Now fifteen days away from the official book release. Or ten business days, as my printing press would say. The media blitz continues, though it’s more like the cracking of static electricity than a bolt of lightning. Still, I’ll be recording my appearance on a popular podcast (details to come) the day after my book releases, and a few newspapers are going to run stories on me and my debut, so the train is finally rolling.

IngramSpark tells me there have been several dozen pre-orders of Blood Game in both soft and hard cover format, but doesn’t tell me from which platforms they’ve been ordered. It hasn’t given me any information at all e-book pre-orders. I also have no idea whether brick and mortar bookstores will be carrying books right away, or at all. I have to say, one of the things I didn’t count on what the lack of transparency in the publishing business. I’ll find out eventually, of course, but a little early news would be nice.

I know I’m unlikely to have great sales with my first novel. That’s OK. First off, I’m not doing this for the money anyway. But secondly, the only reliable marketing for a first time author with no corporate support is word-of-mouth. I don’t have much of that yet. When the sequel comes out next year, hopefully I’ll have a little bit of a fan base by then, but right now I’m shouting in the woods.

On that note, the sequel Crying Call is now finished, including the cover art. I’ll do a cover reveal sometime in late March, and I plan later today to begin the uploads into IngramSpark which will enable me to get my hands on proof copies for a final inspection. Crying Call won’t come out in stores until February 3, 2026, but ARC copies might go out as early as the end of next month.

Marketing, marketing, marketing. Gotta do it. But I sure am looking forward to getting back to writing soon. All this business stuff is distracting me from being an artist.