Getting a new book out in the world is a stressful time when everything has to come together at a single moment, but there’s always something that slips through. No matter how much you plan, and how adept you are at keeping the plates spinning, one of those plates will fly off and threaten to take down the whole lot.

Face of Greed got out there and I’m grateful for the publisher support, great reviews, and trade journal coverage. Planning to celebrate a new book isn’t done without coordinating with your local bookseller months in advance. Hoping for the best and planning for the worst is a great motto to apply.

My local independent bookstore is Face in a Book, in El Dorado Hills, California. They have always been incredible in terms of support and are always my home base for book-related events. I don’t take that for granted when planning a book launch. I’ll begin planning six months ahead and pitch the event to the store. If it sounds like something they can get behind and have a slot open on their schedule, we’ll start to work.

One of the critical moving pieces for a book event is the book itself. The past couple of years have introduced us to supply chain issues, and horror stories of authors books stranded in shipping containers at the port, or stuck away molding in the belly of a cargo vessel anchored off shore.

With the initial launch celebration and a couple of events down and the book was getting a little buzz going.

FAIB GCW

While getting set for the next bookstore event, something odd happened. The bookstore couldn’t seem to order the book. The distributor and the publisher confirmed it. The book wasn’t available two weeks after release because I’d sold out the entire print run. The publisher had already begun work on a second printing, and made a special printing just to cover the event at Book Passage.

Two things here–first Yay! The book sold out and met the publisher’s expectations. That’s a good thing, right? Secondly, I feared that while we waited for monks with quills in hand to scribble out new pages, we might lose momentum. If we did it was minimal. All the major online retailers still carried the book. So, behind the curtain, it might have felt harried, the audience never noticed a blip in the supply chain.

While the in-person events were going on, Face of Greed was making the virtual circuit. If one single positive thing came out of the pandemic lockdowns, it was our pivot to virtual events to stay connected to readers. It’s been a wonderful way to have readers hear about the book and find out about authors they wouldn’t have known about.

I was fortunate to join my author pal, Baron R. Birtcher on his podcast, The Writers Bar where we talked about the story behind Face of Greed, where the ideas come from, and our thoughts on writing in general. Here are a couple of links to our conversation. Facebook Youtube So far over 32,000 views, which I’m blown away about. Baron’s one of the most talented authors I know and you should check out his Ty Dawson series. Reckoning is the most recent and it’s outstanding.

I tried my very first Instagram Live, hosted by Meredith Lyons. Meredith is a social media maven and is a blast to chat with anytime. The Instagram Gods were not with us that day, my friends. We went live, got our conversation going, and the platform kicked us out–three times. We’d get back on, reconnect, Meredith would ask a great question and I’d start to answer and the Live connection would shut down. It was like the thing was censoring me. You had to laugh because there was no way to control the feed. Still, we had viewers stick with us to the bitter end.

Meredith’s debut Ghost Tamer is absolutely fantastic and I had the chance to interview her for Killer Nashville Magazine. You can catch that here.

Overall, a lot of smooth road and a little bumpy trail in spots, but even they were a great experience. Thank you for all the support. Couldn’t have done this without the support of so many people. If you want to check out Face of Greed for yourself, you can find it wherever books are sold, Amazon, Bookshop.org, or connect with me if you ‘d like a signed copy (there are signed copies at Face in a Book and at Book Passage).

Thanks everyone!