…means sleepless nights.
I couldn’t sleep again last night. My brain was a hamster wheel of what needed to be done and what I should have already done a month or two past to promote my upcoming novel, NAPOLEON’S MIRAGE. Which will be published on November 12.

Honestly, I always saw myself becoming a once-a-year author. I’m a fast writer, particularly when I’m absorbed by my burgeoning characters and evolving plot line. (As I am now, but that’s for another post entirely.)
But what I didn’t realize was the huge toll book promotion takes on an author.
I’m reading Michael Castleman’s THE UNTOLD STORY OF BOOKS: A Writer’s History of Book Publishing. In it, he makes it clear that the scales have always been tilted against authors, no matter when in history a book was published. He cites how author superstars such as Mark Twain and Charles Dickens created paying literary careers for themselves, that so much of it was due to their personal appearances rather than book sales.
But in our naivete as aspiring authors, we figure if we were taken on by one of the major publishers, they’d handle the promotion for us. Wrong. Unless your book has been blessed by the publisher – and given a huge advance to boot – you’re pretty much on your own getting the word out.
And there are so many moving parts to book promotion. How much do you push it on social media without appearing crass? How many interviews, podcasts, articles, etc., can you write – and will they make a difference? How can you encourage readers to review the book? What events can you line up? If in a bookstore, can you bring in enough people to make it worth the bookstore’s time? If in a book festival, does the weather cooperate and are you in a prime spot (neither of which were true in my recent experience with the Brooklyn Book Festival?
And how many times can you go back to the well of your friends and family’s good intentions, asking them to help – via reviews, social media mentions, attendance at events?
Believe me, if you are a typical introspective author, it feels awkward to be hawking your wares. And to do it twice in just over a year’s time? Not fun…
I have author friends who refuse to get on the hamster treadmill, figuring their books will sell themselves, then are bitter when they don’t. I have others who have mastered promotion, but privately confess they don’t love the time it takes away from the next book.
But if you want your book to find its readers – and what author doesn’t? – it’s simply part of the job. And with NAPOLEON’S MIRAGE just a month from publication, I’m spending sleepless nights trying to figure out where to best spend my time (and sometimes money) and longing to go back to that new novel which is taking form in my head and on the page.
~~~
So, to preorder:
Bookshop: https://tinyurl.com/bookshop-mirage
Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/amazon-mirage
Barnes and Noble: https://tinyurl.com/BN-mirage
Kindle: https://tinyurl.com/kindle-mirage
And any local bookseller! Just mention that the book is distributed by Simon & Schuster.
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