Get Ready for Clue #1 :)

Have you guys heard about Boys Blogging Books? If not, go check them out. They’re a cool group of young guys who review books. Yay for guys who read!

My brother Jason, who’s sixteen, just joined BBB. He’s going to be reviewing a book a month. Thanks for having him, guys! He’s excited to join and is already thinking of his review. I’ll let you guys know when he posts his first review so you can give him some comment-love. :)

I’m enjoying the 80 degree temps this week and am getting stuff done before I go on Super-Secret Project Trip. My to-do list is loooong. I’m bouncing out of my chair to share my first clue with you guys and that’ll be posted on Monday.

You’ll get the next clue a week later. After that, all clues (to be explained in Monday’s video!) will come from the road whenever I have wireless access.

And then. The BIG one. A video (or group of videos) will be posted when I get home that will hopefully be fun, exciting and informative. I feel like I’ve been drinking 10 coffees a day since I heard about this project. Date of this video is TBA. Yes, yes, I know I’m being a tease. I’ve been told. :)

One of the things I’m working on this week is a new author photo. I’m going to schedule a visit to a local horse farm and will have my photo taken with a gorgeous, sweet palomino gelding. I like my other pictures, but it just makes sense to have a photo of me with a horse. :)

I was also looking at the calendar and the very first hint of PR work for Take the Reins starts in May. My promo plan is H-U-G-E and going to be oh-so-time-consuming. Eeek! But worth it. I want to go all out so I don’t look back and say, “Damn, I wish I’d…”

The first wave of pre-publication promo includes querying all of the magazines on my list that have a lead-time of 8 months. That means I’ve got to get out about 75 queries between May and June. Yeah. Thankfully, I’ve been writing them here and there when I have a free moment and I’ve got about half left to write. I’m not writing on spec anymore, but have to make an exception for a couple of magazines. I’m going after bigger mags this time and finally feel more confident about targeting magazines I wouldn’t query last year. Even now, with the book deal, my confidence meter is a little low when it comes to pitching to glossy teen mags. But I’m going to give it a shot!

I’ve fired up my Power Tracker and am prepping to send those babies. The really crazy part comes with keeping track of follow ups and deadlines. Thankfully, there’s software to track that. I used to track in a notebook, but finally plunked down the dollars for software and now I couldn’t live without it.

J.A. Konrath swears freelancing is the Number One way to get attention for your book and I have to agree. This is my…what…seventh year as a freelancer and it MADE my platform when I started looking for an agent. I swear by freelancing.

That is all.