I haven’t posted much in the last six months because (1) I knew nobody was reading this and (2) I’ve been surprisingly busy.  But as the official launch of Book Two in the Kings of Ghumai series nears, I figured it was time.

I published The Second Dynasty on Amazon at the start of April.  My initial intention was to officially launch on May 16, but I decided to move it up a week to May 9.  With this launch, I wanted to make both The First Kingdom and The Second Dynasty $0.99 through a Kindle Countdown Deal.  However, when I went to schedule one, I saw that because of the rollover process with KDP select, The First Kingdom would lose its eligibility for a deal starting on May 10.  So if I wanted the deals to coincide for a whole week, I would need to move up the date again, which I did.  Yet The Second Dynasty wasn’t eligible for a deal until May 3.  So this was a whole lot more complicated than I thought it’d be, but I’ve got them both going on sale from May 3, 2017, through May 9, 2017.

Once I had the dates figured out, it was time to book advertisers.  Now, most sites don’t allow for a sequel to be promoted, only the first book in a series.  That meant The First Kingdom would be the one getting eyeballs yet again.  Book Barbarian was one of the few that I knew would allow for a double feature,  But as soon as I checked them out, they were all booked up for May.  So I won’t be using them for this launch, and who knows if I would’ve qualified this time anyway.

I knew for this launch I wanted to spend less money, so that meant fewer advertisers.  I’ve booked one a day, though a couple isn’t guaranteed.  I’ll go over which ones and how they did in the post mortem.  I’ve also got Amazon Marketing Services going from a week before to a week after the sale for The First Kingdom, and only during the sale for The Second Dynasty.

There are reasons I’m keeping this launch more low key.  I’ve got another possible two books I’m going to release this year, so I want to save some money to promote them.  Also, I plan on going all out when Book Three in the Kings of Ghumai series launches, which is tentatively scheduled to be a year from now.  Hopefully I’ll have a couple more reviews on The First Kingdom by then so I can get the advertisers I need.

Well, it’s back to work.  I’m trying to finalize print editions of The First Kingdom and The Second Dynasty so they’ll be available in May.  We’ll see how that goes.