I’ve accomplished some pretty major shit in the past couple days…stuff that has been make me stressed the frack out for a while now. In the past two workdays, although I have not written (more on that later), I have created ARC and sample copies of my book, uploaded those to Instafreebie and Bookfunnel, revised my Author’s Note into what I think might be its final form, sent off all the info to my cover designer to generate my print cover image (including a revised blurb), joined giveaways for the free book sample, created an author page for myself on Facebook, and finally for the really big one: created my mailing list.
I currently have 6 subscribers, two of which are my own accounts. So…4. This is it, you guys. The really, truly, early days of Ira Heinichen the author and his publishing journey.
The reason I’m offering up the first half of my book for free on Instafreebie, and why I joined several of their group giveaways, is so that I can get some mailing list subscribers. I don’t want to start with zero if I don’t have to, and everyone says “do a free giveaway on Instafreebie!” So, here we are. So far, not much traffic at all…but, Instafreebie’s SciFi mailing list day is Wednesdays, and apparently THAT’S when you get some love. We’ll see.
Here I am, sitting in bed, writing this early tonight so I can go to bed on time, get up on time tomorrow morning, and get some kickass writing done to set me up for success during this unexpected trip out to NYC…and I’m hoping that my book is an instant success. I can’t help myself, and I suppose when it almost certainly is not, I will not be able to help but be disappointed. I realize it’s naive and all that, but I can’t help myself.
Here’s the other side to that, though: intellectually I know that you have to be in it for the long haul. I’m (probably) not going to spend marketing dollars on this book until the entire trilogy is out. That’s the conventional wisdom. Which I say as an example that yes, I do know that success is built one brick at a time, not all at once. I do know that. And I have a ton of books that I want to write, so, you know, IT ALL WORKS OUT.
The Ho just read the Author’s note, and she liked it. Huzzah! We also just strategized on what the special giveaway should be for the secret password located in the back of the Author’s Note. Something evergreen. We have some ideas. It was an idea I just came up with tonight. Something to get people to read through to the end of the Author’s Notes…get to know me personally, and some fun secret stuff.
Time for me to hang up the keyboard and get some reading in. Night!