Launching - why you should do it

Sending #TheEmeraldSerpent out on its own as an ebook on Amazon has been an interesting and, I might add, an exciting experience. By 'on its own' I mean that I've done no presales publicity; no guest blogging to promote it; no advertising and my website remains in pre-launch stage. Thus I do not have email lists to do mail outs to; nor have I appeared at events such as SupaNova to promote it; nor have I approached a 'New York Times best-selling author' (although I know one) for an endorsement. This should be a death wish in making sales, and maybe it will be, but it is the way I've begun, and making a beginning is crucial.

Between a long commute to work each day, and working full time, I decided to devote my time to launching the best quality book I could. Figuring out how Amazon works is an ongoing task, and time consuming, the recent conferences I've attended: #Conflux, #GenreCon and especially #thesmallpressnetwork have added more complexity to the mix.

Important to consider is that, once launched, #TheEmeraldSerpent will remain available. Unlike a commercially produced pbook, it will not disappear from bookstores, cease being promoted by the publisher, or be remaindered.

Also, unlike a commercially published pbook, Amazon allows me to see exactly when and where I've sold #TheEmeraldSerpent and that is exciting.

Some folks see Amazon as akin to Satan, especially their various 'library' systems, while others warn of the 'meat-grinder' of getting books through Smashwords' systems. There are other aggregators out there now too, and lots of systems for Print on Demand (POD). Exploring how each of these systems work, and whether one is better than another, is again very time consuming, and as I've said, I'm very time poor.

One of the subjects discussed at #GenreCon was the 'five book theory', that is, you need at least 5 books out to build sales momentum. This seems logical to me. While #TheKiraChronicles means I'm not a complete unknown, I'm close to being so. I've had the rights back to #TheKiraChronicles since 2013 and haven't published any fiction since then, but I've continued to write, so have a lot of stories I am readying for launch.

My next ebooks are my #HunterDuology - #HeartHunter and #RainHunter which will be out early next year. In the same period I want to have #TheEmeraldSerpent available as a POD book too, another thing I have to learn how to do to create a professional product.

So, having done absolutely none of the things the wise author-marketer should do, how has #TheEmeraldSerpent fared? It went live around Oct 11, and up till today, Nov 24, it has been bought by 16 people: 10 off the Oz site; 2 off the UK site; and 4 off the US site. Most of the 10, if not all are family and friends; as is one off the UK site. Not sure about the US site, because I've learned buyers can buy off overseas sites from Australia. Of course I hope the US sales are in the US, and that they know Steven Spielberg well, and will gush onto him about my superb book!

There have been borrowings from the KDP Select Library too, but I don't yet have a report on how many. It looks like 1 or 2 by the pages read.

For anyone whose thinking of launching their first ebook, my advice is to get on and do it, but spend as much time as possible making it into a professional product. You might be lucky enough to have a lot of time on your hands to do all the marketing things you should be doing before launch, but if not, the danger is that there will never be a right time to make your story accessible to readers.

At least sixteen people have now read my book (or will do, I hope). If I was still worrying about my marketing this book would still be sitting in my files, and no story, no matter how wonderful, ever comes alive until it goes out into the world and gets read. So - happy launching.