A Slice of Orange

Before I get into my post, I have to apologize for not posting last month.  I completely forgot.  I took a much-needed break and my mind was elsewhere.  I think it must have been the 111 degree temperature I was sitting in.  Here’s the funny part, I took my iPad and laptop on holiday with the intention of writing.  I figured, with the few days away from everything, I’d write a novella.  That never happened.  I take that back.  I did write a couple of pages, but can’t find them.  No biggie.  I had started this book a while back, but couldn’t find it.  When I returned home, I dug deep into my hard drive and found the original pages.  I was able to recall some of what I’d written on holiday and included it in the new book.

Now to this month’s post. 

I mentioned in my last post that I was working on my upcoming release, A Southern Gentleman Vol 2.  I was going to hire a publicist to help with the release, but changed my mind.  I’m not saying I’ll never use a publicist, but right now isn’t the time.  I paid a lot of money on a course to teach me to market my books and I need to make sure I’ve given it a fair chance to work.  I tried the techniques twice.  Once with some success and the second with very little success.  I need to make sure I can do this before I can tell someone what I want them to do.  

So, what’s my plan.  PRAY. Smile.  Okay, I need to do a little more.  I’ve learned a lot about marketing since I released my first book five years ago.  My very first release, consisted of me accidentally pushing the Publish Button and hoping.  I didn’t know about Facebook or newsletter ads. I did book a blog tour, which earned me a few reviews, but few sales.  I decided to go wide, so I burned or used a lot of ISBNs because I thought you needed one for every platform.  I sold quite a few print copies to family and friends.  Unfortunately, those are one-time sales, which I’m grateful.  However, I need and want fans, avid readers and followers of my stories.

I have a plan.  Now I sound like a politician. SMILE.  

I am going to take what I learned in the course, plus what I’ve learned from the various Facebook groups, blog posts and authors I’ve met and formulate a strategy.  Will it be my road map from here on out?  Maybe, maybe not. Every book is different and what works for one book, may not work for another.  Now I should a little confused.  Let me clarify.  I’m building a basic plan which I will tweak with each release as needed.

Here we go.  I’ve given myself approximately 30 days in the Pre-Order period.  During this time, I’ll send the book out to my ARC Readers and people in my various groups to read and post reviews on release day.  Next, Take Overs.  I’ve been doing a few of these for other authors with pretty good results.  So now it’s my turn.  ADS.  I’ve made a list of sites and a posting schedule.  Not only do I need ads for release day, I need them for afterwards as well.  I’m considering doing ads prior to the release day for A Southern Gentleman Vol 1 in order to draw attention the duet with new readers.

Where it gets a little tricky is Facebook.  FB ads can be tricky, so I’m going to start testing graphics a couple of weeks prior to release.  I know I’m going to do BookBub Ads,  I would love to do a feature ad, but I think I waited too late to apply for one.  I am going to try for a paid new release ad, but it might be a little late for that one as well.

All of that will be moot if I don’t do one thing…select a cover.  I hear you cringing now, but let me explain.  I had a cover, then I went into rebranding mode and it didn’t work.  I have two covers and have done a soft test.  Before I commit to a cover, I need to do a little more testing.  So far, the one I like is winning.  However, I don’t need the cover to do pre-marketing, although it would help, a lot.  Right now, I’m as busy as a one-legged man in an ass kicking contest.  [That statement reminds me of one of the characters in A Southern Gentleman Vol 2]. But it’s the truth.  There’s quite a bit to do prior to release.  Grant it, I could do nothing or the minimum and see what happens, but I want to make this my best release to date.

So here’s the plan:

• Book to ARC Readers
• Confirm cover
• Book Ads
• Book Takeover slots
• Get reviews
• Do tease or coming soon posts to social media week
• Push for Pre-Order Sales
• Reader Group Release Party
• Sell a lot of books

I almost forgot.  I have a new release date, October 8th, which means I have a few days before the plan goes into play.  

I’ll update you next month.  

Happy end of summer. Tracy.