The Woodcarver’s Model Gets Some Coverage

Along with the work that Pride Publishing is doing to promote my new novel, I also have a second company called Gay Romance Reviews that is working on promotion.

Today they sent me the press kit they had assembled along with a dizzying array of presentations of the book. There were images that suggested the The Woodcarver’s Model might be a good read at the beach.

Other images suggested that it might be nice to curl up with the book at the cottage on the dock with a nice cup of cocoa.

But the images that I found most intriguing were the seasonal images like the one below that suggests that this is perfect fall reading.

And that’s when it started to occur to me that my past work has involved writing plays, and that marketing a play is MUCH different than marketing a book.

The Woodcarver’s Model is in preorder right now, which means that people can be the first to put in their order and get their copy on the very first day when it is released in e-book form on April 19th.

With the plays I have written, this would equate to when tickets went on sale for opening night.

But the thing is, a play usually has a limited run. A novel, on the other hand, doesn’t have a closing date and once it’s created, it will be available for years to come.

Presales help a publisher gauge interest in the work, and can help them to determine how big the first print run on the book will be.

Often a first book will have a surge of sales, and then purchases will eventually taper off.

But later in the year, let’s say on Pride Day, suddenly promotion for the book might start to appear with an image like the one below, and there may be another surge in sales.

Later, when a second book is released, promotion not only relates to the new novel, but the reader is also encouraged to read the first book by the author.

The Woodcarver’s Model will in fact have an audio book version that will come out in 2023 as a second stage of marketing, and around that time, it is hoped that my second novel (the first of a three part gay detective series set in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) will also be appearing.

So when it comes to promotion, even though The Woodcarver’s Model may be revealing a bit of flesh, it is also important that he is…well covered for all marketing seasons.

This week, I did a small promotional video to let the world know the book is coming out and other videos are sure to turn up as time goes by.

Check it out here. Make sure to turn up the volume for the best impact.

In the meantime, to all those authors or writers who didn’t sell a lot of copies at first, take heart. The life of a book (and the marketing life of a book) is a long one indeed.

The Woodcarver’s Model is currently in preorder and will be released on April 19th with Pride Publishing