What are you currently working on?

Incandescent Visions was published in January of this year (2020) and I continue to actively market it. Right now I’m on a virtual book tour in advance of the holidays (this guest article is being posted on one of the tour’s participating blogs) and a NetGalley co-op book review engagement. This fall I ran several bargain eBook promotions at $0.99 for all the eBook formats and platforms that carry my book: Kindle (Amazon), NOOK (Barnes & Noble), Apple and Kobo. That’s an enticing and substantial discount off my standard eBook price of $3.99. Then I re-ran the most successful promotions and will likely continue to do so at reasonable intervals. For those of you not familiar with the bargain eBook promotions industry, the “sweet spot” bargain price that seems to get the most interest (and purchases) from readers is $0.99. There are also promotions for free eBooks, and although there are valid reasons for offering a book for free, I’ve decided not to do that at this stage in my book’s life cycle.

I regularly use social media to meet new readers, fellow authors and book bloggers/reviewers, and to let them know about this book and what I’m working on for future publication. The platforms I’m active on are Twitter and Instagram.

I have a blog and a newsletter that both focus on themes of artistic creativity, writing and self-publishing, plus an occasional book review and artist interview. My most recent article is entitled “A Conversation with the Multifaceted Artist Preston M. Smith: Painter-Podcaster-Educator-Poet.” On average, I try to post a new article on my blog once or twice a month, and to publish a newsletter issue once a month.

During 2020 I submitted my book for consideration to several book awards and I submitted new poems to poetry contests. Submitting to book, poetry and fiction contest/award programs is an important marketing activity for any author because being listed as a finalist or a winner expands one’s audience through recognition, reviews and sales. I will continue these efforts in earnest going forward.

I recently received a response from the 28th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards and although I was not a winner, I did receive encouraging comments from one of the judges, “I really like the look and production value of this book. The cover art is interesting and makes me want to pick up the book... It’s also interesting to see the way the poems and sections are structured with design elements that relate to the cover image. It’s very clever. I also really enjoyed how the poems have a sense of structure but still feel free and loose and playful within it. It’s a great balance there, and I loved that they don’t feel rigid or at all predictable... A great accomplishment.”

I’m preparing to submit poems to various literary journals, and I’m working on a second collection of poems either as a book or a series of chapbooks. To be determined. I’m applying the concept of “experimenting like a child” to these new poems. Basically this means messing around with style, form, length, tone, subject matter, all of it, without thinking about it too much.

To be honest, I’ve got too much going on and I need to find a balance between marketing this book and focusing on new work.