Bookmarks: Clout

First first first!
Remember Kim Fay, and The Map of Lost Memories? I reviewed Kim's book for Hometown Pasadena. Now, The Map of Lost Memories is a 2013 Edgar Award finalist for best first novel by an American Author. Congratulations, Kim!

Kim has got herself some clout. I'm going to have clout, too. In the five days since I've released Camelot & Vine on Kindle I've been busy, you know, marketing my book. I want to find the right audience for my literary work, and I believe I've got it.

It's the broccoli lobby. These people are my fans.

You go to the grocery store. You shake hands, chat people up. It's touch and go. Today I'll try the farmers' market. They can't exactly kick you out of an outdoor market.

I've also been uploading C&V to Barnes & Noble, which is also Pubit, which is also Nook. Do the multiple monikers make life easier for someone, I wonder? A friend who does this all the time can't figure out why it takes me so long. It takes her about fifteen minutes to upload a book. It takes me days. I have to format, upload, format again, try to figure out why it looks weird, upload again, count the pages...

And what do I call the file? Barnes & Noble? BN? Pubit? Nook? I decided to name the file BN/Pubit/Nukeit/Fercrissakes. That'll work as long as I remember to look for it under B (listed near Broccoli).

Print: gotta make a phone call. I think one of my emails got lost.

Diesel, Sony, Kobo, Blio: all finished, not showing up yet.

iBookstore: also finished, but apparently this one takes even longer. Very mysterious.

Smashwords: "Pending review." This is why all the others don't show up. I think. Like I said, I have the clout of broccoli behind me.

Oh hey! I applied for a Goodreads author page. Someone there named Molly has already reviewed Belinda's Birthday. She gave it one star. This is great! Reviews are very important.

I am a novelist, baby! Pass the broccoli!

Belinda's Birthday

I am going boldly forward into the self-publishing world! So boldly, in fact, that I'm following in Margaret Finnegan's footsteps. It's like when you walk behind someone in deep snow and place your feet in the footprints they made. Bold! Forging behind!

One of these days I swear I'll come up with ideas of my own, but right now I'm thanking Margaret for the courage, and for this sentence: "Just start with a short story." So I've started with Belinda's Birthday on Smashwords. I first published the story on Paula Johnson's The Rose City Sisters (now at its fancy new WordPress location). Belinda's Birthday was a runner-up for story of the year on that site in 2009. Perhaps you've already guessed the winner.

Finnegan's a damned marketing genius. How can I compete with that? I can't. She makes cake with cocoa frosting. I make lentils. We do what we can with what we have.

I hope you'll download Belinda's Birthday for FREE, and maybe even give me a 900-star review. (Or whatever. I don't think  Smashwords will let you give me 900 stars, but I'll take as many as they'll allow.)

This is the first step, of course, to publishing my novel, Camelot & Vine. Camelot, here we come!