My Publishing Journey: I have a series!

With the release of BEFORE THE END last week I now have a series of books out! (Well two!) It’s a great feeling. In this weeks publishing journey update I talk about the new release and what I’ve been up to in the last two weeks.

BEFORE THE END

Unless you have only just started following me, you should know I released the second book in my zompoc thriller series (IN THE END), called BEFORE THE END last week. I’ve been building up to this for a year, but I started writing it back in February 2018.

If you haven’t already checked out the book, you can here.

I had the day off from my day job so I could fully concentrate on the long list of tasks I had to complete. Here’s of a few of the jobs I had to do.

I ran an Instagram / Facebook post of the day, showing all the nice things people were saying about the book
Competition draw – (Each pre-order customer had the opportunity to win a signed copy of the paperback)
Social Media Posts
Double book advert design – The author copy paperbacks arrived on release day so I had chance to create some great ad photos, see below.
Enter the AllAuthor Cover Competition (December)
Editor’s promotion – My editor ran a promo post
AllAuthor – Updated with the new release details
Update pricing for IN THE END – The promotion I ran for three months @ 99p/99c ended on release day so I have to change all the prices back on each marketplace.
Release day ARC mail out – reminding them to post reviews. I have so far had 3 out of 10 post reviews. It’s a little disappointing but they were good reviews.
Release day mail out
Website update
Release day blog post
Promotional Posts (other sites)

I even managed to do some work done on the third book in the series and sign-off the cover for Operation Dawn Wolf.

Here’s a look at the ad images I’ve created.

Marketing & Promotion

With the initial spurt of sales over, I’m concentrating on a slow and steady, and free approach to marketing. Using social media, I’m playing around with tags and finding new Facebook groups to advertise in.

I’m advertising in both genre related groups and general groups, advertising the two novels together and then separately advertising my FREE mailing list magnet on alternate days. If you’re an author and want to promote your books to then there’s a list of the general book promo groups I’m advertising in for free at the end of the post.

WHAT’S NEXT

With BEFORE THE END now released I’m only working on three books concurrently! And wait for it, here’s a big name reveal! The title of the next book in the series is…..AFTER THE END.

AFTER THE END

The third in the series takes up where both IN THE END and BEFORE THE END finish. I have an outline and an approximate ending, this one will not be a cliffhanger and will draw the series to a close, of sorts, whilst leaving open the possibility of more novels.

So far I’ve written two of four planned acts and it stands at around 57,000 words, 13,000 of which I’ve written since last week.

FATE’S AMBITION

This is at the proof-reading stage and is the first in the JAMES FISHER series about James, a guy who can make anyone believe what he says with a simple touch.

It’s the first book I wrote, then rewrote and again about ten or more times. It releases in February and I’m announcing the cover to my mailing list, but I also gave a sneak peek on my Instagram Story last night!

OPERATION DAWN WOLF

On release day for BTE I also managed to complete the blurb for the back of the book and my designer completed the paperback cover. I have the proof arriving today. I love this part so much!

The blurb is not traditional as it is meant to read like a non-fiction report of the events that took place. With the redactions, of which the book is filled with, I think it looks great, but I value your opinions.

This book will be released early March 2020, going on sale with Amazon, plus I will be giving the book away free as the reader magnet for my mailing list as it ties into FATE’S AMBITION and another four books I’ve already written.