Cats and targets

The cats are at the vets, and not happy about it. We get them back this afternoon, fully recovered hopefully.

Meanwhile I'm back to working on the writing. My sales target for Year 1: 5,000.

It's going to be tricky. Because of the way Bewrite works my access to my standard distribution channels (which got the self-published works sales up into the thousands) is restricted. Therefore it is going to be promotion and marketing that matter.

At the moment I am simply at the stage of telling everyone I know that a book is coming out. The problem is that I find myself running into issues with endorsements and similar because the publisher is in Canada and I am UK based - sending out galleys and such is proving complicated.

On the other hand I have been asked for ideas about the cover, which is also a problem as I frankly have no idea. I'd like to avoid the formulaic aircraft-and-big flame approach.

Different markets and promo nerves

With my first publication, it was a small, specialised and generally friendly market: one where even reviewers who slate your work are likely to run into you at the next convention and give some decent feedback, and you spend you time chatting to competitors about joint ventures, successes and ways to promote the entire market. Out in the open market things are less friendly and more competitive. My book is going to be one of thousands published this year, and that means I need to promote it.

As the sort of person who, if I got a chance to shout my name from the rooftops would rather whisper it while hiding behind the chimney, I find self-promotion challenging. It is very difficult to fight the urge to let the book be released, do very little promotion and just say that if it is good, it will sell.

This is how you guarantee a flop. To be honest I suspect that is partly why it is tempting: if anything goes wrong, if my research has failed me, if there is a huge clanger in the plot, if the book is actually horribly written, not many people will see it. Unfortunately it is also how you can guarantee you won't get another book published.

To counter this I keep telling myself that the book deserves better than me hiding under a blanket and pretending it didn't get published. The publisher has sunk significant funds and time into it, in the belief it is a good book and they are counting on it to sell. People don't buy books they've never heard of, and with the book publisher being Canadian that gives me another obstacle to overcome - people in Britain can't order a book they've never heard of.

So I'm compromising: hiding behind my PC screen for the illusion of privacy and meanwhile setting up as much of a web presence as I can and telling everyone I've ever met on any forum that I've written a book. Doing all these wonderful things they keep talking about: book trailers and banners and buttons and blurbs. I can only hope that will be enough.

And here's my gratuitious ad for today: http://www.squidoo.com/Firestorm.
It's my book. It's hopefully great. Please buy it when it comes out.

(Doesn't that sound like a confident, driven, self-promoting author? No? Oh well...)