Starting the Colt e-book released! In fact it was released a week and a half ago, but I've been so busy--working, going out of town two weekends in a row, getting ready to go out of town, catching up at home after being out of town--that I never even thought to update my blog till today. 

When my publisher emailed me that the e-book was released, I had to think up some ways to publicize it, without actually having a book in my hands! A Facebook announcement was the obvious first choice. I quickly made a few last-minute changes to my website, including the addition of a page where website visitors could read the first chapter. 

Then I got busy with my computer and printer and created a flyer I could post on bulletin boards around town and on my two trips to visit family. For a template, I used a flyer from The Orange Slipknot, swapped out the cover photos and the pertinent information, and tweaked the size and location of my text boxes. I decided to add tear-off strips, formatted from my piano lesson flyers with tear-off strips, with each strip containing the title, my website, and the information "Smashwords/Amazon."

Finally, I created bookmarks, again using the template from the bookmarks I created for my first book. I printed them on photo paper and cut them apart, five on a page. Now I had something to hand to people I talked to. 

The paperback won't be out for a couple more months--should I contact the newspaper now or then? I decided I'd rather give the biggest publicity boost to the paperback, so I'll hold off on that. But I did write up a possible press release. 

As a substitute teacher, I've had fun sharing my publishing journey with the classes I've been in recently. I love to answer their questions, but my favorite comment was: "You don't look like an author." I laughed and agreed, and told them that actually, authors are just regular people, that happen to also write books.

The boxes of books finally arrived! Just in the nick of time for me to get the prepaid autographed copies out in the mail. One last glitch almost cost an extra day--UPS had recorded my address wrong, and the poor UPS lady spent 45 minutes going up and down my road, looking for that non-existent number, and going door-to-door trying to locate me. I thanked her profusely and offered her a tip for her efforts but she refused it.

I forced myself to wait to open the boxes until my husband got home so we could share the big moment. He took pictures of me and my boxes and books spread all over the couch, which I immediately emailed to family and close friends. Holding my book in my hands was an absolutely wonderful feeling.

What a whirlwind of activity the last few weeks have been! I think I went to the post office about 8 days in a row with book orders. Getting them out just in time for Christmas resulted in many local sales, including several stores that carried them. Hearing great comments on the book prompted me to add a "Readers Say…" page to my website. To my surprise, I found that many adults loved the book too, so I guess it's not just for kids. I sent my first press release to our local newspaper and a week later my article appeared.

By Christmas day my company was gone and I was free to work on book projects--next was more press releases. Thanks to the internet, I was able to easily find email links to newspapers in many cities. I began with Nevada, then neighboring states in the Great Basin area. I tweaked the headline and a few sentences to hopefully make it eye-catching and relevant to other locations. I also researched and worked on some other promotional ideas.

I got several good days of work in on the sequel to The Orange Slipknot. (One reader already asked when the next book would be out!) Mostly I needed to reread and rework material I had written previously, but as often happens when writing, I had a couple of serendipity moments where new ideas popped into my head. I think I may be about halfway done with it now. I would like to think that perhaps that means I could be done by the time school is out, but who knows. I am so thankful for my two-week Christmas break. It has truly been a working vacation though.

Never count your chickens before they actually hatch. Things do not always go as planned, and I'm sure this won't be the last time...the books that were supposedly "in the mail" to my publisher turned out to be not in the mail, not even printed. So then a last minute change of printer resulted in several more weeks of delay and lost opportunities to sell books at an event and on a trip, but they will actually arrive in a couple of days now.

Meanwhile, I have been distributing flyers and bookmarks and talking up my book. I've used my unplanned extra time to get over being sick, visit grandkids, make my Christmas plans, and work on another writing project. I hope to use my two-week vacation from my job at school to resume work on the sequel to The Orange Slipknot, which I haven't touched in months.

When my books arrive this week, I will spend that evening autographing and stuffing books into prepared mailers which I will take to the post office the next day. Hopefully all prepaid orders will arrive by Christmas! Then I will begin my new job of selling books. I have stores to visit and press releases to send out. I will need to devise a way to keep track of my business transactions. Writers must also become small business managers!