, the Amazon algorithm will notice and start showing it to people.

It's a great idea and it works well for some. I've also seen people spend thousands of dollars on a book launch and the book sinks without a ripple.

I have a book out today (Death Paints a Picture) and you can probably guess that my launch plan pretty much consisted of forgetting today was the release day until Kobo sent me mail yesterday evening saying "Congrats on your new book!" (Time zones are a thing. When you say the release date is December 16th, they take that to mean midnight in the local time zone.)

I did send out my monthly newsletter today with a reminder, so this might qualify as the most organized I've been yet. (Yes, I picked the release date based on when I would send out the newsletter.) Except I just realized I forgot to send out a reminder email to my ARC team with links so they can post their reviews, dammit.

On the other hand, this is book five in the series, and most people recommend pushing the first book in the series. And we all know how well that is going... (See BookBub Ad Update above.)

Pet Picture of the Day

Normally I would say it's a terrible idea to let kittens climb all over the bird cage because birds get stressed. But my cockatiel loves kittens. It's very odd.

Accomplishments of the Day

• Went to a write-in at the coffee shop (though I was the only one who came, which is not totally unexpected — it's mid-December and people get busy or ill) and wrote 770 words of the next dragon episode.
• Sent out my monthly newsletter. Want to see it? Here it is!
• Came up with an outline for the short story I'll be writing for my Patreon supporters. I'm a bit worried that it's going to struggle to become something longer, but I shall be firm!
• Yesterday's total step count: the pedometer reads 13,013 but that's probably about 3k lower than it should be since I forgot to wear it when I walked the dog. Today's will be a bit lower.
• Still to-do today: send mail to my ARC team with the links to the new book on all the retailers so they can post their reviews.
• Cleaned up most of the back room and mopped the floor.