Last week’s podcast episode featured paranormal romance author Kara Lockharte. She wrote a short book and used the experience of publishing and promoting it to learn as much as possible while she worked on her other books. This gave her an advantage when “officially” launching, because she’d already made connections, learned which sites worked for her, and other important lessons.
This inspired us to ask our Facebook group of savvy Writer Moms what did they learn from the release of their first book that they then applied to their second?
Here are some of their great answers that, if you’re unpublished, will hopefully save you a little time and money (and if you’re published, may make you feel a little better about your own mistakes!):
- Don’t spend a lot of money a first book. You’ll spend some but not the thousands you may think you need!
- Spend time/money on gaining reviews instead of ads, which are usually not financially viable until you have at least a few books out. (This does NOT mean pay for reviews – always a bad idea!)
- Spend a few months planning the launch
- Make a mailing list before you launch
- Have a reader magnet to build the list pre-launch (also helps with reviews, see above!)
- Take your time! Wait until the book is ready, there is no rush. If your plan is rapid release of a trilogy, then don’t feel like you need to release book one too soon. It’s hard to wait but if your goal is a large financial return, it’s important to remember your strategy!
- Don’t release close to the holidays. It may seem like a good idea since people will be in a buying mood but really they’re in a “too busy to look at new authors and promotion emails” mood!
- Be careful in your choice of editor. For a first time author, it may feel like this one person is the unquestionable expert, but they can be wrong! Getting a second opinion will cost a little more time/money, but may be worth it int he beginning to find someone you really connect well with.
If you make a mistake, guess what? You’re not the only one! And it’s usually never the end of the world (or your career). One member said “no matter how bad you screw up, there’s always another chance. Another book, another series, and if it’s that bad, another pen name.”
A huge thank you to all our members for all the great tips! For more awesome support from Writer Moms just like you, be sure to check out the Facebook group.
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