The second book isn't just finished, it is practically ready for printing! Working with FriesenPress again (perhaps the process will be a topic for another post) the second book has been edited, polished, designed, and is about to be sent to printing. Very excited to see this project finally coming to an end. It was unfortunate that I couldn't get more done independently, but with no help from anyone I once again resorted to paying for help. The editors with FriesenPress were very helpful and I practically got another round of edits from them, which helped the story even more. I like their process and being more aware of it made the interactions more predictable and manageable. Some issues, but I'd rather look back on the experience once the book is completely available so I can reflect on the entire experience, not while it is still in progress.
There lies a new challenge: marketing. The last and endlessly perpetual step. The first book suffered greatly from being poorly marketed (my ignorance and a lot of PhD stuff in the way), I plan to try a little more with this book. My plan isn't all that complicated, it is getting physical copies into stores; big stores, small stores, whatever, to get some exposure to people who are likely to see and purchase a physical copy. This will mean going on consignment with local stores. Since this series isn't popular enough for the bigger stores to just stock the product meant I was not going to bother spending hundreds of dollars on return insurance. Having a product to give an individual store without them having to worry about book insurance and all that seems to me like the best way for a small-time series to enter a store. Being part of a series may help selling the idea substantially as I can provide a copies of both books. This process will have to take place in the coming weeks, I'll have to keep track of who I've talked to here in Calgary, it'll be interesting to see how this goes...
As for exposure online goes, well, I have no idea. Twitter / X is a shameless place for self-published authors, I hated treading those waters, so I may have to look elsewhere for advertising. Ads maybe? I'll look into it, I don't want to commit too much money into something that feels wasteful, I am unlikely to get any money I've spent on this project back, I'd rather not go ahead with spending more.
This last process will be interesting, I need to be ready to sell this book, ready to have a pitch, ready to deal with an area I am so uninterested in. To be exposed is so anxiety inducing, but who knows, maybe someone will actually like this story!
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