Hidden Work Behind a Book Launch

If you follow my writing journey, you’ll know that I’m less than a month away from releasing Book 2 in the Aucourte series, The 16th Earl's Only Love. It’s an exciting time, one of those shimmering moments in an author’s year when we feel a mix of shimmering anticipation and blind terror! But if you’re an indie author, you’ll also know that with the excitement comes something else: the sheer, relentless reality of marketing.

Indie writers enjoy autonomy. We get to choose our covers, our timelines, our stories, our pace. But autonomy has a shadow side, and it’s called doing absolutely everything yourself. Writing the book is one thing. Launching it is quite another.

As part of the preparation for the launch of The 16th Earl's Only Love I have gradually been ramping up the marketing activity. This week I changed my reader magnet to The Secret Prologue, a little glimpse into the new book that hints at the emotional undercurrents of the story and the state of mind of the hero one week before the story begins. A few Readers' Club members have already downloaded it, and it’s beginning to circulate. I’ve also been sharing short videos of a Victorian girl with the question: Who is she? If you’ve read the first book in the series, you’ll know that secrets and surprises are woven into the Aucourte world, and this little "mystery" video is my way of inviting new readers in as it promises the new book does have secrets and suprises.

There’s also the ARC team, a wonderful group of early readers who will be receiving their copies of The 16th Earl's Only Love next week. Early reviews are the lifeblood of an indie book launch, and I’m enormously grateful to everyone who’s already signed up. If you haven’t yet, there’s still time to join before the ARC goes out.

And speaking of reviews… if you’ve read The Earl’s Daughter and haven’t yet left a review, it’s not too late. It only takes a minute and it makes a difference to the success (or not) of a book.

Behind all this writing and publishing work, real life continues to behave like real life does, often with attrocious timing, as happened this month. My central heating system chose this exact time to give up the ghost entirely. The boiler has been condemned, and I now have to make major, expensive decisions at a time when my headspace is already full to the brim. Timing, as they say, is everything.

But even with the chaos, the marketing, the planning, and the occasional household disaster, I’ve begun writing Book 3 (working title: Vicky). I can’t share anything yet because spoilers abound, but it feels good to be back in the world of Aucourte again and I think, or hope, that just as The 16th Earl's Only Love expanded the series in a multiple of ways from the first book, the third book will go further. In one particular element quite literally.

So to sum up: Indie publishing is messy, demanding, and occasionally overwhelming. But it’s also full of small triumphs, quiet joys, and the steady belief that stories matter. Thank you for being part of this journey.