Today marks my eleventh release day. That's a crazy thought, that I have been through this whirlwind that many times in just three and a half years.
Every one of my book babies are different, and each of their releases brings forth a different set of expectations and emotions. @@Release days, by far, are the most stressful in an author's life.@@
Blindfolded Innocence - my first book - we celebrated in high style, popping champagne and jumping up and down over the fact that -- look! -- I had six sales in the first twenty-four hours!
Black Lies - my sixth book - I barely remember its release. The thirty-two hours leading up to its (very late) release was spent without sleep, yelling at Amazon, calling my agent, trying everything in the book to fix whatever glitch was keeping it from release. By the time it finally went live, almost two days late, I barely had the energy to post buy links and then crawl into bed to sleep.
Hollywood Dirt - my tenth book - I was nervous, the book a new genre (contemporary romance) that I wasn't sure my readers would embrace. That was also my first time trying a self-publishing preorder, and I was convince that there would be a glitch in delivery, or my sales wouldn't count for New York Times, or that the typos I'd rushed to fix wouldn't be reflected. All of that concern turned out to be for nothing, the release my smoothest one yet, the book flying off ebook shelves faster than any book before it.
And now... it's If You Dare's turn. I don't have unrealistic expectations for this book. Its price point is higher than my others, which will price some readers out of its market. It is also part of a series, which limits its success to that of its predecessors. And, of course, there is the fact that it is suspenseful, which scares off some of my strictly-romance readers. So it might not be a runaway blockbuster. But it is great. Maybe my best book ever. Early reviewers are FREAKING out, private-messaging me constantly, their heart in their throat as they tore through the pages of this work. This is, out of all my releases, one of the ones I am most anxious for readers to read. Most anxious to see their reaction. A little scared at what those reactions might be. I didn't go the safe, easy route with this book. I pushed boundaries. I didn't hold back.
It makes for a nerve-wracking release day. But, if I look at my releases, @@books born in times of stress are often the greatest ones on my shelf.@@
To find out more about If You Dare, click here. It is part of the Deanna Madden series, a collection of linked standalone novels that should be read in order.