The novel is done and off to the printers. And while I have spent a couple of days eating unwisely in celebration, I know the work is not yet over. There is still another stage to this process.
Promotion.
Just because you get a book up on Amazon.com, alongside the hundreds of thousands of other books there, doesn't mean anybody knows it exists...or are even inclined to buy it if they do. That means there is much more work ahead.
So, now I have to start coming up with ideas to promote the book. I am on a fairly limited budget, and I can't travel much due to kids and disability, so I'm starting out with a couple of strikes against me there. I'm going to have to be smart, and creative, to get the word of this book out there.
One avenue is the internet. To be honest, I'm a little leery of these promotion packages that some internet companies offer authors. They make you a video and give a review on Amazon.com, and maybe a couple of other things. The problem is that then you have a video that you have to figure out how to get people come see, and that ads another level of work, and another layer of promotion that isn't for the book itself. I'll have to think about that. I'm looking at more direct forms of advertising, like banner ads, to actually get the book's name out in front of people. I'll also be doing leaflets, posters, bookmarks, cards, etc... and I'll be selling books at Apollocon this year. I'm also looking at the cost of a quarter page ad in Isaac Asimovs Scifi magazine. We'll just have to see how things develop.
And I need to get back to writing soon...as soon as I get all this gluten out of my head.
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