I’ve had some folks asking me how the book thing is going, so this feels like a good time to share a general progress update.

Rise of the Red Hand was released on Amazon on October 28. If you haven’t managed to pick up your copy yet, feel free to do so. Sales are a little slow, but I’m competing with literally millions of titles, many of which have the marketing wing of big publishing companies behind them, so I’m trying to keep it all in perspective.

It’s also helpful to remind myself that Rise of the Red Hand was intended as a promotional piece. The sole purpose of the book is to make fans, not to make a fortune. I’ve got another 20 books or so floating around in my brain that are loosely based around the same subplot – I’ll use those to make a fortune. (Or just make a living. I’m good either way.)

I’m running a marketing campaign on Amazon presently, which is delivering a noticeable increase in sales. Targeting specific keywords seems to be doing the trick.

The next book, Storm Cloud Rising, is essentially finished. I’m in the process of a final tech edit – fixing punctuation errors mostly, and perhaps the occasional tweak in word choice for clarity. I’m sharing it with my Beta reading team (which right now is a team of one – if you’re interested, hit me up). I’ve gotten good feedback from my Beta team in the past, so depending on the results there, I may do an additional round of minor changes.

However, I don’t plan on releasing Storm Cloud Rising until I have reliable data on different marketing and advertising strategies. The way the algorithm works on Amazon emphasizes sales over time. A book that sells 50 copies in one day will receive a higher “rank” than a book that sells 1 copy a day for 50 days. Once a book has the algorithm solidly behind it, the sales begin to snowball, and momentum takes over. My goal is to acquire solid data on the effectiveness of as many marketing tools as I can find and then apply those tools all at once when I release the next book. Then if my understanding is correct, with a lot of sales over a short period, the algorithm would kick in, and Amazon would begin to push my book(s) forward on its own.

That’s the goal. The snag at the moment is a lack of reviews and ratings for Rise of the Red Hand. Amazon’s dreaded algorithm leans heavily on reviews and ratings to decide how to rank a title. I am aware of two other platforms that I could utilize for book promotion, but both require a book to have a certain presence in the marketplace – meaning more reviews and ratings.

So… if you are reading this and you’ve also managed to read my book, in addition to my deep appreciation for your choice to spend time reading my work, I would also extend further appreciation if you could find the time to drop me a rating or a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or Bookbub. Especially if you want to see Storm Cloud Rising released anytime soon. I don’t think I’m allowed to do any kind of giveaway or reward-based appeal for reviews, so I hope my admiration, thanks, and respect for you will be enough.

Beyond that, my goal is to increase subscribers to my newsletter (found on the website) and get some more followers on the ol’ Instagram page. Having a measurable audience gives me an idea of how many sales are occurring due to advertising and how many are from social media and other such networking.

I will finish with my deep gratitude for you who have expressed interest in my work and say that your support means more to me than I can express.

P.S.

Sharing is caring! If you liked the book, tell your friends. If you hated it, tell your enemies you loved it. Make them suffer too.

P.P.S.

I’m posting this on my blog as well as in the newsletter. My apologies for any redundancy.