Final Month Kick Off
Good morning, Readers! With the second month having ended and the third month beginning, the final month of Fallen Ribbon’s promotional campaign begins! Here’s what to expect: an increase in posts again, new updates for the launch, physical book reveals, some sneak peaks into the book, and more insiders on the creation of Fallen Ribbon. It probably doesn’t sound like much, but hopefully it will all be things that you will find interesting and fun to read about!
Last month I extended the deadline for my team of First Readers to June 30th. I lost a few readers as well, and I have received some more feedback and responses from the readers that remain. Recently, I had a work schedule change that disrupted my ability to commit time to handling my promotional campaign schedule. Initially I worked the promotional schedule around my work schedule so that any posts and emails I made would be timed so I had opportunities to make any kind of edits before they went live. With my work schedule changed, I’m now mostly working day shifts instead of night shifts and coming home too mentally exhausted to do any kind of writing work, so my motivation is now limited to my days off and before work.
In the last couple weeks of June, I had a video chat with my lovely graphic designer for the cover and we began to finalize the cover. I should hopefully be able to reveal it in the next couple weeks. I also managed to complete some vital edits in the book itself and am plowing away at final changes slowly but surely. At this point I have lost track as to how many edits the manuscript itself went through before I decided I was finally happy and ready to release it into the wild. Even as I go through this promotional launch process, trying to simultaneously market myself and the book (which is daunting by the way), I am continuously afraid and excited about releasing this lifelong project to the public.
Over the years I’ve talked plenty about my ideas for my story, what I want to come out of it, and where I want it to go, but I never really put thought into the experience of letting other people read it. That goes to show, for me at least, I was truly not mentally ready to publish it the few times I thought I was ready. I tried to begin the publishing process in 2022 by submitting it to literary agents for representation but was denied every single one. I was determined to go the route of finding a publisher to represent my work because I did not have the confidence or the know-how to go through the self-publishing route. This was mostly because the act of marketing myself felt really daunting at the time and I had no idea where to start. It’s difficult for me to start something new when I don’t know where the starting line is.
Thankfully, with some guidance from reddit and various other forums I found online, I was able to find a place to begin my research and learned how to navigate the self-publishing world. It's an ongoing study of mine as I promote my book, but what I have learned so far has helped me understand how to market myself and my novel better than I did when I tried to find representation. After researching the self-publishing market, I even discovered communities of authors who manage to make writing a viable income for themselves, and I applaud them for it. Granted, even they have admitted that writing can be a gamble on earning money for it, it can be very luck based, but it also takes some careful planning and strategic marketing that if done right, can reap some handsome financial rewards depending on what your writing career goals are.
As for my personal writing goals, sure I would be lying if I said the potential for money wasn’t appealing, but my goals are more geared toward how I feel as a reader. I’ve always just purely wanted to reach an engaging audience. I want to excite people with my characters and the stories I want to tell. I would like to evoke the same feelings that I’ve experienced as a reader out of my own audience. That feeling you get when your favorite character finally did something amazing, or the butterflies in your stomach you get when something really embarrassing just happened; those are the feelings I want to give my target audience. I would like to give readers something to feel while reading. And hopefully, we are only a month away from getting those feelings started!
As always, thank you for reading my blog and staying up to date with Fallen Ribbon. Next time you may look forward to the introduction to the Angels; fierce and prideful creatures who are the embodiment of pure light! Fallen Ribbon launches at the end of the Summer 2024!
