And the streets, the boulevards, lanes and alleyways
I finished my first week of “pre-selling” my debut novel, Our Lady of the Overlook from my website. I received 12 orders for physical copies and 1 for an E-book. I am immensely grateful for the people who are actively supporting my work despite me not having a track record. I know that most of the people are friends, family and close acquaintances. There are not many “strangers” taking the chance on a plucky new novelist.
So, I’ve been all over the internet: YouTube, podcasts, blogposts, site articles as well as going to my well of experience and knowledge, Daniel J. Volpe (horror and splatterpunk author) for practical and real world advice. And what have I discovered?
Bookstores- there was a quote I heard from a prominent (although unnamed in this post) author/YouTube personality that said roughly that the only people who care about having their book in a store are people who dream of seeing their book in a store. The punchline of her advice was to make the best business decision for your product. So, I’ve begun to research the possibility of working with local independent bookstores. There will be a labor intensive aspect to this, but I want to give it the old college try. I’m “indie” so I feel like I should stay “indie”. But that doesn’t mean I’m above taking advantage of Barnes & Noble’s local author program. I just wonder if the juice is worth the squeeze.
Targeted advertising- My foray into ads is currently limited to FaceBook ads. I was not satisfied with the result as I think it just spammed a lot of people and certainly did not bring me any new customers. The next sojourn may be into Amazon ads, especially as the release date nears.
Local media- This is a forthcoming pathway. I’m still figuring out where to send out some press releases in a strategic manner. Additionally, I need to understand the rules and etiquette, as well as turn around times for articles to be printed.
Reviews- I’m still looking for ARC (advanced reading copy) readers and now my focus has been on finding “influencers” to do reviews. This avenue has a lot of potholes and seems impassable. There are some resources that I’ve sunk my teeth into, but I’m still figuring this one out.
Social media- This has been my expressway. I began my daily social media posting this past week with specific content themes for each day. Meme Monday has an inspired picture and a quote from Our Lady of the Overlook, Tuesday is What I’m Reading, followed by Work In Progress Wednesday, Tabulation Thursday and AutograFriday, where I use some basic graphology to dissect famous people’s signatures. I’ve tried to spread the love over FaceBook, Instagram and even broadened to Linked In. I keep hearing things about Tik Tok, but I’m skeptical of my reach on that platform.
So, as I try to diversify my reach, I am hopeful to catch some new eyes. It’s hard to tell how successful I will be, but I guess if I start seeing some names I don’t recognize, I’ll take that as a sign. Regardless, I will carry on.
See you again, next week.
R.L. Carpentier, writer 