aurorawatcherak "I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical."
The dawn of hope highlights the damage as Emmaus emerges from the deadliest winter in American history.
The fundamental transformation of the United States of America continues as the beleaguered survivors of the apocalyptic winter gather to form a new government, only to recognize the divides are deep and the bickering nations of the American experiment may not be able to manage a grand compromise.
Meanwhile, darker forces wrangle to take their own version of control and put Shane Delaney and his fellow delegates in the crosshairs of danger.
It’s coming! After a bit of a struggle with the scheduled book in the “What If Wasn’t” series, I decided to work on the next book in the “Transformation Project” series – “Corralling Liberties”. Having survived the apocalypse, Emmaus sends a delegation to the constitutional convention, only to discover that someone doesn’t want the end of the world as they knew it to stop.
It’s in final editing phase now and will go to formatting soon, so it’s time to reveal the cover.
And not to worry. The next book in “What If Wasn’t” is back on track and publish toward the end of the year.
Cover reveals can be a great marketing tool. At least they were when I first started publishing eight years ago. Admittedly, I had a really pretty cover and that drew a lot of attention. Some of my later covers are just as pretty, but I have to admit the cover reveal — like so many other marketing ideas — is a hit-and-miss thing. Timing is everything and sometimes you just can’t time the timing right.
Wrapped in Plain Vanilla
I like the strip tease. Wrap my cover in a plain vanilla wrapper, publish the blurb, and ask people to tune in for the slow-motion reveal. I start about a month before I publish the book by announcing the cover is ready and then a week later I offer the hidden cover. Then a week later, over a period of about one week, I reveal it bit by bit. Then I start publicizing the publication date for the book, using the cover as the avatar.
Results?
I do notice a bump in activity on my blog and occasionally a few sales of earlier books in the series or a bump in reads. So I know it has an effect, but it’s hard to quantify. Like so many things, cover reveals seemed to have changed during covid — it’s now harder to get attention. Maybe it’s because my series has an ongoing pandemic and people are done with pandemics. On the other hand, a reader sent me a note recently that complimented me on a pandemic with real consequences rather than what real life has provided. So it’s hard to know what effect cover reveals have on early sales in this era. I’m still going to do one if I ever get the next book finished.
Why? Because it worked in the past and I’m hoping things will return more to normal in 2023. We’ll see.
Due out August 11, Winter’s Reckoning (Book 6 of Transformation Project) is now on preorder. Watch for the full cover reveal, blurb and discount pricing in the coming days.
It’s official. Thanks to Covid19 turning life into a snorefest, I’m moving up the publication date of Winter’s Reckoning to August. It’s now on Preorder and comes out August 11.
aurorawatcherak 