Thank you to everyone who signed up for my newsletter and especially to everyone who entered the paperback giveaway! Please join me in congratulating the winner of my first-ever giveaway.
There will be more opportunities to win in the future, so be sure to sign-up for my newsletter and follow me on Facebook to stay in the know!
Signing Preparations
Another great way to get your copy of Hidden Memory signed is to bring it to the Meeker Street Nerd Party. If you happen to be in the Kent, WA area, stop by and visit. I will have copies for sale, just in case yours does not arrive in time.
In the weeks since booking this signing gig, I have been planning like crazy. Books were only the first order on the agenda. I ordered fifty, just to be safe. Taking guesses on how many I will sell from my darkened corner of the store? I said two, while my brother guessed highest at thirteen. If I sell fifty, the fiftieth will only cost that person $5 in celebration!
In addition to paperbacks, I will have bookmarks and cool wax seal stickers as giveaways.
Look how great the seal stamp turned out!
I also designed a poster to display on my signing table. It will have my cover art along with some quotes from early reviews. (If you haven’t left a review on Amazon yet, it’s not too late! *Wink*) My only concern about the event is it goes through dinner time. I will have to remember to bring snacks along. I hope to see some of you locals there!
…and by that, I mean my first signing event ever, and we are in a century. If you follow me on Facebook, you may have noticed the event I set up this morning for an official book signing!
The broader event is called the “Meeker Street Nerd Party,” and is organized by a group of businesses located on Meeker Street in Kent.
The Nerd Party promotes downtown local, small businesses by highlighting nerd culture in a street-wide event. Small businesses between 2nd & 4th Ave on W. Meeker will host local makers, artists, and authors who specialize in nerd culture, science fiction, fantasy, horror — books, games, toys, and more.
– from the Nerd Party event page
With my paperback released—and looking amazing—I reached out to the event organizers and asked if they had any spots left I could fill. The answer was a resounding “well, all the good spots are taken, so you will probably be in an out of the way location.”
I jumped all over that. I’m calling it a “find Tiffany” scavenger hunt. As a prize, you can have a bookmark or wax seal, both of which I have ordered supplies to create these giveaways. I will also have copies of the paperback for sale if you have not already ordered yours from Amazon.
If you are in the Seattle-Tacoma area on the evening of February 26th, 2022, then come to Kent and visit me in my corner of the bookstore! More information on the Party is here, and on my signing is here. I hope to see some of you there!
(Related note: If you received my newsletter on 1/15/22, you still have until the end of January to reply with your entry to try to win the signed paperback giveaway!)
Advertising
Also this week, I took the “5-day Author Ad Profit Challenge.” It is a free course via videos and social media put on by the Ad School. I’m only recently starting my advertising journey, so I thought a crash course was a great idea and signed up.
I watched the videos during my lunch break and worked on the homework assignments in the evenings. The class focuses on creating Amazon Ads via their website and writing better ad copy (the hook lines you see on ads). I found the latter most helpful because I had already explored the ad website to some extent, but the tips for using the different types of ads Amazon offers were also beneficial.
Time will tell if the class can help turn my advertising profitable instead of what I’m calling a loss-leader. Overall, if you are interested in learning about Amazon ads and writing better copy, then I would recommend the free class, but make sure you have enough time to put into the assignments. As for the paid class, I am still undecided. Probably not this year, but I might consider it part of next year’s growth and training after Hidden Sanctuary is released on time.
I feel like I have been playing catch-up lately, and it has been forever since I have done a general status update, so here is all the stuff that I have not shared since the holidays began!
Holidays
I spoke before about seeing family for the holidays, which was great. I also received some great gifts from everyone. One was a cool cover for my ReMarkable2 notepad that can support it in different positions. It makes me feel better knowing it has something to protect the screen when I’m not using it. I’m currently wearing a blanket/poncho thing my parents gave me. Big Cat enjoys it as well for his lap time. A third thing I’m excited about is my new minimalist wallet arriving in the mail this week. I purchased it with a gift card received to pick one I liked.
After Christmas, I was cat-sitting for my parents during their visit with my brother and family in Florida. That mission was complicated by the week of snow we had in the area. They live within walking distance, so I made the trip every day. Footing became a bit treacherous on the ice and more effort than usual tromping through the snow, but the cat was not without company.
Going without trash service for three weeks during that period due to snow and ice became a bit more daunting. We don’t usually have too much trash, but a mix-up on recycling dates a month earlier meant we were already two weeks behind on that pick-up. Boxes were piling up in the kitchen with recyclables. When the bin emptied this week, we immediately filled it again. Hopefully, this catches us up for good this time.
Business
You may have noticed some picture changes on the website already. If you did, you may already suspect I had some professional pictures taken, and you would be correct. I contacted a photographer to take a handful of “casual, professional headshots” for my author materials. A couple of the pictures are on the website, I changed my Facebook profile photo, and one is on the back cover of my paperback.
This one is on another page, but Big Cat wanted to make an appearance here too!
That’s right! Hidden Memory is also out in paperback as of this week! I ran through a couple of author proofs to make minor formatting adjustments, and my first few author copies are on their way—probably still in the printing stage—now! If you signed up for my newsletter, you should have seen it in your inbox earlier today, and it includes a chance to enter to win a signed paperback! If you did not sign up in time for this giveaway, do not lose hope. There will be more in the future, so go to the home page and sign up now so you don’t miss out!
With the paperback complete, I’m focused on finishing up the current draft of Hidden Promise. I will pass polished chapters to my alpha readers and then revise Hidden Sanctuary in preparation for beta readers. On the business side, I’m learning about advertising on Amazon and hoping it does not cost me too much for the education!
I will end on a celebratory note this week. It has been just over a month since the book was released. I had a relatively successful launch, thanks primarily to word of mouth through my friends and family network to their networks. My advertising has resulted in eight additional sales. I have five reviews on Amazon, and I have two preorders for the next-in-series! Thank you all for your support!
Snow on Christmas day is rare in the Puget Sound area. We’re more likely to see it in January or February, but there was some falling yesterday and has collected a fair amount as of this morning. We opened the back door for the cats. They are both indoor cats, but they find padding around in the snow intriguing. By “padding around in the snow,” I mean that if we carry them out they might slowly move about, and when we open the door they cautiously creep around on the first step. Either way, they are cats, with snow on their fur, so they are adorable.
“It’s so cold out there!” – Little Cat back from her snowy adventure.
I’m glad the snow held off yesterday though because it meant we were able to visit both parents and in-laws. This is the first time we sat down with some of them in a couple of years now. It’s challenging because not everyone is able to isolate as well as we can, and we are still trying to do our part by being careful. Our intent is to mini-quarantine for at least the next week just in case. Any risks we took should end with us.
Yesterday morning when my sister arrived with her kids, I just about–did–freaked out at them when my niece walked in saying nonchalantly “I got COVID-19 for Christmas.”
I looked at my sister with fire in my eyes. “Then what the F are you all doing here?!”
The two of them shared a look and started cracking up. I, of course, am unamused. They are not that selfishly irresponsible. I know they are not. But, there are so many people who are, and you hear stories like that all the time. For that moment, I believed they would do it.
It turned out my niece received a GiantMicrobe plush toy representation of COVID-19 in her stocking. The two of them conspired their little scene thinking about how hilarious it would be to get a reaction out of me. I can’t say I was sorry to rise to the occasion, and I’m glad they, and others, got a laugh out of it. As I said on Instagram, “well played, little one. Well played.”
We are big fans of Giant Microbes. The regular size plush tags always include interesting facts about the microbe in question.
Publication Update
My book was released just under two weeks ago. After the initial surge, sales have dwindled to a trickle. This is both expected, and not as bad as it sounds. You expect an initial surge driven by preorders, followed by a reduction. The sales still coming in are primarily due to social media sharing by friends and me. I have also had three of my ARC readers post reviews in various places along with one “verified purchaser” review. Through it all, I maintained a reasonable star rating.
I also set up a targeted keyword ad on Amazon Advertising, and I got my first sale from that effort on Friday. The cost per click and advertising cost of sales are…not great, but for my first book, it is going to be more about volume and bringing people into the series and along for the ride. I’m hoping for a preorder for book two to come in from one of these initial sales. I will have another little celebration at the sign someone likes the first enough to immediately sign up for the second.
Sales might see another little surge when I finish the paperback version. I have all the formatting done, and I’m going to try to order an author test copy in the next couple of days to see how it looks once actually printed. Barring any issues, I might have it out by the middle of January, ahead of the February target.
Reminder, I’m going to be doing a paperback raffle of sorts in my January newsletter (around mid-month), so if you are interested in trying for a free paperback and have not already signed up for the newsletter, you can do so below or on my home page.
For now, I’m back to editing and writing. Come back next week for another installment of the dream journal short story!
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As of this past Tuesday, I am officially a published author. It has been a year since I decided my work was at a place I wanted to consider pursuing publication, and I started my website and blog back in February. There has been researching, revisions, and frustration along the way, but I achieved my goal of publishing before this year was out, and I did it in a way that did not compromise quality.
At midnight Tuesday morning, my book went out to all 21 people who had preordered it, and I officially had my first sales. On Tuesday, I posted all of the social media images I created last weekend for the launch, and I am up to 33 orders total. I am excited about this, as only about 15 are from close friends and family. That means between the additional orders and ARC readers, more than 20 others will find a source of entertainment in my work.
New author, new series, great support!
Out of all the social media platforms, Nextdoor.com came in as the surprise winner for introducing random people to my book. The neighbors on the site jumped in with congratulations, the ones who enjoy fantasy checked out the link, and many bought it. That level of local support is incredible, and I was overwhelmed by all the people reaching out. There are still many people in my various circles, including this one, asking about the paperback version. I will reach out again when that is finally available.
Still Work to be Done
I am actively working on the paperback formatting, and on Thursday, I had some professional photos taken so I could use something other than a Facebook picture on the back cover. The photoshoot also marked the end of my publication buzz. For a good 36 hours, I was riding a wave of giddiness, grinning, and dancing around the house. Then it crashed.
You know it will probably not happen, but a part of you still dreams about magic, instant success. When it does not work out that way, the part of you that dreamed is disappointed, and you have to rely on your logical side to continue celebrating the small wins—did I mention 33 orders?—and remind yourself that you planned for this and know what to do.
I have an Amazon-sponsored product ad running. It is generic, so I’m trying to use it to see what keywords I might target or avoid targeting. So far, I have had a 0% conversion of clicks to sales, which does not help with any decision-making as far a keyword goes. However, that 0% is on a total of only six clicks, so I will not worry just yet. I also know that I will likely have a greater chance of conversions once the second book is out. Many people are reluctant to start a series this early into its release schedule.
So, I will keep writing and putting in the work. I will adjust advertising as insights emerge. I will continue to post about my books and my cats on social media.
You can find the book at this link, and it does have the “look inside” feature now that it is no longer in preorder. I’m targeting having the paperback available within a couple of months, so I plan to include a signed paperback giveaway raffle in my January newsletter. If you are interested in entering and have not already signed up, you can do so below or from my home page.
Thank you for all of your support, and here’s to many more posts and looking forward to the release of book number two!
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Tiffany Shearn 
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