“I’ll publish as a fast release series.” Sounds easy if you say it fast, but releasing my three Ellie Rose Series books across the summer July to September was a rollercoaster ride.
Touch which had been released two years before had a complete re-edit and facelift and was relaunched in July. I had a much better concept of what was required this time and had my faithful army of beta readers and my enthusiastic email list primed to read, critique and most importantly post their reviews on re-launch day. For the first time, I used a curated list of reader promotion sites and I was elated and thrilled to watch the downloads of Touch soar and it take bestseller position in several categories finally edging into the top one hundred sellers on the whole Amazon site at the end of launch week-end.
And then I realised, with just a few days respite, it all had to be done again. I put the success of Touch behind me and began to concentrate on Dilemma. Last minute typos which escaped even the proof reader had to be adjusted, silly niggles uploading to Amazon ironed out, and a steady stream of radio interviews and podcasts prepared. The pre-order glitched and had to be re-set, newsletters written – you get the picture. In the end all was well and Launch day saw me smiling and relieved to see one more book-baby successfully launched.
Book three, Bloom, was waiting in the wings for its moment to shine and its creator, me, staggered back to my feet and feeling like a seasoned professional adapted my launch plan for this book, encouraged all my helpers, assured my husband that he would see me again one day and watched Bloom take off for its own life in the hands of its readers. Rather like seeing my children take up their adult lives, I’m fascinated to see the different ways readers relate to these books and the far flung corners of the earth they travel to.
The finale of the launch, was my book launch party and reading at the Red Lion Bookshop in Colchester. I prepared my book table complete with beautiful artist designed bookmarks, and ‘proper author’ banner stood back and felt proud, emotional and delighted. I took my seat in the well-worn leather wing chair – the authors chair, and looked at all the people who’d supported me from my writing teacher, to my writing group, radio presenters, fellow authors , friends and family and it was a joy and privilege to read them excerpts from may book and raise a toast.
Book four is underway, and this year I will launch my first historical fiction. But they will be released one book at a time – the heady rush was like the sparkle of champagne however the next launch will be savoured like a rare whiskey .