I know this is somewhat anti-climactic, but here’s the cover for my first Europa Academy book: Frozen Secrets. I know most other authors (at least the ones I follow on Twitter), make a much bigger deal about their cover reveals. It might be because I’m the one who did the layout, so it just feels normal. Or it might be because of my (limited) experience with book launches.
Cover Reveal
I had the interesting experience of being part of a short story anthology at the beginning of this year (I know it’s the IWSG 2018 anthology, but most of the promotion happened in 2019). We had a big cover reveal with all ten authors (plus the publisher and IWSG) promoting the cover on social media, blogs, etc. It was a very exciting thing to have my mentions on Twitter skyrocket. But in the end, I’m not sure it lead to any additional sales. Certainly, the ten authors were hyped about the coming release, but I don’t know whether that influenced any real readers. So I guess that lead me to the conclusion that for a first-time author, my cover reveal didn’t have to be a big deal.
So here it is:
My illustrator, Rudy Parfaite, did an excellent job capturing the components of the story (Max and Mei Li running away from the rover with Jupiter hanging in the background). Hopefully my cover layout did justice to his artistic vision.
The Pre-launch Dilemma
I’ve started uploading the cover and some of the meta-data to the various distribution/promotion channels (Goodreads, Ingram, Amazon). When I went to select the Publication Date on the Amazon listing, it wouldn’t let me pick a future date. Digging a little deeper into other indies’ experiences, I find out that not only does Amazon not allow pre-orders of print books for indie publishers (they do allow it on eBooks), but the prevailing opinion is that it would be a horrible idea if they did. Part of this is based on the fact that Amazon does not count pre-orders toward the book’s ranking. I guess that’s a good idea, probably keeps people from gaming the system. But it puts a huge damper on my promotion plan.
Promotion Plan
My current (as of an hour ago) promotion plan is to order a few dozen ARC of my book, send one to Forward Review (they have the longest required lead-time at 4 months), then set up my NetGalley and GoodReads Giveaway campaigns. While those were running, I wasn’t planning to leave it to chance. I’m going to contact bloggers and reviewers to see if I can get a few dozen to read and review my book. But I had always figured that as potential momentum builds, customers would be able to go to Amazon and put the title on pre-order. Sounds like that’s not an option. And to add insult to injury, apparently there’s no way to have reviewers post reviews to Amazon until after the publication (I know that makes logical sense, but I don’t have to like it). So all of the advanced reviewers that I contact will just have to leave their reviews on GoodReads and/or save their reviews and post them after the launch date (at least on Amazon).
A Devious Plan
One possible alternative that I came across in my research, was the idea of launching the eBook and Print book at separate times. In my case (though they suggested the reverse), I would set the print book launch for January (satisfying the required 4 months for Foreward Review and others), but I would make the eBook available immediately on Amazon. Advanced readers could leave reviews on the eBook listing, and then when the paperback launched in January, I would ask Amazon to combine the listings. It wouldn’t do anything to boost the launch day ranking, but it would allow me to build some momentum and visibility on Amazon. It might also give me a chance to offer the book in Kindle Unlimited (which requires exclusivity with Amazon for 90 days, something I’m very much opposed to). The only sticking point is that the review journals like Foreward, Booklist, School Library Journal, and Booklife all require that the book be sent weeks or months prior to publication. Would I be honoring that requirement if the eBook version is available for sale at the same time? Going through review journals and local and school libraries is key to my marketing plan. I don’t want to screw up that part. I may need to do some more research.