Here we are at blog number 40---FORTY!! So much has happened since blog thirty-nine I hardly know where to begin. I suppose I should start with the big live author event I participated in on Saturday night, Readers Break the Internet-Romance Edition. It was very well run, and all the authors did great, except for me. But they were incredibly kind.
I made a PowerPoint presentation so I could play the excerpts (@corvusmorningstar on YouTube) Raven Morningstar created. I also wanted to do a cover reveal. I put in a few extra slides so I wouldn’t forget some of the things I wanted to share. Well, that didn’t go well at all. First of all, the author before me had lots to talk about because she has several titles. Actually, most of them had multiple titles. I was the newest and least published of the bunch.
Raven was at work and had to disconnect for a meeting at 9:30, my time. I wanted to get to his part as quickly as possible. I was flustered because of that time constraint, then I rushed through my excerpt to get to his. I may not have taken a breath for four entire pages. Then when I got to his part, the recording was too low, and I started getting messages that they couldn’t hear it. I got even more flustered. Then I saw a message that said, “that’s a good place to end it.” I stopped the recording before the end. They weren’t talking to me, I cut off the recording for no reason. (Face-palm) Then I rushed to my cover reveal and spoke a small amount about my books. The host is very sweet, and she stepped in and kind of bailed me out by asking me a few questions and helping me talk more about my books.
My daughter attended the event, and she was on a work retreat, she’s very proud of me and tells everyone her mom's an author. Of course, her co-workers wanted to watch the event. They put it up on the big screen so they could all watch it. Not only did her work family see me bumbling around like an idiot, but she told me my screen share never worked. They didn’t see my beautiful graphics. The graphic I made for my voice artist friend, or the cover reveal. They saw me the whole time when I thought they couldn’t see me. They saw me panicking and getting messages. Thankfully I didn’t know this that night or I may have fainted from embarrassment. Lesson learned= no PowerPoint on the live author event in October! Yikes!
Next, my editor finished the edits on Force Majeure. I finished my part of the edits on Force Majeure. She completed the formatting. I am in possession of the finished book file. It’s DONE! Originally it was 556 pages and that was at 1.25 spacing. Industry standard is 1.5. But with such a massive book I wanted to shrink it down as much as possible. Also, instead of the standard small paperback size, I chose 6x9 which is slightly larger than the 5x8. This choice brought me down to 407 pages. It’s also the size I chose for Force of Corruption, so they’ll match. I’ve shared this information with my cover artist, and she'll have the print cover ready by early next week. I will have everything uploaded as soon as I get the cover. I'll be able to order a proof within 5 days of uploading, it usually takes them that long to approve it. I’m SO incredibly excited.
Force Majeure is great and I’m proud of it. Force of Corruption has a few typos and it made me less than thrilled about the final product. I love the story and the cover, but those errors plagued me. I've fixed them. As soon as the formatting is complete, the new, improved file will be uploaded. I’m adding some chapter heading art and I think it’s going to be beautiful. Force Majeure is so pretty. I love the fonts and the chapter heading artwork. Someday I'll put together a special edition, probably after Force of Attraction is finished. It will be quite lovely with inside art on the end pages and sprayed edges.
I've also begun posting about the ARC campaign for Force Majeure. I've asked only a few questions and will check on the profiles of these ARC applicants. I’m hoping to avoid the pitfalls of the Force of Corruption ARC campaign. It’s way back in several of my early blogs as the disaster unfolded over several weeks. We'll see how it works out. I already have one person signed up without really trying.
I forgot to mention that I've had 11 sales on Amazon in June, that’s a tie with the week I released it so I'm calling the event and some advertising a win. I did an advertising thing through Ingram Spark. It was $140 for Google ads and Amazon ads. It was a two-week span. Not sure how much is attributed to the ads and how much is from my constant marketing of the live event. I won’t do the additional ads in October, and I'll compare the results. I also made two sales on my website directly because of the event. They were both successful transactions and I'm officially claiming that my website merchant function is working perfectly.
Website sales are great because I keep all the money, no pennies on the dollar royalties. My husband is going to help me improve my shop and processes. He says my constant goal should be to push readers to my website since it’s where I make the most money. Another pro tip* use the post office media mail option for book orders. In the US my cost is less than $5, even across the country to Washington state. Spend $25 and purchase nice, padded envelopes to mail the orders. Presentation goes a long way when your readers open the package on a video they post online.
Speaking of online, I’m suddenly gaining followers at a rapid rate. I’m not sure why, but I think it’s because I crossed over the 1,000 (now at 1,300+) follower’s mark. I’m gaining 10-20 a day on Facebook. Instagram isn’t far behind at around 1100. It’s taken me forever to gain followers on TikTok, and suddenly I’m gaining followers there as well. I started at zero a year ago when I started writing, my author birthday is June 25, by the way. I was at around 270 followers last week. Let me tell you they’ve been very slow and hard to gain. Now I’m past 310 in just a few days. Like everyone on TikTok, I have no idea how it works or how I have videos with anywhere from 10 views to 18k. It’s a mystery.
In addition to the ARC campaign, I have a free book I'm offering to anyone who subscribes to my newsletter. I set it up on Bookfunnel as an E-swag item in the digital swag bag for the author event. I’ve decided to continue to offer it for free for anyone who signs up for my newsletter. I've only sent out one newsletter so far and I won’t send them unless I have something to say. Because of the books I have coming out I'm probably going to send one soon. I have a lot to share right now.
Here's how things are lined up at the moment:
July 19th Force Majeure ARCs go out by email and pre-orders go live
July 23rd Major hand surgery
August 15th Cover Reveal Origin of Violet & VioleNt
August 16th Minxy's Mayhem podcast
August 20th tickets go on sale for Readers Break the Internet-Horror Edition
August 31st Force Majeure is released, and reviews are due
September 14th Ashley’s review and promo is posted for Force Majeure
September 14th ARCs go out for Origin of Violet & VioleNt
October 13th Origin of Violet & VioleNt are released and reviews are due
October 19th Readers Break the Internet-Horror Edition, 8pm EDT.
Here is the link for the ARC application for an Advance Review Copy (it’s free-you’re expected to post a review by the due date) of Force Majeure:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/18tige17QgmpXzUiZCHTTUsZK_mUV2jhqZmxYsyJS9oU/edit
To get a FREE copy of The Devil's Affair, a romantic suspense story, just subscribe to my newsletter on my author website: https://www.enchantingauthor.com
As always, thank you for reading and I hope you have an awesome weekend!!