Published: Behind the Scenes (Oct. 2017)

All right, the recap: I sold my alternate-history fantasy series almost a year ago now (wow) to Glass House Press. Since then, I’ve been detailing my journey of what goes on behind the scenes in the hopes that it will help people have a glimpse into the process. My publishing journey, of course, will be different than someone else’s — this is just one path.

If you’re interested, here is:

• The introductory post to “Behind the Scenes” where you can find a list of all the posts so far
• My path to publication blog post
• The most recent post in this series

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Since the prequel was back in the hands of my editor the past few months, I’ve spent most of the time working on other projects. I’ve talked before about the benefits of working on two projects at once (under certain conditions) and it’s something that’s slowly become part of my routine.

A mental refresh, if you will. Or a pallet cleanser.

Either way, it seems to be working. I have a clearer picture of the Obsidian Divide series now in my head. I even figured out a few elements about the world and even a few character quirks. (Unfortunately, they are details for farther along in the series versus the actual prequel that Editor and I are working on, but whatever. It’s new fun stuff, and I really ready to tackle the prequel again.)

Though now that NaNoWriMo has hit, most of my energy is focused towards my that manuscript. (If you’re interested, I wrote a short story related to the world that’s pretty dang interesting, if I do say so myself.) I could have worked on something related to Obsidian Divide, but until the prequel and Book One are firmly set developmentally, I’m worried about working too far in advance.

So I will be extra prepared to look at the prequel with fresh eyes when my editor comes back to me with edits.

In other news, I’ve been working on setting myself up branding and marketing wise. I had a designer build a logo for me a few weeks ago, and I might have another exciting branding project in the works here soon.

Otherwise, I’m really starting to think a lot about bloggers and reviewers. 2018 approaches, and the reality of needing to build buzz and get reviews and make people actually KNOW about my book is getting heavier. I’m starting to get a little paralyzed by the idea of all of it.

So! To try to head off this panic, I’m trying to be proactive.

For about the past year I’ve dinked around reading articles on marketing, listening to different marketing ‘experts’ about what to do, and signing up for all sorts of mailing lists. There’s a lot information floating around in my head, but unless I put it in some sort of order, it’s not going to help me very much.

(By the way I recommend to all of you to start reading information on marketing. Don’t get anxious, don’t think you don’t do ‘the right thing,’ don’t worry about changing anything right now. Just start digesting some of all the information out there. It’ll give you time to figure out what might work for you and get a grasp of the size of it all without it becoming overwhelming. I’ve talked a little bit before about marketing, specifically the branding aspect of it, which is pretty dang interesting, if I do say so myself.)

So! With some help (a buddy of mine who also has her trad-published-debut coming out next year is doing it with me), I’m going to start planning. Like, in a planner, with it all written out. I’ve even got a really awesome one picked out. I’ve been writing out notes, and sketching out general ideas of how they might fit for me, and trying to gather lists of influencers in my genre. But now I’m going to make A PLAN and put it together.

This plan primarily revolves making people even realize my book exists. Which means interacting with people who have a lot of interaction with other people who might want to read my book.

All while keeping up on my social media interaction and branding.

Which means, of course, ads, free stuff, guest blogging, interacting with influencers in my genres, putting the book all over Goodreads… and yeah, so much else I’m probably forgetting here.

Either way, I’m hoping that I’m going to have a real plan written out here by my next update. I think I might write another post here soon about a different segment of marketing as well.

Oh! And before I forget. I wrote a short story a while ago that actually has to do with my debut series. It’s actually a part of Book One, versus the Prequel which will come out earlier, and from a different perspective. But it’s really good, if I can say so myself, and you might be interested in reading it. Let me know what you think…

I hope you all have a wonderful writing week!