Hitting a Milestone

On May 26th of this year, I began the marketing campaign for Akeldama.  Although it'll still be a while before it hits the stands, I started building an email list for those who might be interested in buying a copy.  Well, today I passed my first real milestone on this list by hitting 100 names(101, actually).

This means that my list is now active.  I will send out the first mass email to those on the list this weekend.  All it'll be is an update on where the book stands in the process, as well as another brief synopsis of the plot.  When the email goes out, everyone on it will be bcc'd since, if I was one of those folks, I would find it very annoying to look at 100 names on a list knowing that a bunch of people I don't know had my personal email address.  These updates will get sent every six months until publication.

I'm doing what I can to build a base of customers that I hope find my work enjoyable enough to stick around and purchase further books as I publish them.  My goal prior to publication is to get 1000 names on this list, so that means a lot of work ahead of me.  Yes, some of the folks that will receive the email updates have been loyal readers of this blog and have contacted me about buying a copy, but most have been people I've approached directly.  I've previously discussed my insanity, and the opportunity to draw people into my world has only increased my passion to talk about my work.

(RD Meyer - passing craziness on to future generations)

And I fully intend to keep up this approach until I start going at this writing business full time(or at least more full time than my current job allows).  It's slow going if you look at it from the perspective of the individual attention required to gain each new reader, but I can afford to do it this way since publication is a ways off.  If I was to try and publish tomorrow, or even sometime later this year, I'd have to be much more aggressive.

However, this whole marketing thing is akin to cold fusion - it'll take a while to gain critical mass, but the process should eventually become self-sustaining if done right.  I never want to take a single reader for granted...and that includes when you guys help me sell 100,000 copies a year.  ;-)

There's still plenty of time to join the list.  I haven't worked out the full details on pricing yet, but those who pre-order through me will receive some kind of discount on the end product(I'm currently thinking somewhere around 25-ish% off, but full details remain to be determined).  If you're interested in buying Akeldama and helping to jump start my writing venture when it really begins, please let me know either through comments or an email.

I know that this post has been a little dry, but I'm very excited about reaching the number of folks I have already.  I promise to return to more irreverent tones in the next post.  :-P