It’s been three weeks since the release of my book Reflections of a Gray Prince (RoaGP). While not my first released story, this project did have me hiring people for the first time in my life, and consider how to go about marketing it.

Here’s a rough timeline of how I brought this project to life. And it wasn’t just me, as you will see.

Before the release

– WRITING
I spent eight years writing this thing. On and off. Yeah, that’s that.

– THE TITLE
He isn’t even gray, but he is for sure very gay. In all seriousness, coming up with a title was difficult and took more brain matter than I felt I had in that moment. I think I had it down in early February of this year (yes, this story went title-less for like 90 percent of its pre-release existence), after which I started drawing the cover art.

– THE COVER & ILLUSTRATIONS

I drew every illustration in Paint Tool Sai 2, my drawing program of choice. Interestingly, the drawing process of the in-book illustrations was more straightforward than the cover’s. I knew exactly what I wanted for those, and since they consist mostly of objects and plants (with a little scene inside a border) there was much less back-and-forth than with the cover.
Though, as always, I had to mess with the colors to make them just as nice and vibrant as I like them.

– BETA READING
My friends read The Man and gave me all kinds of feedback. And left lots of screaming in my DMs. THAT’S WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT, MAN.

– EDITING
My dear friend caede took it upon themselves to edit this boy after beta’ing it (alongside my OG beta reader Mona). They have praised me for my clean manuscript, but not even an eight-year-long time span of revisions and heavy self-editing sufficed to get rid of every little error. Thanks to them, though, this bad bad boy is now as clean as can be. But not all filth can be washed off. Who said that

– FORMATTING
I hired vert to format my boy and he nailed it. I was nervous about sending my manuscript at first, (after all, I had never sent anyone “not in the know” any of my writing) but vert is very kind and super professional. He also made the book more accessible by writing alt text for every illustration within the book (and for the cover too!). Thank you again!

– THE ITCH PAGE
To start with, I made an itch page way before vert’s ebook production had been concluded; I just knew doing everything last minute was only going to wear me out. I tried to make an appealing page that somehow conveyed the rigidity and “hardness” of the story and time period it’s taking place in. In addition to all that, I made sure to not let the bg creep in too close to the text to give the whole page some more breathing room.

caede also let me peek at their project pages and copy the layout. That really helped. A page like this needs to be succinct and compact, with the least resistance for the potential reader, and so being able to reference pages that I think look freaking awesome expedited the process immensely.

– ITCH LETS YOU UPLOAD FILES AND HIDE THEM
Who knew, huh? This really needs its own section because it’s crucial. On release day I scrambled to time the announcement post in tandem with the file uploads. It would have been a lot easier had I known you could upload files and just hide them. Well, I’ll keep that in mind for next time.

AFTER THE RELEASE

– I AM (NOT THAT) BAD AT MARKETING
Now, what constitutes good marketing anyway? That highly depends on the individual. To me, good marketing makes people curious enough to go take a look at the itch page for my book. Any gained view is a win, and any download doubly so.
Every little bit of marketing helps, honestly. The best way to get those on the fence to read your book is to remind them it exists at all.

– MARKETING ISN’T AS CRINGE AS I THOUGHT
“What if I make a post and it flops?” “What if someone thinks I am stupid for even trying?”, etc. While I can’t say I have fully done away with those sentiments, I am actively trying to. Doing my own marketing gives me free rein to show everyone how insane I am about my work. Which I am.

I mean, just look at this!

And that’s just it, really: When you’re an indie your marketing doesn’t have to be consistent, doesn’t need to have one singular “voice”. Different approaches will stick with different people and being creative in not just your writing but also in your marketing is not a crime. It is, even, dare I say … fun.

THE FUTURE

– BUNDLES
Everyone loves a good deal, and that’s exactly what bundles are offering – they’re community-organized collections of alike stories that can all be purchased together. While RoaGP hasn’t been featured in any bundles yet, my short story The Water’s Many Faces has. This not only boosted its visibility but I am positive amongst the hundreds of downloads some people have read it, too. (Side note: It’s super easy to make a creator’s day by leaving a little comment! Wink wink.)

– COMMUNITY
Arguably one of the most important things when you’re an indie, no matter how big your following may be. During times such as these, where people in power are trying to dictate which purchases adult human beings are allowed to make, to write about, to depict, there is nothing more important than community. That’s the biggest reason this blog exists in the first place: I want to give back to the people I admire, who are all part of the indie scene.
Who knows, I may even host my own bundle, or cook up some jam (not the spread) on itch.

– LIFE GOES ON
Sounds a little weird, but the post-release feels can hit you hard, man. I will write on, though. Forever and ever and ever …

Thank you for reading. Stay tuned for more behind the scenes, reviews, ramblings, and whatever else my noggin dreams up! 🙂