The exciting news is that I have a new book coming out; my second novel in the Sean Joye Investigations series. The title is The Talking Cure. The more mundane news is that, as events have transpired, its book promo will be amidst getting my late mother’s house ready to sell and settling many pesky estate tasks. My plate brims like a Thanksgiving Day Chinet platter. They say certain things in life are inevitable, but do they all have to happen at once?
Life Cycle of Book Promo
You might think that books, once written, appear online or in a bookshop without much effort by the author. You would be wrong. Even books from large publishers require a good deal of book promo from the writer. In addition to soliciting endorsements, proofreading, and providing input on the cover art and book design, they must promote it. We are advised to start at least six months prior to publication date. Tasks include researching review sites and news feeds, lining up early readers, pumping up our street team, tidying our websites and socials, and writing promotional materials. All things for which I have very little bandwidth right now.
Pick, Choose, and Ask for Help
It’s been a juggling act, which is not my best trick. I’m much more inclined to the deep dive, working one task with laser focus until complete then moving on. Nevertheless, I was committed to bringing this book out this year. I would not put this valuable bit of “me-ness” on hold any longer. Therefore many things have to be done at once, and the only way forward is through them.
My mantra is “do the best I can, at this time, with what I’ve got.” I didn’t have six months to prepare for The Talking Cure’s debut. In late August the publisher and I set the availability date as November 25th and started working back from there. I had three months.
My best decision, I think, was to get help. Other Worlds Ink is setting up a blog tour for me. (December 7 through 9—watch my socials for links!) Independent Book Review will run an editorial review of The Talking Cure in early December. You’ll see quotes from it out and about on my socials, too. The Literary Underworld granted me some blog space to talk about the new book. And several authors read my manuscript and gave me endorsements (in a timely way), which made Montag Press happy.
I got a bit overwhelmed by the advice in Joe Walters’ The Truth About Book Reviews, but took what lessons I could manage right now to heart. There will be other books in my future and maybe better promotional campaign. I simple can’t do all the things this time around.
Have Fun with Book Promo
I hope I’m not making my book promo sound all work and no play; it’s not. A good launch party is a welcomed thing to plan as I clean out cabinets and scrub floors at my mother’s old house. My professional helpers have me fired up about blogging again. And maybe I’ll get myself organized to try to get on a podcast or two.
The important thing is to share the joy of this book after the struggles of the past few years.
How about you? How do you handle more work than you have the time and energy to do? I’d love to hear your ideas for maintaining some sort of balance. Comment on the blog. Navigate to my website, click the blog title, and complete the dialogue box at the end of the post.
If you enjoyed this journal entry, you might like to read my review of The Truth About Book Reviews.
I started this blog thread on the gritty details of the writing process on my Facebook Author page, @kbkathylbrown, but think I might be better served putting it over here. If you’re interest in following my writing process in an informal way, you’ll find a few posts on Facebook that might interest you. You can subscribe to the blog from the website landing page (scroll down).
Sean Joye Investigations, Book 2
Haunted woman claws her way back to reality by reconnecting with her magical powers in The Talking Cure, a supernatural Yuletide follow-up to The Big Cinch.
Committed to an insane asylum, Violet Humphrey is isolated on the Illinois prairie with only her own thoughts and a persistent new voice in her head for company. When she is accused of murder, Violet suspects her road to both freedom and recovery lies through confronting her painful past and solving the crime. Magically summoned, Sean Joye skids through an ice storm to help Violet, but can they catch the killer and defy an eldritch horror before Violet loses her tenuous grasp on reality?
“The Talking Cure is a marvelous story—an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery infused with a strong sense of the Weird… and a hearty dose of magic on the side. It’s ideal for all fans of the sinister, the surprising, and the strange.” —Cherie Priest, award-winning author of Boneshaker
And now is an excellent time to read the first Sean Joye Investigations novel, The Big Cinch from Montag Press. In this award-winning supernatural noir adventure by Kathy L. Brown, Sean Joye, a fae-touched young veteran of 1922’s Irish Civil War, aims to atone for his assassin past and make a clean, new life in America. Until he asks the wrong questions…
And Now a Word from Our Sponsor
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Wolfhearted is also available as an Audible audiobook, here.
St. Louis Writers Guild just published Weird STL, an anthology celebrate the strange, spooky, and just plain wonderful stories of our hometown. This volume of short stories, poems, a play, and essays includes a Sean Joye universe short story, “Big Magick.” Joseph Arwald, one of the baddies from The Big Cinch, tells us what really happened to the Ferris Wheel from the St. Louis 1904 World’s Fair.
Reviews, even a line or two, put the books you enjoyed in a more prominent position on Amazon and are vital for independent and small-press books to find their audience. Remember your most recent read? Leave a review for it on Audible, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Goodreads.
The direct link to review Wolfhearted on Amazon is here, The Resurrectionist, here, and Water of Life, here. Thanks in advance.