The heat of the summer is upon us on the east coast of the U.S.A. But this sweltering environment hasn't prevented the manuscript for Hemlock and the Dread Sorceress from nearing its final form. The manuscript has finally been shipped off to the editor. I've got everything done at this point except for the final eBook formatting for Amazon and Smashwords. This should mainly consist of creating a table of contents and re-integrating the edits once I get them back. The editor is planning to start in a week or so, and should be done in another week's time after that. I can confidently say that we are looking at a solid August release date. I've been taking some time off from writing like I usually do after I complete a book. I'll be putting my marketing hat on soon and starting to promote the release. Not that I'm any kind of marketing dynamo or anything. But I'll be doing a few things. I'll be running an August ad on the Indie Book Blog. And I'll be running some promo ads on Twitter. I'll probably create a press release and send it to some blogs. The rest will have to be word of mouth or divine intervention (if you believe in that sort of thing).
I'm not really sure what to expect out of Book III in terms of sales. My main beta reader observed that this book is potentially the "all-in" point for readers of the series (the follow up to that statement was "so make sure it doesn't stink"). If you are reading this, I hope you are "all-in". That's a wonderful concept for an author, and it warms my heart to even consider I could earn that level of "carte blanche" trust from a reader. This series has been about trying to develop that trust. I recognize that Book One--even after all the revisions I've done--still has its stylistic flaws. That's why it's permanently free. Book Two was an exercise in trying to tighten up my writing and establish some trust with the reader in terms of quality. And I think Book Three is about cementing that trust in terms of quality, and showing the reader that the overall story arc for the series is on an interesting course. I believe I've succeeded in achieving both of these goals, but readers will ultimately be the judge of that (please leave reviews, if you read it).
Thanks for reading my post. I guess I'll be getting back to some more philosophical blog posts once this release is behind me. Until then, I hope you are having a wonderful summer!
