Herai Progress
Just realized looking at my last Blog, I haven’t mentioned that Herai is now fully available to buy in all formats (apart from hardback.)
I have also become aware that I need to get words down that will appear in search engines and enable people to find my book. I’ve always found it very hard to describe Herai to anyone who’s asked. I’d like to use the words dystopian fantasy but it isn’t right. In spite of the lack of possessions, the denial of the most basic access to the Outside, the presence of an autocratic and unsympathetic leader, the city has never seemed a terrible place to me. Neither is it a Utopian future. It is somewhere in between. A OKopian future.
On Christmas day my sales figures moved into DOUBLE DIGITS. I am quite excited. Yes I would like a few more sales if possible but my publication date was the 14th December according to Amazon so for an unknown author I think that is an adequate start. Thank you to all my twitter friends for your retweets, purchases and supporting comments. They are all very much appreciated.
2017 will be a year of marketing and so I have to work out how to get the balance right of occasionally mentioning I’ve got a book for sale and not boring my twitter followers to tears.
The future plan for book 2 is, hopefully make enough in sales (of book 1 “Herai”) to pay for the critique part of editing book 2. (I think this means 300 sales. A way to go yet but never say never.)
I just noticed looking at my emails that this stage of Herai started in January 2016. So we’re probably looking at a year from when I start this to publication. Though I am hopeful that as I now know what I am doing I can speed things up. 😁😁😁
To be honest I need a “critique” of book 2. (For those not in the know that’s where the entire concept of the book goes in the grinder and all the gristly bits come out – hopefully.) I am worried about elements of the plot. It’s where things start moving. Herai was a quiet introduction to our characters and in book 2 they all get put in their rightful place with a bump.
These are all plans. I hope they do not end up as dreams. 2016 has been one of those years to make you realize that lives can be snapped short in an instant. Admired figures, role models, contemporaries gone – unable to contribute to our world any more. It’s enough to make any planning seem just fragile dreaming. But dreams are what makes life worth getting up for.
By Aaron D.Key
Fantasy Author