It’s 10:30 on a Friday night and I’m just beginning to catch my breath. This was a long week, and it looks to be followed by another one of the same. I’ve been to Atlanta, Durham, Raleigh and Winston-Salem this week, and next week sees me in Madison, WI, Atlanta and Columbus, GA and then eventually back to Charlotte. Then I think I’m home for most of a week before RoundCon in Columbia, SC, which will be a nice little semi-vacation. More to the point, I’ll be working, but I’ll be working for me and not for The Man.
Although, I guess since I’m middle management, I’m the epitome of The Man most days. Oh well, it is what it is. I’m getting through the first round of edits on Back in Black (and Blue) and March is still looking good for a release date. Gotta get to work on a cover, though. Might try something radically different with this cover. I love the covers Lindsay has made for me, but they might not be the best covers as far as marketability, and the whole point is to sell books, after all. So I’m gonna look at some things. I can always change the cover later.
The Win a Kindle/Nook/Gift Card contest is getting a lot of entrants, but not a lot of people are emailing me book receipts or trivia question answers, so I’m not sure how effective it is as a sales tool. But it’s getting my name out there, and anything that increases my name recognition doesn’t hurt at this point. Joe Konrath had a really interesting post on his blog a while back about book tours and signings and things like that. Basically he said that now that he’s self-pubbing, his writing is making him enough money to stay home and write. And since he’s doing most of his business through e-books, it’s better for him financially to not do as many cons and appearances, and stay home and get the next book out. This makes sense, especially if you’re as prolific as Joe (and I hope to one day be), but I’m likely to continue doing as many cons and book fairs as I can for a while, simply because I really enjoy them. I like meeting people and talking to them about my book. I’m sure eventually the gild will come off that lily and I’ll want to stay home and write, but for now I’ll be behind a table every chance I get signing books.
Speaking of books, we’re at 8 books sold 4 days into the month, so why don’t you go to Amazon and put me into double digits already?
