Promo $$ and Eyes Crossing in Despair

I'm dashing out the door (late) this morning, and that darn chef over at Friday's Feast decided to take the morning off, so I don't even have a clever meme to fall back on for today.

I will say that I've been getting serious about my upcoming promotions, since Release Day is less than 2 months away, and this weekend I'll be putting together my next major efforts at promotion: 2 formal ads for One Night in Boston and Lost in Paradise. This will be the first major thing(s) I've spent $$ on, outside of excerpt booklets and smaller giveaways. It's amazing how much you can spend on advertising. I know I've talked about it before, but I've watched so many authors over the last year or so, trying to figure out what REALLY seems to work to improve name recognition and drive sales. With these print releases of my book, I plan to try my best to track when ads release and how my sales do in comparison. Otherwise it's just like opening my front door and tossing a fistful of cash into the wind.

I do believe, however, that consistently writing good books is the #1 advertising an author can do for herself, which is why I also need to sit down this weekend and make 2 plans: one for finishing the draft of One Night in Napa (yes, progress has slowed down a bit) and one for fine-tuning Summer's Song and getting it out to agents and editors.

First, though, I'm off to get together my Romantic Times ad (they say this is the mother of promo places for romance writers, so we'll see) and my Romance Sells ad (this one goes to librarians and booksellers across the country).

See you tomorrow!