As I mentioned in my last post, Tales of a Stranger Sister will be part of the upcoming Narratess Fantasy, Sci-Fi, & Horror Indie Book Sale.
While this won’t be my first time running a promotion, this will be the first time I’ll be part of a large-scale group promotion. I had hoped to be a part of the last Narratess sale that was held in April, but of course, when I had learned it existed, the cutoff for signups had already passed, so I ran a solo promotion that same weekend to, well, ah… let’s say results, and just leave it at that.
Honestly, this is something I’ve been looking forward to ever since I published my debut novel. Living with a self-published author for these last 11 years, I’ve gotten to see how these group promotions tend to go, and my spouse/editor/publishing guru always seems to come out on the other side of these ventures seeing very positive results. So, now’s my chance to be a part of this and, honestly, it couldn’t have come at a better time for me.
We’re coming up on the six-month anniversary of the release of Tales of a Stranger Sister and sales, so far, have been… uh… Well, I won’t say they’re disappointing because I legitimately worried that no one would actually want to read my book at all, so the fact that a dozen people were willing to take a chance and give me actual currency in exchange for my work is something I will never not be both thankful for and in awe about.
That said, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t wish that number was more. I’m proud of this book and, dammit, I think there are people who would absolutely love it if they found it. It’s just been hard finding those people and putting it in front of their eyeballs, despite it feeling like I’m doing everything short of hurling copies at people’s heads and screaming “READ THIS!” So, this is my first real, true opportunity to expose my book to a large number of people and, in turn, hopefully generate sales, and, more importantly, eventually generate more reviews and ratings which can only help boost its footprint in a vast internet ocean (Footprints in the ocean? Sorry, I think that metaphor got away from me.)
So, I’m excited for this weekend to finally see what my story can do with actual exposure to a its potential audience.
And I’m equally terrified.
Because there is also the chance that it completely fails to generate any interest with the indie book-buying public, and I will no longer have that excuse that sales have been slow because no one knew it existed. I would have to face the fact that I might have created something that no one wants, or worse, even if it was something they wanted, what I’m offering is mediocre or even bad. That I am a bad writer who wrote a bad book and the best I can hope for is a dozen readers who are too indiscriminate with their disposable income and too kind to tell me to eff off with my bad book.
So, yeah, I got that running in the back of my mind. Good ol’ imposter syndrome with an unhealthy dose of insecurity. Boy, what a fun blog entry this turned out to be, huh? Aren’t you glad you stopped by?
Okay, enough of that! I’ve always said that I wrote and self-published this book the way I did because I wanted to have the freedom to make the creative decisions I wanted to make and to let the book succeed or fail on my own terms. So, I guess we’ll see, won’t we?
That said, as there are over 300+ books in this sale, written by fellow indie authors from all across the vast spectrum of humanity, I should also do my share to support them as much I hope they’ll support me. So, here are a selection of some of the titles I plan to pick up this weekend to help carry me through the fall and winter reading season (Please click on the book below to see the full-sized image and description):
And, of course, I’d be a real dingus if I didn’t also give a hearty, full-throated endorsement of my amazingly awesome and awesomely amazing spouse’s own entry for the sale:
Seriously, it’s great, and you should grab a copy this weekend if you haven’t gotten one already.
And also speaking of my better half and partner in literary crimes, their newest novel, The Strangers’ Sanctuary, is now available for pre-order and will be out on September 1st! It’s amazing, honest, & authentic. A genuinely good read, so check it out if small-scale fantasy is your proverbial cup of tea.
Anyway, I hope you all find some books this weekend that scratch whatever itch your imagination has at the moment and if mine happens to be that particular backscratcher, then thank you! Thank you so very much!
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