Tag: releases

Combating Release Day Stress Part One

Motivation and the Writing Life

A streetlight is in the foreground and a stormy background is ominously behind it.

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I read an interesting article lately that really made me think.  It was by Sweta Vikram and was titled, “How Mindfulness Can Help You Enjoy Your Book Release Day.”  In it, Vikram offered suggestions for better launch days.

I’m horrible at mindfulness, although I’ve definitely given it a go.  I’ve set timers and reminders for myself.  My mind always swims off to something I should be doing.  Clearly, I need to work harder at making it work.

But Vikram gives other tips for making a release day better.  I especially liked her reminders to continue building relationships with family and friends, to be grateful (she specifically mentions trad pub here, but it is the same for self-pub…we have a lot of folks to acknowledge on our road to publication), and to pay it forward.Continue reading

Timing a Release

Business of Writing

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraigfile8151262998458

When I was strictly traditionally published, timing a release had nothing to do with me. It was, actually, in my contract.  Usually I had a two or three book contract and my deadlines and the books’ release dates were spelled out.

The release dates even trickled into my writing…I frequently set the story during the season the book would be launching in.

I remember that other trad-published mystery writers weren’t happy about December releases, for example.  I did have a trad-pub December release in 2013. It was a slow start for that book, but it has ended up being one of my long-term strongest-selling titles. Although slow starts do tend to make publishers nervous since they’re not so into publishing’s “long tail” as self-publishers are. They encounter returns from bookstores.

Toward the end of November, I had a completed Myrtle Clover (self-pub) book. I remembered the bias against holiday-timed releases. But there was no way I was going to sit on the launch, either. I’d listed the book as releasing in 2015. So I put it out on Thanksgiving weekend. I sent out a reader newsletter to announce the release, carefully set up the book’s pages on Amazon, etc., to reflect reader reviews for the rest of the series, and then just carried on with hosting house guests and doing family activities and stuff like that.Continue reading

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