Releasing ‘Brianna’ – By Ralph Nelson Willett

One of the most exciting thing for an author to do is to release a new book. There’s a certain amount of pride in doing that. It’s a bit like showing off your new baby. You show it to everyone you know to the point of annoyance. Then when you’ve exhausted your friend you move on to complete strangers. That’s where I find myself right now with the release of my short story “Brianna”.

I focus much more on audio books than ebooks. Brianna is now recorded but still not ready for release. My narrator needs to record a couple of more things. First is the “Thank you for listening” script. Then I’ve added an epilogue to it that needs to be recorded. That will be given away separately only to those that download the audio book version. (The audio book is free. Did I mention that yet?) Delay after delay has happened to just frustrate me no end but there isn’t anything I can do about it.

I can’t release the Kindle version until I have the audio book ready to go. “Why not?” you may ask. Because I’m giving the audio book version away and I’m going to link to the giveaway in the ebook. Now you’re going to ask “Why are you giving the audio book away?”

Fair question. Here’s the answer: As a start up indie publisher I need to create an audience, people who like what we do and are willing to buy the books. What I’m doing is giving away the audio book version of Brianna in exchange for an email address. Then my next release (“The Summer Tourist” BTW) will have people to market to.

Dang it! I just used the ‘M’ word, marketing. As an artist, that’s what an author is, I hate to market to people. The first thing that comes to mind is a pushy salesperson. No one likes a pushy salesperson. I want everyone to love me. I’m a nice guy. Fortunately that isn’t what’s going on here. I’m building a fan base. When I have a new book to release I need to be able to tell them about it. That’s sales but it’s not pushy.

Have you every supersized your McDonald’s order because someone asked you if you wanted to? That’s sales. That’s marketing. You didn’t object to them asking if you wanted to. You got a special deal and supersized it. Nice. But what if I said “Hey, I’ve got a new book out. I hope you like it. Here’s where you can buy it.” That’s sales. It’s not pushy.

The email list I’m building is strictly opt in. That means if you think our books are horrendous then you can say stop letting me know when you release new books. Then we won’t email you with new book titles anymore. Simple, eh?

Now I’m sure that you won’t find our books and short stories horrendous. I’m actually pretty sure you’ll like them. If…. you like the type of books we create. Faith based books aren’t for everyone.

Keep an eye out for Brianna. If you’ve ever doubted God, and we all have at some point, then I think you’ll like the story. I hope to release it this upcoming week if I can get past the delays.

Ralph