The Second Line

and all the other stuff

But first. In the last newsletter, I asked if you were a good witch or a bad witch. We have a community of mostly good witches!

The Second Line

Last time I talked about the first line in my upcoming book. Do you remember the first first line?

It was “My boots clacked on the wet brick pavement.” I’ll tell you a secret. I was walking on a brick path in the rain, listening to my boots clickety-clack and the story popped into my head.

I thought I’d share the second line with you today.

My chainsaw slid through the last limb. I hit the kill switch and pushed up my goggles. 

If you haven’t read the blurb, she’s a gardener in California. 😁

Finishing Touches

I’ve finished my book cover. If you follow my blog, you’ll know I’ve been lamenting over it. I made some covers; I paid for some covers. While I liked some, I didn’t love any.

Then, I did the thing I should have done a couple of months ago—put them in an array with each other along with books in my genre from Amazon.

Why I waited so long is anyone’s guess. But it showed me right away what I needed to do. I needed to make it stand out. Most of the covers were too dark, the title didn’t pop. I’ve got it now, just finishing it up. In the end, I’m going with a cover I made.

My background is in graphic design. I know the principles, concepts, etc., but book design was never my specialty. So, I just needed to retrain my brain.

The interior is done. I have one last proof, which will happen when I upload it and order printed copies. One from my proofer and one for me.

Which leaves me with nailing down the marketing aspect. I’ll contact my volunteer promoters at the end of the month.

I’ve planned:

• A Blog Tour.

• Put my book up for ARC reviews. This time I’m going with BookFunnel.

• Promo “ads” with quotes and tropes for X-formerly-known-as-Twitter and Instagram. I’ll also make a few for Facebook, even though I’m not a Facebooker—is that what they’re called?

• I’ve developed a website for the town in the book. I mean, that’s just fun!

• You, my dear friend, will get sneak peeks and first looks!

Things I won’t do:

• Pay for ads. I’ve read it’s not a wise investment, especially for first books.

• No Goodread Giveaway since now they charge over 100 bucks to do it.

If you have any suggestions for marketing, please let me know in the comments.