The steps of releasing a Mystery Novel...I think...

[Ronald S. Barrios]

My new novel is set for release in Sept and I can't wait but oh the work that goes into a release. I always knew it was a lot of work but until you actually do the work involved you really have no idea. First you have to write the novel, which I'd always heard was the easy part and I thought, 'Yeah, right.' But as it turns out the wisdom set down by those who did it before me holds true. That really was the easy part.Then came the first round of edits, which I normally do while writing the next novel. This took a while and when I was sure I had caught every mistake, typo and poor sentence structure it went to my editor. Now there's a story. I love my editor, I really do, but the time it takes to get a 314 page novel edited is a long time. Of course I was constantly asking, 'Are you finished yet?' and that couldn't have made it easier...sorry to my editor. But finally second rounds of edits was finished then I had to make corrections and, well, you know how that goes. Some I kept and some I didn't depending if they were really needed.

Now I have to do promotion and don't let anyone tell you that marketing and promotion isn't important and that as a writer you don't need to learn to do it! You do! Think of yourself as a 'Brand'. You want people to associate you with your brand and in my case it's my novels and Publishing House, Rey Books. So I had to come up with not only a promotional plan but a marketing plan because what good is having great product if no one knows you have it for sale? This falls on the shoulders of me so I have no one to blame if anything goes wrong. But I put together a plan that looks pretty good and consists of a giveaway with 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes and lined up some reviews, thank you to everyone who has agreed to review my new novel you'll be hearing fromt me soon, and I've been putting all the information on my website and using creative ways to get that out to the Readers. All in all things are looking good.

It's a lot of work and the hours go way past the normal 40 hour work week most sane people keep but I wouldn't change a thing.

You can check on my new novel, Masks & Malice on my website www.reybooks.com where you'll find information not only on the release but on that giveaway I was telling you about.

Let me know about your experiences with launching a new novel and maybe give me some tips because I could really use some. :)

RSB