Daryn Guarino's Blog: Just what we need, another blog - Posts Tagged "release-date"

I self-published a book last year, a horror book, Prey Until Dawn. But I am a writer, not a publicist, so I spent my time writing. I released the book when I deemed it done and that was that. I didn't have a budget for real advertising, so, I did what everyone does, I signed up for every form of social media and started promoting. My sales are steady, but considerably less than stellar. Since I pay in sweat not cash, it's all technically profit. While that's good, in the real world it works out to about thirty cents an hour for the entire effort. Not super profitable, but I enjoyed the time spent writing and stress was at a minimum. I kept writing and writing remained a hobby.

And then I got picked up by a publisher! Hitter, my brutal real crime book, will be released by December House on August 23. Details here: http://www.decemberhouse.net/viewblog...

I am discovering that fewer things are more nerve-wracking than having a release date (Hitter – August 23). I want to go get one of those medically induced comas I always read about and wake up on the 24th. Each day brings the release date closer and each day my gut draws into a tighter and tighter ball. If I ate a charcoal briquette, I would poop a diamond at this point. It helps that my reviews have been pretty good, my twitter numbers are way up, and my advertising is generating lots of hits. That's all good, but, like Schrödinger's cat. I won't know until I know. So, until August 23rd, I'm trapped in promotional limbo.

And having a publisher through it all? Makes it worse, unfortunately. My publisher, December House, is great and I am so lucky to have them. I mean, I have a group of people doing all kinds of things on my behalf and I don't have to tell them what to do (which is good because I obviously have no idea what needs to be done). So how can that not be great? Well, before I had a publisher, if my book didn't sell very well, it wasn't a big deal. It would be disappointing, but it didn't effect anyone else. But now if my book flops, it won't just be disappointing, I'll be letting the whole December House team down. I thought the hard part was done, but this pressure I place on myself is maddening.

I now spend my days social networking and promoting my book which, at the end of the day, feels like I have done nothing of value at all. I bounce from Twitter to Facebook to LibraryThing to Instagram to Tumblr to Goodreads to Bibliocracy to Klout, I write a few pithy statements, answer some questions, and I start over again. I switch from book pimp to author whore and back again all day. Then I lie awake in bed and worry that I didn't do enough and/or will forget a new idea I planned to pursue tomorrow. By the 23rd, I'll be a twitching, drooling mess in need of sleep, a shower, and a shave (and possibly a home, the wife is less than pleased with the current state of affairs).

So get ready to buy my book, Hitter, on the 23rd! No, seriously. If it doesn't sell, my family will begin to starve. And, if my household goes all "Donner-Pass", you know I'll be the one eating that final bowl of soup all alone. Then my sadness will turn to madness and I am bound to go on a Mad Max style rampage and destroy civilization, if not the world. And then we'll all have to fight each other over canned food, then over dog food, then over hamster pellets, and then over whatever is left (probably those nasty frickin' Necco wafers and/or Grape Nuts cereal). If you think about it, it's a pretty simple choice for you to make; buy my book or accept the blame for your part in the end of the world. Spending a few bucks to keep a sociopath like me off the streets sounds like a good deal under most conditions!

Hitter will be available in most digital formats (Kindle, Kobo, iBooks, Nook, Google Play) on August 23! The author, Daryn Guarino, will probably still be hiding at the bottom of a deep hole in his back yard, crying uncontrollably and eating Toll House cookies.