Mended's release week has come and gone, but the work is just beginning! I have learned a lot about what NOT to do when publishing and promoting a book and have come up with some ways I can do better next time. 
    For starters, getting reviews BEFORE I publish is very important, as well as creating buzz about my book on social media. Advertisements and promotions may help down the line, but for now most ads aren't going to work for a book that has few reviews. 

    My next task is to continue to grab the attention of readers in hopes that they will read and review my book. I have already given away many copies of my book for free in exchange for reviews and I have high hopes that those enthusiastic and supportive readers will come through for me. I have also made some submissions to fellow bloggers for reviews, as well as critics and fellow authors. I have also played around with different marketing campaigns and plan to launch some in the near future. In the meantime, Mended is now available for free on kindleUnlimited. To read for free, click here 



    If you read my post last week "Mixed feelings about Mended's Release," then you already know the self-doubt and uncertainty I was experiencing. Coping with these feelings are still a struggle for me, but I'm also trying to be more realistic.

    It's easy to get discouraged when things aren't happening as quickly as you would like. Copies of Mended aren't flying off the virtual bookshelves at an alarming rate and I'm not immediately a best-selling novelist. As great as those things would be to achieve, they don't happen overnight (and often they don't ever happen.) But that doesn't mean you should give up. And neither should I.

    Starting from scratch is a long and vigorous journey and it takes time and mountains of effort to get to the end. Sometimes along the way, it's easy to forget what motivated us to start on this path in the first place and to ignore the small successes along the way. 

    So when I'm frustrated that I've sold less than a hundred copies of Mended in the first week, or that I only have four reviews on Amazon, I have to remember to take a step back and think about what those things mean. The fact that I've sold any copies at all is a huge success, because that means there are readers that I've enticed to read the story I worked so hard on, and that I have a lot of people out there who care enough about me to support me by buying my book and (hopefully) leaving a review.

    It's easy to forget why I wanted to publish a book in the first place. When I started, all I wanted was to create a story that readers can enjoy. It's clear that I've succeeded in doing that, so why aren't I satisfied? 

    Dreams sometimes change. Sometimes they grow to be far more than what you first set out to achieve. Would I like to be a best-selling author? Absolutely, and I will try my best to achieve that dream. But, it's important to remember that it's a process.  Define realist goals and many of them. Celebrate small successes and don't dwell on the goals you don't meet, but rather reassess and figure out why they weren't reached. Most importantly, never give up, unless that is truly what you want to do. 

 To check out my book, go to Mended's Amazon page.



Don't forget you can download a Free PDF of the first four chapters of Mended for free on my website: kaylamariebooks.com

Thank you all for reading. I hope to see you all again soon!

Connect with me on Facebook
Follow me on Twitter