With my third novel releasing tomorrow (December 29, 2020) I have had cause to think on how it differs from the release of my first book, two and a half years ago. I though I would share some of those thoughts, in case they might be useful to other authors as they publish, or of some interest to people in general.

I’m not sure why I’m writing this. Perhaps it’s an attempt to explain why I feel so different about this release than the previous ones. If you’re a writer out there in the trenches trying to get your first book published, this might piss you off a little bit, this asshole talking about his third book and how its release is less exciting than his first. I’m well aware that this could come off as privileged. But here’s the thing: writing books and getting paid for it, at any point in your career, IS a privilege. Maybe we don’t talk about that a lot…it’s much cooler to talk about the art and the work and talent and all that. But there’s a good deal of luck involved as well, and I’ve had more than my share of it.

This isn’t an objective view. Just one author’s thoughts. And I can’t even vouch for the integrity of those thoughts. After all, how much of what I’m feeling right now is about book three vs. book one, and how much is just 2020 vs 2018? I don’t know. (And how weird is the world right now that 2018 seems like a good year?)

So with all that said, here are my thoughts on the release of book three compared to my debut.

1. There’s a difference in the level of excitement. I think that’s understandable, as the day that your debut novel releases might be the most exciting day you ever have as a writer. So it’s not that the release of my third book *isn’t* exciting. It’s just not on the same level for me as the first book. With the third book, it’s more like a milestone that I know needs to happen, but it’s not really a key point in the journey. It’s like finishing your second year of college. It’s an accomplishment and you’re happy about it, but it’s not graduation. With this release, there have been books before it, and there will be books after it. Some other factors:

a. With my debut, I really didn’t know what would happen. Would people like the book? Would it sell? With book three, I have a better idea about those things because they’ve happened before. Many of the reviewers who reviewed the previous books have already passed judgement on this one, so I’m not as anxious about the reception. Beyond that, I’ve had some great reviews and some bad reviews on previous books. I’ve gotten a lot more level-headed about dealing with both.

b. I’m already writing book five. Because of the nature of publishing, I last touched COLONYSIDE about eight or nine months ago. Since then I’ve written and revised an entire novel (MISFITS) and turned it in to my editor, and I’m working on the next one (THE WEIGHT OF COMMAND). So while the release of this book is important, it’s only one piece of the job, and really it’s one of the easier pieces. Don’t get me wrong: A lot of people have done a lot of work to get this book to this point. But most of my part of that was done quite a while ago.

c. One thing with the release of book three that is actually more exciting is knowing that there are people waiting for the book. People are also excited for new releases, but to me, this is different. These are people who have read the first two books and specifically want this one. I’ve had a number of people reach out and tell me how excited they are to get it on release day, and that is such a cool feeling.

d. This book has a different audience. With PLANETSIDE, I got a huge variety of reactions. Some people loved it. Some people really, really didn’t. Readers didn’t know what to expect when they picked it up. With SPACESIDE (Book 2), and I assume with COLONYSIDE, the audience is more pre-disposed to like it. Because if they hated book one, they probably didn’t come back for more. This does bring a different kind of pressure, though…the pressure of expectation. There are people who are really excited to read this book, and that’s a bit intimidating. Their expectations are for it to be great (in their eyes), so even if it’s just good, that might be disappointing.

2. Publicity is a lot less stressful. I want to start here by thanking my publicists. Andrew Gibely was the publicist on my first two books, and Kayleigh Webb is the publicist for COLONYSIDE. Both of them have done great work, and nothing I say here in any way minimizes the effort they’ve put into getting my book seen by the world. There are lots of things that happen at the publisher level that help get my book into waiting hands. I’m speaking here only in terms of how it affects me as the author–what I feel, and what I personally do as part of that process. I should caveat up front that I’m super uncomfortable promoting my books (and not very good at it). I’d much rather talk about writing craft or my process than try to sell a book. Most of my promotional talks come down to basically, “Uh…I wrote about a military space detective…I hope you like it.”

With that said, I don’t think you can talk about a book release and avoid talking about promotion, and the promotion of book three is definitely different than the promotion of book one.

a. With a third book, a lot of the publicity happens with less work. I know who reviewed my last books and liked them, so I knew who was likely to review this one, so instead of searching for them, I just have to make sure that they got a review copy (which my publicist mostly does without me, but I still check). With my first book, I went out searching for places I could do interviews or appearances. With book three, some of those people contacted me instead. (For the record, I’m always up for appearances on podcasts or youtube channels, regardless of the size of the audience).

b. I have a much better feel for what matters and what doesn’t. This was extremely stressful to me as a debut author. How much publicity is enough? I had no idea. So I tried to do everything, in case the one more thing was that magic event that would get me over the hump. With book three, I’ve learned a little about what works and what doesn’t (spoiler: not much works). As I mentioned above, I’m happy to do interviews and podcasts and guest posts, but I do those more for the few dozen fans who want to hear from me than in an attempt to sell books. There’s just not much I can do that can affect sales enough to change the trajectory of this book.

c. I’ve got readers who help me market, and that’s huge. The best way to find a new reader is for someone they know to recommend the book. As a debut author, that was almost impossible, because I didn’t have readers. Now I do. I don’t have to market to those loyal readers, because they know it’s coming and a lot of them have pre-ordered. What I have to do is give them a good book, so that I justify their faith in me. I’ve tried to do that, but for COLONYSIDE, that’s now beyond my control (though I’m working on it for future books).

d. For a similar reason, doing publicity for the third book in a series is also harder. Because who am I marketing to? Most of the people who buy COLONYSIDE are going to buy it because they read and enjoyed the first two books. They’ve probably already made up their mind whether they’ll read book three or not. Of course I do want to find new readers…but for them, I’m really trying to sell them on PLANETSIDE (Book 1), because it’s a series. Which makes marketing confusing. If I talk too much about COLONYSIDE, there are spoilers for the first two books, so I have to be careful about how I do it.

3. There’s less stress about what happens next. Being a debut novelist was stressful, because the range of possibilities of what might happen were endless. On the one hand, there’s this dream that your book is going to become a sensation. On the other hand, some of those possibilities are really bad. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news here, but the reality is that many more authors end up on the bad end of the spectrum. There are a lot of novelists who never get past their first contract. Their books don’t find the right audience which leads to low sales, which can make it really hard to sell another book. It’s scary. Fortunately, I fell in the middle of those two extremes.

As a midlist author publishing book three, there’s not as much variance. There is a much narrower range on what might happen.

a. There have been way more pre-orders. I don’t have an exact number, but the pre-orders for COLONYSIDE are probably an order of magnitude higher than the pre-orders for PLANETSIDE. There are people who want this book, and that’s a really good feeling.

b. I have reasonable expectations based on history. This might be a little bit too much on the inside, but it’s how I think about things, so I included it. My best market is audio books. In the first two weeks that PLANETSIDE released, it topped out at about #325 on Audible, and went to #4 on the military SF list. When book 2, SPACESIDE, released, it went to about #140 on the overall list and #1 on the military SF list (which was pretty cool). This time, Craig Alanson’s BRUSHFIRE came out two weeks ago and was #3 overall on Audible, and is still somewhere around #30. He’s got a pretty solid lock on the #1 spot in military SF for a while longer, as I’m not going to hit that number. I’ve got a reasonable range in mind for what will happen with first week sales, and I think it’s pretty likely that I’ll land somewhere within that range. That helps me manage my expectations. If my book hits the top 100 on Audible, that’s a big success for me and I’m going to be happy. If it doesn’t crack the top 200, I’m going to be a little disappointed (though the number of pre-orders tempers that disappointment a bit). But the reality is, I’m pretty likely to land somewhere between those goalposts, which is just fine.

c. Regardless of what happens with COLONYSIDE, I’ve got two more books under contract. So while sales are always important, I don’t have this fear that my writing career might end if we don’t sell as well as hoped. That’s a lot less pressure on this one book. No matter what happens, in the next few months I’ll be editing MISFITS and writing THE WEIGHT OF COMMAND. Nothing that happens with the release of book three will change that.

So what does all this mean? Not much. In practical terms, it means I will refresh my Amazon author page (which shows sales rank) a lot fewer times than I did two years ago. Don’t get me wrong–I’m still going to check. I’m human. But it won’t be every five minutes the way it was in 2018.

And this time, I’ll be writing a book during release week, because I’ve got another deadline looming, and that’s what I need to do. There’s no way I could have written during my release week back in 2018. I was too amped up for it. So in that regard, being less excited is a good thing.

I’ll close with this. Since I’m publishing this the day before a book release, if you want to see what I’m talking about, you can find links to buy COLONYSIDE here. If you haven’t read the first two books and want to start at the beginning of the series, you can find links to PLANETSIDE here.

See. I told you I was bad at promotion.