Getting the jump on promoting my books: Blurbs, Podcasts, and Events

With the end of September, I have three book endorsements (blurbs) in hand with one pending. I’ll have doubled the number of blurbs for this book compared to my previous two, but I must admit it still is nerve-wracking to ask. I’m not part of any writing community (in-person or on-line), so my requests have been cold emails to writers whose work I know about and who are local to the Mid-Atlantic region. It’s always a risk agreeing to comment on unpublished work from someone you don’t know, even more so if the purpose is to give an endorsement. That’s why I’m very grateful to these four authors for their support. In no particular order (links go to their author websites):

A.M. Aycock – Blades for Hire Anthology contributing author

J.N. Kindig – Ruhysvet Saga author

Jordan H. Bartlett – Frean Chronicles author

J.P. Lee – Shiftwork Chronicles author

In other writing news, I received a message from the AHP managing editor at the end of the month that my novel has copyright and ISBNs assigned for casebound, paperback, and e-book versions. An LCCN has been applied for and should be coming in a few months. The interior chapter design is underway, so hopefully I’ll see a sample soon. No word yet on cover mock-ups, but I think that is supposed to happen after Halloween.

For marketing and promotion, it’s three weeks out until the Eat Local Read Local book fair. I’m excited to be attending again as an author/vendor. Having done it last year, I know what to expect and have all the items for my “booth.” What’s going to make it a bit challenging is that I’m going solo this year. My family will be a youth soccer game, so it will be a quiet drive and I'll need more trips back and forth to the car to get set up. Nothing too bad, but it made me realize just how much I relied on them last year and welcomed the moral support.

The podcast round-table discussion with Author Adjacent I mentioned previously went live earlier in the month. I think the episode has been well received, despite a couple of us having bad A/V issues. Being part of an ensemble was new and an interesting experience. It did feel a bit weird because everyone was trying to be supportive of their fellow authors while also attempting to have distinct and interesting responses to the questions. Afterwards it made me wonder if I was having the same feelings as people who do panel discussions at writing conventions or festivals. Regardless, I’m continuing to seek out new podcasts where I can talk about my work. With a new book coming out in May 2027 I have a decent pitch, and thankfully I’ve gotten at least one positive response. But on the other hand I’ve also gotten a lot of radio silence. I suppose as with all such things it’s a numbers game. I'll keep at it.

With An Alchemy that Kills in production and things for that project (mostly) out of my hands, I can now return to drafting the last book in the series. It’s only been two months that I’ve not been actively drafting, but it feels much longer. I’m worried that it will take a bit of work to get back into the swing of things. I had built up some good momentum when I stopped in July. My plan is to re-read the 51k words I have so far and try to find my rhythm again. I’ll have an update around Halloween on how that goes.

Thanks for stopping by.