Launch of book two imminent. Closely followed by book three. Sleep evades me

When I started this journey of self-publishing, I was like Luke Skywalker and literally everyone was Yoda. And there was a pattern of advice that quickly emerged that I, of course, heeded as gospel. Things like “build your mailing list,” and “determine your goals/definition of success early” and “find your reader.” I did/have done/am doing all those things, and got the results that they said I would. But there’s one piece of advice that I hadn’t been able to test out until now. The one that really solidifies the self-published author’s success. And that is “write a series.”

Books 2 and 3 were always in the pipeline, but now it is time for them to actually be released.

I sent out book 2 to my advance team (oh yeah… I have advance team now lol. Like literally… it’s like a team). Basically, all they said was the book was awesome. It was either a high compliment, or very very unhelpful feedback. Some errors were caught, so they had their critical eyes on. I think it’s another winner.

But I kind of knew that already. When I look at all three of my books I’m like, in awe. They’re really….fucking…good. Like, they don’t need to be as good as they are. They’re just romance novels. Pure indulgent, escapist, fantasy world nonsense. Romance reads are like tic-tacs– cheap, feel-good shots in the emotional arm. But I set out to make a more quality “tic-tac” and dammit… I did it.

The launch is tricky. I can tell by the state of my numbers that the first book, while still in a humble place on the charts, is growing in good good soil. Nutrient-rich. High conversion rates, high read-through rates. The reviews look like I wrote them myself (I didn’t).  I’m honestly confused about how to market book two, because I don’t want to market the second book in a series to new eyes. To me, it makes more sense to just continue to put more fuel behind book one. You could read book two as a standalone–if you didn’t mind being a bit lost– but it would be a much richer read with book one.

I’m completely out of money, but I’m sorely tempted to do some irresponsible, perhaps borderline illegal things to eat into my life budget to give my book a little boost. Advertising is definitely reaching junkie levels with me. It’s just that the internet is so powerful, you can reach millions of people with a click. I’m like Jerome the crackhead from Chappelle’s Show, on AWS like, “I just need three dollars!!!”

Yesterday I found the exact image I need for the cover of book three. Like, within minutes. Still don’t have the money yet but I got two weeks to worry about that.

I’ve worked long, hard hours for weeks, but you would never know. In fact, I hardly know. Because every second of it has been enjoyable.

Did I really find my purpose? I can’t believe it. It’s surreal.

I would say that I’m lucky but I’ve spent over a decade looking for it. So long and so compulsively and without a hint of ever being on the right track. I honestly stopped expecting to ever run into it. It’s nothing what I thought it would be, and exactly what I thought it would be.

Soon the money will be on its heels. It’s not bragging, it’s just that harvests are real. One of very few constant, unchangeable things about this reality. Then the platform will grow. Perhaps to the point where I won’t be able to just say any old thing I want on this blog anymore. Yikes. That’s gonna be an adjustment. Blogging was always a bit like throwing garbage into the sun. Part of me will miss that.

I don’t know what’s next. Maybe nothing. I would love to be successful and also keep my obscurity. I love that I haven’t heard of most of the authors in the top 100. It gives me hope. To find a nice, quiet yet appreciative audience of mostly romance-reading introverts across the globe lolz. No offense to extroverts, of course. Ugh! See, it’s already happening. Am I going to need a publicist? UGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH…

I’m getting ahead of myself. It’s just that I know what I’ve done, I know what I’ve invested, and I know how savvier I’ve grown through this process, and I was pretty savvy to begin with. It’s just feeling very jack and the beanstalk right now. Like, I can feel it. Like I had three magic beans, and I wasn’t sure if that would be enough, so I went and found six more, b/c I wanted to make sure that shizz was going to work. Maybe it’ll turn out to be nothing. So far, every day I look outside my window and see nothing. But I have a feeling one day, I’m going to wake up and my house is going to be in the sky. That’s what it feels like right now.