Jaxon Knight's Blog - Posts Tagged "fairyland-romances"
It's Alive!
Rival Princes is now live! I've had people in touch with me to tell me they have it on their kindles, which is nerve wracking.
I've also had people ask if self publishing is difficult.
The actual act of self publishing is really simple - you just upload an image for the cover, and a document for the manuscript and then you tell Amazon a couple more things and make it live. You don't even have to have an ISBN for self publishing on Amazon.
The difficulty is finding people willing to actually buy and read your book.
So, because I want this book to do well I had to have a cover which matches the genre expectations. In this case it had to have two good looking guys and a certain colour palette. It also has to be gorgeous, so I hired a professional. I'm no designer, and I don't know the ins and outs of what the market wants in a sweet contemporary romance cover, so here we are. I do adore the cover...
I also hired a professional editor, because the last thing you want is for readers to be distracted by typos, repeated grammar errors or incorrect words. Sure, I've edited this book myself and I've had alpha and beta reader feedback, but there's always stuff that gets missed. I'm sure there's still a spelling error or something in there... My editor is also a developmental one, so she gave me some amazing feedback on how to make the scenes pop - varying action and thought and adding in some things I hadn't considered. Better book = happier readers.
And then there's the marketing aspect. I'm aware I have barely dipped my toes into the vast sea of online advertising. I'm doing things like updating here, sharing my book ad on gay romance facebook groups, doing a group takeover, blog posts and so on. I could be sinking a lot of money into Amazon and Facebook ads too, but I'm not quite ready to. Advertising can easily suck up a lot of time and money, and I'm leery of doing that - but also if I don't, then I might not reach a good audience. How do you decide what to do?
All of this is a huge learning curve, and I know I'll get better at it as I go. In the mean time, I just really hope people like exploring the Fairyland theme park, and fall in love with my boys the way I did.
I've also had people ask if self publishing is difficult.
The actual act of self publishing is really simple - you just upload an image for the cover, and a document for the manuscript and then you tell Amazon a couple more things and make it live. You don't even have to have an ISBN for self publishing on Amazon.
The difficulty is finding people willing to actually buy and read your book.
So, because I want this book to do well I had to have a cover which matches the genre expectations. In this case it had to have two good looking guys and a certain colour palette. It also has to be gorgeous, so I hired a professional. I'm no designer, and I don't know the ins and outs of what the market wants in a sweet contemporary romance cover, so here we are. I do adore the cover...
I also hired a professional editor, because the last thing you want is for readers to be distracted by typos, repeated grammar errors or incorrect words. Sure, I've edited this book myself and I've had alpha and beta reader feedback, but there's always stuff that gets missed. I'm sure there's still a spelling error or something in there... My editor is also a developmental one, so she gave me some amazing feedback on how to make the scenes pop - varying action and thought and adding in some things I hadn't considered. Better book = happier readers.
And then there's the marketing aspect. I'm aware I have barely dipped my toes into the vast sea of online advertising. I'm doing things like updating here, sharing my book ad on gay romance facebook groups, doing a group takeover, blog posts and so on. I could be sinking a lot of money into Amazon and Facebook ads too, but I'm not quite ready to. Advertising can easily suck up a lot of time and money, and I'm leery of doing that - but also if I don't, then I might not reach a good audience. How do you decide what to do?
All of this is a huge learning curve, and I know I'll get better at it as I go. In the mean time, I just really hope people like exploring the Fairyland theme park, and fall in love with my boys the way I did.
Phone saved names
I had an interesting question this morning - what do the various couples in Fairyland books have each other saved to their phones under?
Do they use their actual names? Their Fairyland character roles? Pet names? Well, some of them came to me quicker than others but here's what I have:
Dash has saved Nate as "ICE Nathanial" (In Case of Emergency) so if anything were to happen, Nate would be contacted right away.
Nate has Dash saved variously as "Dashie-babe", "Mr Grumpy Pants" and "My Handsome Prince" depending on how he's feeling
Cody had Dean saved as "Oblivious Twink" for a while but has switched it over to "Precious"
Dean has Cody saved as "Cody Bear" but if he's feeling particularly mischievous he switches it to "Leather Daddy" until Cody makes him change it back
Charlie has Max saved as "Max-a-million" and refuses to change it no matter how much Max begs.
Max has Charlie as 🥰😋😘🍆🥧🍾
Haru uses Grayson and Cillian's names because life is already too confusing and busy to try and decipher code names on his phone
Grayson has Cillian saved as "That Irish Git 🏴☠️" and Haru saved as "Best Boyfriend".
Cillian has Grayson saved as "Prince Pompous" and Haru saved as "Sir Minako's Dad"
Teddy has Art saved as "Prince of my heart 💜💜💜" and will not be in the slightest bit ashamed if anyone points out the cheesiness of it.
Art has Teddy saved as "My Bear" but with get very red if anyone notices.
Link has Tae saved as "TaeTae" most of the time, but he switches it to "Daddy Tae" for a while and Tae says he hates it but sort of doesn't as well.
Tae saves Link as "Cinnamon Roll must be protected" but he didn't enter it that way, Phoenix James did. Tae cannot bring himself to change it.
Are there any others you'd like to know?
Do they use their actual names? Their Fairyland character roles? Pet names? Well, some of them came to me quicker than others but here's what I have:
Dash has saved Nate as "ICE Nathanial" (In Case of Emergency) so if anything were to happen, Nate would be contacted right away.
Nate has Dash saved variously as "Dashie-babe", "Mr Grumpy Pants" and "My Handsome Prince" depending on how he's feeling
Cody had Dean saved as "Oblivious Twink" for a while but has switched it over to "Precious"
Dean has Cody saved as "Cody Bear" but if he's feeling particularly mischievous he switches it to "Leather Daddy" until Cody makes him change it back
Charlie has Max saved as "Max-a-million" and refuses to change it no matter how much Max begs.
Max has Charlie as 🥰😋😘🍆🥧🍾
Haru uses Grayson and Cillian's names because life is already too confusing and busy to try and decipher code names on his phone
Grayson has Cillian saved as "That Irish Git 🏴☠️" and Haru saved as "Best Boyfriend".
Cillian has Grayson saved as "Prince Pompous" and Haru saved as "Sir Minako's Dad"
Teddy has Art saved as "Prince of my heart 💜💜💜" and will not be in the slightest bit ashamed if anyone points out the cheesiness of it.
Art has Teddy saved as "My Bear" but with get very red if anyone notices.
Link has Tae saved as "TaeTae" most of the time, but he switches it to "Daddy Tae" for a while and Tae says he hates it but sort of doesn't as well.
Tae saves Link as "Cinnamon Roll must be protected" but he didn't enter it that way, Phoenix James did. Tae cannot bring himself to change it.
Are there any others you'd like to know?
