Light at the end of the tunnel

Well, I’m finished. It’s done. What a relief. Being an early adopter of the curmudgeonliness ways of the elderly, I’m surprised to find I’m actually feeling quite emotional about it all.

But my literary narcissism can only be short-lived, because now I’ve got to take Vessel to the next stage: publication. With many ‘thanks, but no thanks,’ type responses from agents, I’m going it alone, venturing into the wilderness of the self-published. Many a good author has found success (and even traditional publication) through this route, so I’m not above it. In fact, I’m feeling quite the opposite: that Vessel isn’t worthy of a reader’s attention. Only one way to find out I guess . . .

A book launch is a wondrous thing: it can shoot a book to the stars, or it can leave it to wither and die. Amazon a hugely powerful tool, able to make or break a budding author with its complex algorithms and global reach. A good launch takes advantage of this marketing ability, and I need to make the most of it. Having read Darren Wearmouth’s guide to book launching (you can view it here: http://rockingselfpublishing.com/episode-07-the-7-day-launch-strategy-with-darren-wearmouth/) and discussed it with the man himself, I have come up with a strategy. Darren’s First Activation sold over 50,000 copies in the first few months and his new Critical Dawn is following suit, so the guide is worth reading (as are his books!)

There’s no magic trick to it. It’s based around advertising. That’s how the world works, I suppose. Darren’s guide lists a few advertisers, and we’ve both since discovered more, so here is the list of companies I’m going to use to formulate my launch strategy:

Kindle Nation Daily

Bargain Booksy

Book Sends

Kindle Books and Tips

eReader News Today

BookBub

I’ll arrange the bookings over a week or so, hopefully giving me a continuous boost in the rankings, enough for the Amazon algorithms to take notice and give me more promotion. That’s the idea, anyway. Whether it will work for me is another matter. Once everything is booked and I have a launch date ready, I’ll post it up on here. From there — who knows. We’ll have to wait and see . . .