catherineldf (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
catherineldf) wrote2012-04-01 02:37 pm
catherineldf) wrote2012-04-01 02:37 pm
Entry tags:
The joys of forthcoming book promo
And such. I am now in possession of some print-ARCS as well as e-ARCS of SIlver Moon and thus am caught up in the exciting panicked cycle of "I need to send one here. And here. And there. And what about these people? Sure, they blew off my last 3 review requests, but surely they'll see the genius of my new book. This time will be different!"
Because I have the aforementioned ARCs, I'm trying a bunch of new things, as is my publisher. Which is, on the one hand, potentially amazing and could result in lots of good reviews leading to sales. On the other hand, my book could also get completely ignored or trashed by a reviewer with a substantial readership. Eek. So I'm attempting to deal with the whole "What if they hate/completely dismiss my book?" thing by going for quantity as well as quality. This is, by and large, easier said than done. Neither I nor my publisher has a huge budget for promotion, so there aren't tons of books to distribute. Nor are there, alas, tons of places which will welcome a book about a. a middle-aged woman wrestling with coming out and turning into a werewolf which b. has a romance subplot in it but is c. basically a fantasy novel with d. no sex in it by e. an author generally known for writing sex scenes. It tends to bump up against the scariness of teh gay and the omigod, it's not erotica, is it? (Aside: As if well-written erotica were just the most terrifying thing ever.)
But nothing ventured, nothing gained. So far, I've set up for a book giveaway on Goodreads (details to follow soon), prepared a press release and an arc to go to the writing show on one of our local radio stations, sent e-arcs to 4 publications/sites that reviewed my previous books and 1 to a werewolf blogger who expressed interest (Lethe is hitting the various and sundry big review sites like PW and Lambda). I've also requested a guest blog slot on a wildly popular blog. I'm wishing that there was a magic bullet to take care of all of this for, but there just isn't. On the bright side, I anticipate getting much better at writing summaries of my novel and press releases for events. Should be an interesting less than 2 months. :-)
Because I have the aforementioned ARCs, I'm trying a bunch of new things, as is my publisher. Which is, on the one hand, potentially amazing and could result in lots of good reviews leading to sales. On the other hand, my book could also get completely ignored or trashed by a reviewer with a substantial readership. Eek. So I'm attempting to deal with the whole "What if they hate/completely dismiss my book?" thing by going for quantity as well as quality. This is, by and large, easier said than done. Neither I nor my publisher has a huge budget for promotion, so there aren't tons of books to distribute. Nor are there, alas, tons of places which will welcome a book about a. a middle-aged woman wrestling with coming out and turning into a werewolf which b. has a romance subplot in it but is c. basically a fantasy novel with d. no sex in it by e. an author generally known for writing sex scenes. It tends to bump up against the scariness of teh gay and the omigod, it's not erotica, is it? (Aside: As if well-written erotica were just the most terrifying thing ever.)
But nothing ventured, nothing gained. So far, I've set up for a book giveaway on Goodreads (details to follow soon), prepared a press release and an arc to go to the writing show on one of our local radio stations, sent e-arcs to 4 publications/sites that reviewed my previous books and 1 to a werewolf blogger who expressed interest (Lethe is hitting the various and sundry big review sites like PW and Lambda). I've also requested a guest blog slot on a wildly popular blog. I'm wishing that there was a magic bullet to take care of all of this for, but there just isn't. On the bright side, I anticipate getting much better at writing summaries of my novel and press releases for events. Should be an interesting less than 2 months. :-)