So…What’s next?
Many of you are curious about this whole “self-publishing” gig. How does it work, what does it pay, how is it going? My answers: it’s complicated, not much out of the gate and better than expected. This should surprise no one. Like any business startup, it’s no walk in the park, and take home pay for the first 12-18 months (unless you’ve bottled lightning) is going to be anemic. Still. I can’t complain. After 7 weeks, sales have been solid: 150 paperbacks, 425 e-books, 110,000 Kindle Unlimited page reads and my two Amazon “Free Book” Promos moved 8936 copies.
To be honest, I never expected these kinds of numbers. It’s been more than humbling (that’s my macho way of saying “completely intimidating”) to watch One In A Million reach #1 in Kindle Free Crime, #2 in Kindle Free Paranormal and #1 in Kindle Free Supernatural, then climb to #37 the next week in the Kindle Top 100 PAID books category. For a brief moment (yes, I screenshotted it, I couldn’t help myself) One In A Million was sandwiched in the rankings between two Stephen King novels! Mind. Blown. But book promotions can only carry you so far. They spike your sales for a few weeks at a time and get you noticed, but it’s still up to you to build a lasting audience. Blogging, Emails. Social media. Marketing. And, oh yeah, you get to do all that while editing and writing your next books! No joke: I haven’t worked this hard in a long, long time. It’s exhausting. And I love it. No. I adore it.
Because if you can get past all the narcissistic self-promotion, the planning, the striving, the down and out hustling…you get to do something you enjoy (Woot!) and get paid doing it (Woot! Woot!). Cool. But WAY better than that? You get to meet people who've read your books and want to share their story about your story: how it kept them up at night or how they were heart broken by a particular scene. I’ve been approached at Starbucks, Coffee Bean, at church, at work, on my street and at my daughter's school. “Great job!” they say, or “Can’t wait to read the next one!” or “I absolutely loved it!!!” And you say to yourself, “Wow. I guess I might not totally suck at this whole writing thing after all!!!” Lol.
So…what’s next? I’m currently 2/3’s of the way through the first edit/revision of my fourth novel, The Snow Globe, a psychological thriller. It goes to my editor by the end of this month for a full manuscript critique. The release date has already been set: March 17th, 2017. Yep, St. Patrick’s Day. In honor of my mother, as it was one of her favorite holidays. I’ve also begun a sequel trilogy to The Millionth Trilogy. I’m 20,000 words into Book 1 and I expect to have the first draft done by Jan 31st. Books 2 and Book 3 will also publish next year. Yep. I’m gonna be busy. The goal by this time next year is to have a total of seven books up on Amazon. I can do it. With your support? I can do anything.
Thanks again, everyone. Please know that I am truly beyond grateful for you. Here’s wishing nothing but the best to you and yours during this holiday season. You ROCK!
Tony
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
VROMAN's PASADENA BOOKSTORE SIGNING: My first ever bookstore signing will be taking place at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena on SUNDAY, JANUARY 8th, 2017 at 4pm as part of their “Local Authors” event. I will be doing a reading, taking questions and signing copies of all three books. Everyone is invited and I sure hope you can attend…as there really is nothing sadder than seeing an author sitting by himself during one of these things…which I’ve seen more than once. So. Yeah. Please come. Imagine my face. Sad. Very sad. And lonely. How could you do that to my face? 🙂
WRITING IN FLOW, BLOG INTERVIEW: I've been interviewed for Beverly Diehl's “Writing in Flow” Blog, which will hit the internet in two parts on Monday, January 2nd and Tuesday, January 3rd. I've known Bev for a long time and it should be interesting to see what her followers think of my good, ole' fashioned horror trilogy. I'll be sharing it to my Facebook and Twitter pages those days, so keep an eye out!
