Hello Bloglandia,

Yes, I double checked that graphic above to make sure I don’t screw this post up like I did my Reading Round-up on Sunday.

For such a short month, there was a lot going on in February, including the release of The Undead Mr. Tenpenny, so let me break down what’s ahead in this potentially-lengthy post, just in case you want to skip around.

  • Video! Yep, it’s the final installment of The Undead Mr Tenpenny Book Launch Video Extravaganza. In this one, I talk about what’s coming up next in my writing world.
  • How the Release Went
  • Thanks to a few folks (and a couple skulls)
  • The Upcoming Strategy – No really, I do have  plan for all this
  • The Numbers
  • What’s in the Works for March

Let’s get to this, shall we?

Part Seven of The Undead Mr Tenpenny Book Launch Video Extravaganza

What am I writing next? Here’s the scoop, and also me trying to convince Mr Husband I’m NOT thinking of divorcing him.

It’s the last time you have to see this face….for now (mwahahaha)

How the Release Went

Pretty good. I didn’t blow anything out of the park, but as you’ll see below, I didn’t really plan to. I set myself a small sales goal for the launch and I met that goal on Apple sales alone, which was crazy exciting! I counted the other sales as icing on the launch cake (which is a dessert you might find in the NASA cafeteria).

The book also jumped to better than #200 in one of its categories on Amazon. Again, I know that’s not earth-shattering, but without any type of advertising other than word of mouth, I’m going to take that as a win. It’s certainly the highest ranking any of my books have launched to in the past.

I earned a decent number of pre-orders on the book, and some pre-orders are already coming in for The Uncanny Raven Winston and The Untangled Cassie Black (Books 2 & 3 of the trilogy), so yippee!!

Thanks to A Few Wonderful Folks (and a Couple Skulls)

Of course, GIANT HEAPS of thanks go to my review team. I have no doubt that the excerpts and blurbs I gleaned from your kind words and used in some promo materials helped give The Undead Mr Tenpenny a little boost.

I also want to thank authors and book lovers Jonathon Pongratz and Berthold Gambrel for posting the book on their blogs. You guys helped get just that many more eyes on my silly little tale. Thank yous also go out to authors Carrie Rubin and Sarah Angleton for being social media superstars with their sharing the book with their followers.

And I know there’s a fair number of you out there who ordered paperbacks of the book, but I have to give a shout out to Australian artist extraordinaire Anne Lawson, for being my guinea pig with my new paperback distributor. Not wanting to hand her money over to Amazon, she took the ISBN and asked her local bookstore if they could get the book for her….and it worked!! Which means Mr Tenpenny is heading to Australia!!

But Mr. Tenpenny didn’t stop his international tour there, he also earned some love from a couple strange fellows in Norway…

What can I say, Mr. T is making his rounds, that’s for sure!

Oh, and he also found his way onto the shelves of my local library where I’m now rubbing elbows with the likes of Chuck Palahniuk (Mr. Fight Club, himself!).

The Upcoming Strategy

So with this launch my biggest aim was to get reviews. I wasn’t chasing after sales and I didn’t want to do any type of “real” (aka “paid”) promotion for it. I also won’t be doing any promotion for Book 2 other than telling my newsletter and blog, and maybe doing some more videos (you have been warned)!

There’s plenty of reasons for this, but basically pushing book one of a series without another book ready for eager readers to purchase is just a bad marketing strategy. If I have all three books ready to go, then marketing book one of the trilogy makes a bit more sense.

I have more to say on this, but my brain is tired and I can’t see straight anymore from all the editing I’ve been doing, so I might go over this at a later date.

My hope is that by the time Book 3 comes out, I’ll have a good number of reviews to give The Undead Mr Tenpenny some super duper social proof and to meet the requirements of some promo sites. So if you did buy The Undead Mr Tenpenny PLEASE leave a review for it!

Book 2 comes out 13 April, then Book 3 comes out 18 May. Both are on pre-order, by the way (HERE and HERE). Then, in late May of early June, the promoting begins for real… It’s going to be a very busy couple months getting this all in order.

The Numbers

Okay, as ever, I’m not going to embarrass myself and give you actual sales numbers, but suffice it to say, February wasn’t as stellar for sales as January. However, unlike January, I didn’t run any paid promos this month and I was only in one BookFunnel promo, so lower numbers are to be expected.

Still, that’s not to say February was a wash. I sold twice as many books this February as I did in Feb. 2020. Hoorah for progress!!

As for royalties, even though my sales numbers were lower than in February, those sales were from higher priced books, so my royalties actually exceeded what I earned in January. Nice!

I’ve now earned in the first two months of 2021, 50% of what I earned in all of 2020*. Which is an amazing start to the year!! (*If that doesn’t make sense to you, here’s a simple example of what that means: If I earned $10 in all of 2020, I would have earned $5 in just January and February of 2021. )

My sales on Apple are going bonkers. I don’t know if it’s the Most Anticipated Promotion they put Mr. Tenpenny in, or if the Apple stars are just aligning for me, but my Apple sales are now neck and neck with my Amazon sales.

Of course, I have no idea what’s going on over at Kobo where I was doing really well last year, but this year I can’t quite seem to get the Kobo Mojo going. And Google Play? That’s just a joke at this point. I sold more on my Payhip BookStore than on Google Play…seriously.

What’s Ahead for March

This month I’ll be pushing my way through the final draft of The Uncanny Raven Winston, getting it off to my review team, and then charging ahead with the next round of edits for The Untangled Cassie Black. I think that book is close to done, but there’s still some tiny bits that need tweaked.

Other than that I’ll be blogging, podcasting, suffering some severe eye strain, and trying to keep my brain from exploding!

That’s it, everyone. How was your February? Any big goals for March? Let me know in a comment!!

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Want to Get Your Copy of The Undead Mr Tenpenny?

  • You can find The Undead Mr. Tenpenny (at a slight discount) on my Payhip Bookstore: https://payhip.com/b/w7H6
  • Or, select your preferred retailer (Apple, Kobo, Amazon/Kindle, etc.) from this universal book link: https://books2read.com/CassieBlack1
  • For paperbacks from Amazon just follow the link above, tap the Kindle icon, then select the paperback option on the book’s Amazon page. Or go directly to your region’s Amazon store and enter the book’s Amazon Identifier: B08WVC5D8N (this often gives more accurate results than searching for the book title)
  • Paperbacks are also available at other retailers. For non-Amazon stores such as Barnes & Noble or local bookshops, just search or ask for the book by its title or by its non-Amazon ISBN: 978 138 697 7674

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Missed the excitement of launch week. Here’s how you can catch up….

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5 thoughts on “February’s Writing Round-up (with Video)”

    1. Hooray! Is the shipping taking a long time? I ordered one for my mom-in-law and they said it would take over two weeks for her to get it. My proof copies usually come within five days or so.

      Liked by 1 person

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