Recent Updates and Insights
Good Morning Readers,
A full month has passed since I began the promotional campaign of my debut novel Fallen Ribbon and so far, it has been an emotional and mental roller coaster. I am by no means surprised at that, but to say I am already exhausted would be an understatement. There have been some bumps in the road that I’ve had to smooth out and am still trying to figure out.
For example, I recently discovered while trying to sort out my website’s subscription campaign that it requires me to put a legal address on my emails that I send out with my professional account. I don’t want to put my personal address on an email campaign that in theory will eventually be going out to folks whom I don’t know, so now I’m looking into getting either a virtual mailbox, a private box, or a P.O. Box. It really boils down to what is going to be most cost effective for what I am going to use it for, in the interim, but I’m trying to also gauge what I can realistically afford as well because there have been random things popping up in my expenses that I wasn’t anticipating.
Another update is that I gave my team of First Readers an extension on their reading time and feedback. Such is life makes it hard for us to really bunker down and focus on things like reading and writing, and honestly this extension also benefits me as well because I have been slammed nonstop for the past few weeks as well. I already received one person’s feedback about the book and it’s fantastic and provides me enough information for me to make changes in the book while I wait for others to finish. Someone has already stated a character that they love and a part of me is both pleasantly surprised and not surprised as well because this particular character I hadn’t originally put too much development into, and the book definitely reads that way to some extent, but I ended up growing to love this character as well. So, it was nice to hear from someone appreciate a character that I also have been favoring recently.
This past month I also have been working with my graphic designer to develop the cover, and we thought we were wrapping it up about a week or two ago, until I submitted it for critique in a self-publishing group, I’m a part of in Discord and they had some insightful comments about. Therefore, we started redoing the entire thing again for a third draft. I feel really bad about it, but unfortunately, I need to make sure that whatever cover we end up going with is going to be amazing and sells well. The unfortunate part of that is it meant having to compromise on some artistic ideas I originally wanted to go with. People seem to be steadfast in the belief that covers have to match what other people typically do in that same genre for design in order to “fit in” and sell, and I definitely don’t want to be forced to conform to atypical design concepts for my genre, but if a certain style is what sells then I have to find a balance of what sells and what makes me happy with my cover.
That’s a hard balance to find, and I am struggling with it. I keep having this quote in my head someone a long time ago said to me during one of the revisions of Fallen Ribbon when I finished the first draft. I was having an editor go through it with me to make it ready for final edits and she said, “As a new author, you have to conform to the rules of the publishing market in the beginning until you can prove that you’re an excellent writer and your book sells enough that you can break the rules to your liking. Once you’ve reached that point you can write about anything you want to whatever length you want.”
I feel like that is true to some extent, once you become proficient enough in something that you exceed everyone’s expectations, the leash is removed from your restrictions and you’re suddenly free to do whatever you like, knowing that you’re going to produce amazing results. But you must do something often enough and practice with it continuously to get to that point. I feel like Stephen King is a fantastic example of that. The man lives and breathes writing and has sold millions of copies of his books over the course of his career. He has some very specific rules about how to be a good writer, and honestly, if someone can have their own section in Barnes & Noble for their writing, I’m willing to believe in the validity of his rules and the success of them. He’s clearly doing something right, so I may not like the idea of conforming to typical market tactics with my book cover design, but if a certain theme and style fit a genre and helps people sell, then I’m going to go along with it. I don’t have to agree with it, but I’m going to do whatever helps make my book look appealing.
Aside from the cover design, finding time to manage scheduling, and looking into mailing addresses, I had been trying to continue to run my D&D campaign which had been going well, but I told my adventurers that I needed a break for a few weeks to focus on publishing endeavors. I could feel the organization of my launch campaign falling through the cracks as I put focus on D&D writing. If I were a player in a campaign, that would be one thing, however running a campaign as GM is tremendously more difficult and not dissimilar to writing a book, which realistically I don’t have the time for at the moment. Thankfully, D&D will always be there, and once I am done actively promoting Fallen Ribbon and I am in a place to take a break post launch date, I will happily schedule more D&D sessions to continue our adventures.
In the meantime, look forward to more about Fallen Ribbon in the coming weeks. Next up will be the introduction to the vampires; bloodthirsty and dark creatures who have existed for over a millennium. Make sure to Like Comment and Follow my posts on my Facebook and twitter pages and subscribe to the Dark Nursery Diaries newsletter on my website!
