Well, squiders, we’re about 10 days out from Hallowed Hill‘s release.
And I am EXHAUSTED.
There’s been so much to do. So much to coordinate. So much to check.
So far I’ve:
- Finalized the book draft
- Done all necessary book formats (this is fun, I love book formatting)
- Made various versions of the cover (including a wraparound for print form)
- Gotten the ebook pre-order live on all platforms
- Updated aspects of my website
- Chosen an excerpt and had it put up on the Turtleduck Press website
- Fought with Goodreads (I’m not the default Kit Campbell so all my books always go on the other profile)
- (I asked if I could be the default since the other Kit Campbell hasn’t published in over a decade and I have new stuff come out fairly regularly, and the answer was no)
- Emailed a couple dozen reviewers (and have been sending out review copies as they get back to me)
- Set up some email newsletters
- Set up some promotions
- Sent announcements to various groups
I still have some promotions I need to do, and I need to finalize some print stuff (Amazon is putting in random blank pages, so I need to go poke that a bit), and a couple more things for release day.
Ye gods.
I think it’s going pretty well, though! Things are in good shape, and the book’s rankings are already looking pretty decent. (Last I checked, it was #25 in Teen & Young Adult Ghost Stories.)
But I’m definitely starting to feel a little burnt out.
The last few days, I tried to record my SkillShare class, as a break from marketing and release work, but Tuesday my computer super crashed, and yesterday no matter what microphone I used, I got a low hum that I couldn’t get rid of. So in the end that was more stress instead of being a respite. Yay.
On top of the release stuff, all the MileHiCon stuff came out this week–panel assignments, programming, signing tables, etc. I love MileHiCon! But having all that in the middle of the release stuff has been really overwhelming. And they put me on FIVE PANELS this year. I’m normally on 2 or 3. And unfortunately I can’t do one of them because it overlaps the Critter Crunch and the bigger, mobile one isn’t allowed to be on his own for another year. (It was about DINOSAURS. I am distraught.)
Still, it’s only another week and a half, and then things will calm down a bit, I think. Or at least be less stress, fingers crossed.
I really appreciate your guys’ support through this.
I’m starting to think about what to do after the book is out. Take a week off and play video games, maybe. Except I’ll need to get going on MileHiCon stuff–prep for panels, make sure I have books to sell, get a new card reader that actually works, etc. And I’ll need to probably do some class work, assuming I can ever get that hum to go away.
But, maybe, I can finally get back to Book 1. That would be amazing. Especially if we start getting somewhere, since all the momentum we had got eaten when I had to shift gears for the novella.
Right now, though, I mostly just want to sleep.
How are you, squiders? How are you destressing these days?
