First, the really exciting news. At First Sight is up for preorder on Amazon! I can't wait until October 22, when you can meet Max and Cress. Only the ebook can be preordered at this point. The paperback will be added later, as will the cover. The cover reveal is on August 11. The current price is the preorder price. It will go up to $4.99 after the release. And if you are a Kindle Unlimited subscriber, it will be on KU.
This makes a good segue to this week's topic. My week has been filled with writing adjacent tasks. What I mean by that is things that relate to writing and publishing, but aren't actually working on my manuscript. For example, I just created an account with Linktree. So you can put in one URL and find me in all the places I hang out. And that meant I needed to create places where you can find me besides Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Right now that means author pages on Goodreads and Amazon. That seems straightforward, but I had various issues that had to be resolved by Amazon and by the Goodreads librarians.
Writing adjacent, for me, also means research. I research a lot using Google, especially for setting and information on cybersecurity. But it also means books, newspapers, etc. I love to research so I do a lot of it.
This stuff is usually free, but other writing adjacent tasks are not free. My cover, for example. I decided to hire a company that does book promotions. As a new author, I am hoping that will bring me some attention through reviews and blog mentions.
I need "swag" for a book signing I'm doing in October. That means little things that promote my book that attendees might like. My big one is pens. I also decided to design and order a few other things. These are two postcards.
I also designed a sticker.
Another task is formatting the book. I could hire a formatter, but as a Mac user, I decided to use Vellum. That means purchasing the Vellum software, which is a one-time expense, so worth it since I can use it for every book I write. It will format for all types of ebooks and for print. That also meant switching from my word processing program, Pages, to Microsoft Word. I just subscribed to that.
Authors generally have lots of writing adjacent tasks. This blog is one of them for me. Even traditionally published authors are expected to do a lot of self-promotion, especially through social media. And for indie authors like me, you have to do it all.