My debut novel went live Tuesday! I spent most of my day posting online. I posted Reels, Stories, videos, photos, links, basically anything I could think of posting. I got hundreds of likes and messages of congratulations. I got thousands of views on all my visual posts. I spoke to many other seasoned and newbie authors. It was a good day. But, if you have been reading my blogs for a while, you knew there would be a BUT. On my release day, Amazon was “temporarily out of stock” on my paperback. WHAT!?!
I don’t know how it’s possible either. I mean, they print on demand. It’s not like there is a warehouse filled with copies of Force of Corruption waiting to be mailed off. After spending hours posting the link, I switched to Barnes and Noble instead. Until I got fed up and decided to contact Amazon to ask what the deal was with my book. Of course, it’s not so easy to contact Amazon. Have you ever tried it? When I finally connected with a person who claimed to be human, they said I had to contact Kindle Direct Publishing despite the problem being on the Amazon order page. No humans real or otherwise on the KDP page. I had to submit a call request. It was after 8pm and my phone was silent for the night, before I could get the sound turned on, they had called and left a voicemail. No way to call them back, instructions said to just resubmit my request. I couldn’t resubmit because my original request was still active. *Eye Roll here! I gave up, which is what they count on I suppose.
When I checked the availability of my book again, it was miraculously available. Coincidence? Who knows. Did my call fix it? Who knows. I was happy it was once again available, and I went to bed.
Now for the good parts of my Book Birthday (that’s really what people call it). I received a wonderful review from one of my ARC readers. She also posted it all over her social media which was awesome. It’s surreal to see a stranger touting my book and singing its praises. Another of my reviewers posted on her social media about my release. I haven’t seen her review yet, sometimes it’s difficult to track them down. Amazon has a tendency to squash or delete them, I’ve no clue why that is.
My author friend, Louise Glass, author of Dream Lover, was on top of all of my posts all day and she was the one who first alerted me to the Amazon issue. Louise also scouts my reviews, she’s like Sherlock Holmes getting to the bottom of where they are and what they say. She’s a gem. I met her online, in an author group I think, and we hit it off right away. I try to be in her corner too, but I’m not as steadfast as Louise.
The other rough part of my week was an email from an ARC reviewer. She was very kind and in the nicest way possible said she would give my book a 2.5 stars rating. She said it wasn’t for her and didn’t have enough spice, so she didn’t post a review. When I told my best friend who doesn’t read romance, but read mine because she loves me, she almost passed out. My best friend thinks my book has too much sex, is too graphic, and should be rated X. Again, it’s not her thing. But she was worried about the sanity of my almost reviewer. She questioned how anyone could think my book wasn’t spicy enough. At least I got a chuckle out of her confusion. I will also take my almost reviewer’s comments as the constructive criticism she offered.
In the matter of a day, I have experienced the full gamut of emotions and situations a book release can deliver. I hope most people don’t experience them all in 24 hours. I wouldn’t be me if something strange didn’t happen. Most of the time I can attribute my outcome to some error of mine, I’m unclear if any of this was my fault, beyond being the author.
I had five sales. It doesn’t sound like much to most authors I’m sure, but I don’t think any of them were my friends or family. That means five sales to strangers. Just like my positive review was from a stranger. I’m truly humbled that someone likes my writing. That has been my goal all along, “I’ll be happy if just one person likes my story.” My husband has said repeatedly that it is a huge accomplishment to write a book and publish it for the world to read. It’s true, I spent decades saying I wanted to write a book. Well, I did it. Now what?
First, I have to finish book two in the series. I have the cover; I will probably do a cover reveal very soon. I’m going to put fewer deadlines on myself for this next one. Since I have another book to work on when I finish this one, I am going to take my time.
I was asked to do a podcast; I don’t think it will be until January. I will let you know when I find out more details. I’ve also been asked to do an interview for a newspaper/newsletter/online publication. That will probably be in the next few weeks. I’m excited about both, they will be new experiences for me.
I tried out BookSirens. It’s a very interesting platform. I uploaded my book and paid $10. For every person they find to download it I pay $2. I capped it at 50 downloads, so a maximum of $100. Those readers are ARC readers, and they will post reviews. BookSirens has measures in place to guarantee they post reviews, and they vet their reviewers well. I will let you know how that goes and if I pay the full $100 and get 50 reviews as a result.
I’m sending out actual paperback copies to some of my ARC reviewers. Again, I capped it at 10. The books aren’t particularly expensive to print, around $4. But shipping can be costly. I should have the elusive copies in a couple days. There is a big debate on the ARC sites, long time authors are confused by this new trend of ARC readers asking for physical copies. New authors are wondering how they can afford to send any physical copies to ARC readers. I chose to do it because I like the idea of unboxing and my book being on videos all over social media. ARC groups are trying to educate reviewers about the cost and that it’s unreasonable to ask for the author to shoulder that expense. Some people are spitting mad about it. I am reserving judgement until I see how much this costs me and if it results in the hoped-for social media posts.
I am keeping careful tabs of all my book expenses, and I will see how much this adventure really costs at the end of the year. I will probably need to sell an awful lot of books to pay for it. Whether it covers the expenses or not, writing a book has been one of the best things I’ve ever done. I encourage anyone debating it to jump in, you won’t know until you try. I think it was Michael Jordan who said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take..”
Lastly, I’m going to be trying another new creative thing online. I’m going to be reading books on video. Not sure who will want to watch that, but several people have assured me it’s a thing. I loved working as a children’s librarian and reading to the kids for story time. This will be a grown-up version of that. I plan to start with my horror short story, Haunted Hunting Camp. Some of it has fairly graphic violence, hopefully I won’t get banned. If I do, that will make three platforms I’ve earned sanctions on. I don’t think you can be a social media creator without getting banned or frozen somewhere. The first amendment does not apply to social media.
Here's a few links for you to find me online and buy my book. A shameless self-promo!
https://linktr.ee/enchantingauthor?utm_source=linktree_admin_share
https://a.co/d/fZKAVr8
As always, thank you for reading☺