Post publishing preparation pays!

Hello. My Monday really has been manic!

Just another manic Monday and a bit like all the rest of the past week has been. I was elated last Tuesday when I was able to say I've DONE IT! I've self-published The Taexali Game. You might think I'd have had a bit of time to draw breath and do some blogging but that's not quite been the case.

I'm having one of those 'waiting for a bus' situations since there will have been three new releases/ relaunches of my books from the end of March to the beginning of June. You wait for a bus and it doesn't come and then you wait a bit longer and find that three arrive around the same time. Publishing can sometimes be a bit like that.

Crooked Cat Publishing have been great at giving me plenty of notice of the launch dates for Monogamy Twist (March 27th) and Take Me Now (5th June). As for my own self-published title - The Taexali Game - I'm glad I didn't publicise a particular date in March or April because it took me a long time to get all my ducks in a row. February came and went. March vanished in a fug of a virus. April slid past as I learned how to format for Createspace before I had properly blinked. So for the record,  May 7th was the day the print version of The Taexali Game was published and May 11th was the day the kindle version hit the shelves. The time lapse being due to a fun family wedding weekend in St. Andrews, Scotland.

Since the 11th May, I've arranged an official Facebook Launch Party on Friday the 22nd May and invited a lot of people on my friends list. I thought I had invited the whole cabooodle on my list but I haven't found a way to check exactly who HAS been invited. If you've been left out, my apologies, it's due to operator error and not on purpose. The Facebook launch event is a public one so you're very welcome to say hi and find out more about my Celtic Roman Time Travel Adventure where my trio of teens from Kintore - Aran, Brian and Fianna - zip back in time to AD 210 when the Roman Emperor Severus makes his presence felt in north-east Scotland. 
Here's the link!
 https://www.facebook.com/events/839159202815971/

As well as party/event organising I've been arranging for as much local publicity for the book launch as possible by sending out Press Releases to my local newspapers. I've yet to try the local radio stations- maybe tomorrow I'll aim for that if I get a spare moment. Will my grandkids have a daytime nap? Not on your life- that doesn't happen often and rarely lasts longer than 20 minutes for the 1 year old and the 3 and a half year old not at all.

BUT I'm delighted to be able to write that the Aberdeen Press and Journal have said they'll do a book feature on Saturday 23rd May. The Aberdeen Evening Express have said they'll try to do something with my Press Release information- though I don't know what or when. I've not realistically given the local Inverurie Advertiser and Inverurie Herald much time to put something out before this coming Friday but they've been very good at featuring me in some form in the past, so I live in hope for this time around.

The post publication preparation hasn't only been for newspaper publicity. Last Saturday, was a very exciting day. I was selling my books at a FOCUS Craft Fair in Banchory. I'd made a display to alert customers to the fact that The Taexali Game had just been published but the drawback was that although I've ordered a box of print copies, they haven't arrived yet. However, my lovely husband surprised me last Friday by showing me a print copy that he'd ordered from Amazon last Tuesday -  after our return from St. Andrews. Since I only had my proof copy, which isn't for sale, he let me take his brand new copy to Banchory in case someone might want to buy it.

Was I chuffed? Absolutely. Even more so when I did sell it to a very nice ten year old with whom I'd had a lovely conversation about the books she was currently reading. I was able to sign it with her mother's permission, stating she was my very first official 'over the counter' sale of The Taexali Game. I was delighted, she was even more delighted when I told her that with her (and her parent's) permission, I would name a character in Book 2 of the Rubidium Time Travel Series- No Mean Demo- after her. Isabella is a perfect name for a teenager from Victorian Glasgow. It was lovely meeting you, Isabella, and I hope you enjoy The Taexali Game. I'll be very pleased if you stay in touch via email or this blog or at my next FOCUS Fair in Banchory.

One set of blog interview questions done today but I've got another well overdue.

My Authorsden page was fully upgraded today - must check a few more of those places I 've registered with.

Is it time for bed yet?

Slainthe!