Chapter 14 - Building momentum

Since publishing Legacy, I’ve had a steady trickle of sales, mainly through family and friends (as is the case to begin with for most self-published authors) and I’ve also been building up my Twitter and Facebook following, writing to bloggers asking them to review Legacy, and seeking out other promotion opportunities.

The more I do, the bolder and more confident I get. I’m far more comfortable with putting stuff out there now and have added Instagram and Pinterest to the list of social sites I use (although I still need to learn to be better at seizing photo ops!).

I’ve also had really positive reviews from those who have read Legacy and am trying to encourage as many as possible to leave reviews on Amazon, Smashwords and Goodreads. It’s been wonderful to have conversations with readers about the world, the concepts of Mind, Body and Spirit and the characters (predominantly whether Alexander, Marcus or Bas is the hottest), and fascinating to see the things different people read into certain happenings! The best moment to date though was last week, when an independent book blogger gave me an overwhelmingly fabulous review - friends have to be nice, but to get amazing feedback from someone with no connection to me whatsoever was a spectacular thrill.

Now it’s all about building a following and building momentum, trying out new promotion methods, trying out new versions of the book blurb, encouraging readers to leave reviews, getting down to writing the second book, and especially trying to be patient (as we know, not my strength). I’m not yet living the dream, but fingers tightly crossed it’s only a matter of time…