Caitlin's Escape Route is live and selling

That is to say, I have sold a few copies. A first novel is very much a chicken and egg situation I believe. If you have no previous novels, you are an unknown, few are interested in buying. If you have no reviews, no one wants to be the first. Very understandable but without reviews, sales are very unlikely and without sales reviews are never going to be forthcoming.

I spent a few weeks before the release, and all of the last week since then, studying up on the various marketing avenues. Some, of course, are just too expensive to rush into so soon. I have set up a few ads on Amazon, but so far, these are not doing great. I need to revisit them and keep tweaking till I get the hang of it.

Here's the thing. Your (in this case, my) ads only show if you have selected the correct key words, and someone uses these keywords to search for a book, and you have bid high enough that you beat all the other thousands of writers attempting to get their book planted in the face of a potential buyer. If you get to that point, and your book appears at the top of a search result, then the potential buyer has to click on it. If they do click on it, you get charged whatever your bid was—now the important step, they have to buy the book, then read it, hopefully like it and then write a review. That's a lot to ask of someone who just wants to find something to read that they will enjoy.

However, I am not going to spend much time worrying about it. I have also read that when there is more than one book in a series available, people are more likely to purchase. I know I love to read a series. One of my favorite authors is David Baldacci. He has a number if great series, and it is so nice to return to characters you already know and like. So, I am busy getting number two in the series ready to publish. It is written, I have received and incorporated feedback from my main alpha reader, my very talented daughter in law, a gifted writer. Now I am working on getting beta readers lined up to help me polish Sally's Story.

If you have read Caitlin's Escape Route, or when you get around to reading it, you will meet Sally, and you can follow her through the second novel. My hope is to have Sally's Story ready to publish by early September. That is dependant on getting timely feedback from beta readers.

The problem with beta readers is that you are asking them to do a whole lot in return for very little. They have to read your less than perfect manuscript, making notes of all the places where they feel something is not quite right, either moving too fast, or too slow, or holes in the story, or characters who don't seem real enough, dialogue that doesn't sound realistic. I could go on. But, in return for that, what do they get? a free read they might not even like, and a thank you. Actually I also offer them a signed copy of the book after it has been published, but that is hardly a huge payment, especially as they have already read the book.

The online writers community that I am a member of, are starting up a critique partner group and I am hopeful that will be in action in time for Sally's Story, if not I am already working on Brenda's Story, number three in the series.