The life of an author post-launch is a world of promotion. The life of a self-published author post-launch is a world of degrading promotion.
My consolation at the moment is that every author I’ve ever read says something along the lines of “I didn’t expect reviews as good as I got, or sales as poor as I got.” I’m right there with you. This week, I’m throwing around a few bucks for Facebook ads, experimenting with what works and what doesn’t.
I find Kindle sales vastly easier than lowering the price on my Amazon paperback, due to Amazon’s strange rules. So for all this week (8/20-8/26) Civil Blood is available on Kindle for $2.99. Yep. I spent years on this thing, and it’s available for the price of a soda at a restaurant.
Would you like Civil Blood? Here’s my short pitch in quiz form:
You’ve just been infected with a vampire virus. Your first question is:
A) “Can I get laid and high on blood whenever I want?”
B) “What idiot is criminally liable for letting loose a biohazard?”
C) “Am I still legally human, or is some suit in Washington going to pass a law?”
D) “Who’s the richest motherf***er I can sue over this?”
E) “I never really thought about it, but I should ask all of these questions in rapid succession.”
If you answered A, B, C or D, you might like Civil Blood. If you answered E, you’d definitely like Civil Blood.
That’s it. That’s my promo for now, as I try to scare up some Amazon, Goodreads, and Booklikes reviewers. I’m lacking in that department — my friends help retweet and do Facebook posts, but reviews are as rare as Sam Kinison pantomime routines. I actually went so far as to post a review of my own book where it was allowed.
Do I feel shame in giving myself a five-star review? Yes. I wish I didn’t have to, and I delayed about a month before I did it. My reasoning is this:
1) I didn’t try to hide it. I straight-up said I don’t think the book is flawless, but I want to advocate for its strengths.
2) As Louis Armstrong once said, “you got to toot your own horn, because nobody else is gonna toot it for you.”
3) Nobody says a politician can’t vote for themselves. They’re citizens, too.
4) If I’m getting so few reviews that one 5-star review is going to blow the curve, that book needs all the help it can get.
That’s all. Now back to your regularly scheduled urban fantasies with their teenage angst and Byronic heroes and small-town witch heroines solving mysteries. I like those books, too… I just didn’t write one.