So my New York Debut, WICKED BURN comes out in less than three weeks. How do I feel about this? Fifty-percent thrilled, twenty percent anxious and thirty percent petrified. I kind of didn’t expect the ‘petrified,’ so it’s been a real trip dealing with that.
Like leagues of authors before me, the question that haunts me is, “Have I done enough?” It’s true that I want to sell books, but most importantly, I want to reach the market that will actually enjoy my books. Thinking of WICKED BURN and the woman who was looking for just that kind of a read never being introduced to each other makes me cringe.
They say the key to marketing is understanding your audience, which is a bit tricky, to say the least, when it’s your first book. I’ve written quite a few erotic romances and romances for the e-publishing market. The problem is: there doesn’t seem to be any clear consensus on the overlap of the e-publishing market and the traditional publishing market. In addition, I’ve always felt like a bit of an ‘overlapper’ anyway, because while my books are, yes, very erotic, they also usually follow the lines of a classic romance.
I read something this morning in The Book Marketing Expert newsletter that an author shouldn’t think of how many books she sells; instead, she should think of the book as a way to get exposure. It’s the exposure that leads to eventual book sales. Oh…sure, I thought.
Somehow, that didn’t seem to sooth my angst like I thought it would.
If any of you have any words of wisdom to help to help calm me down, I’d love to hear them. In the meantime, I’ll just drink some chamomile tea and check my pre-sales numbers at Amazon…for the tenth time today.
And it’s still not even nine a.m.
