Revisify and Plans for Red

I totally stole that term from pal Jessica Corra, who just had her first book deal announced the other day in PM.  Congrats Jess!

I technically started revisions on Red yesterday, but it was really the small stuff.  The scenes where there needed to be a line tweaked here and there, typos or punctuation errors fixed.  Got through about eight scenes before I headed out of town for the day for work.  Today I’m diving into the rest, and I’m hoping to knock out everything but the rewriting of the opening scene.  So unless the Magnificent Laurie McLean comes up with something my dear Susan didn’t catch, this puppy will be done for real next week.

That means a couple of things.

First, the full manuscript will be sent off to the editors in New York that Laurie has already plied and primed with the pitch to see who, if anybody, wants it.

Second, I’ll be going ahead and releasing Red in e, just like all my other works.

Say what?  That’s not how it’s done!

Well, I told y’all back when I signed with Laurie that we’d be doing things differently than everybody else.  So anything she’s formally pitching to New York, I’m releasing to go ahead and sell.  Which means we’ll have some real time sales numbers to negotiate with, and also means that, if New York decides to pass, then I haven’t lost any time or income by having to wait on them.  Win-win in my mind.

Assuming one of the publishing houses in New York decides that they want Red and they offer me terms I find acceptable, then I’ll sign on the dotted line.  Once said contracts are signed, I’ll be obligated to take Red down.  Not my preference, but none of them would ever agree to let me leave it up for the duration of however long it takes them to get through the traditional publishing process (and given how far out YA works are booked, it will likely be 2013 before Red comes out traditionally).

All of this to say that there’s a very strong possibility that Red will be available FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY.  Which means that if you really wanna read this book now, when I release it in a week or so, you will have to buy it NOW.

What it also means is that I’d like to launch this book WITH A SPLASH, both because I would like to have sales numbers to impress the editors and because I’d like to make enough in the duration it is for sale to cover my costs of putting it out–cover art, copyright, etc.    I will, of course, notify my peeps who have signed up for my newsletter.  And send out an announcement on Goodreads to the folks who’ve had it on their TBR.  But I’d like to run some kind of event or contest to spread the word.

In the past for my other releases, I’ve done events asking for reviews.  I’ve contacted book reviewers directly.  I’ve done blog tours.  But these things, while fantastic for building long term sales, are kinda slow, and I want something that will be FAST and EXPLOSIVE.  So I am opening the floor for promo suggestions.  Gimme the best you’ve got.

4 thoughts on “Revisify and Plans for Red

  1. Oooh, best of luck with everything! I know I have nothing even remotely ready for publication at the moment, but I’m still trying to figure out the nuances of the publishing world, so I look forward to seeing how things go for you. I hope they go well!

    I…am useless for promo ideas, though, I must admit.

  2. So excited for this! Love that you’re breaking new ground, Kait.
    As for ideas… Perhaps something along the lines of an international six degrees of separation? Eg everyone who participates agrees to send out an email (possibly a newsletter type email that you’ve written, which they could tweak if they liked) to six or more (or all!) of their friends, specifically people who aren’t really involved in the writing/reading blogosphere, promoting the limited time only nature of the book. I imagine this might travel even faster on Twitter…

  3. I will definitely buy this before it gets taken back down! I think a lot of people are waiting for Red, so you’ll probably see some big sales immediately.

    Sorry, I suck big time at promoting. Hopefully, someone with better marketing skills will come up with a good idea.

  4. I’ll be there, bleary-eyed if it goes live late at night, ready to pounce the SECOND it’s available. Maybe run a contest for quite a number of giveaway copies, like ten or twenty – not sure what you’d get people to do to win, though. I need to get good at this stuff, too, and I really have no idea… If I do get a brilliant idea, I’ll let you know. The best I can do is set a date and let everyone know about it. A Goodreads event would be a good start.

Leave a Reply to Lauralynn Elliott Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.