December 06th, 2017

Lesson #4 - Publishing Strategy
 
Early December on note a single flake of snow in Wisconsin!  Can you imagine?  No, there’s no such thing as global warming.  I miss when facts and data were used to determine rational policy – but I digress.

Previously I’ve noted that my publisher, Henschel Haus Publishing, wants to re-publish my first two novels, Murphy’s Troubles and Out of Darkness.  Initially the strategy was to concentrate on publishing the third novel in the series, Dead Reckoning and follow-up with the re-published books.
In discussing options with Kira Henschel a week ago she suggested we change our strategy.  She believes that publishing all three books in the series at one time will improve sales of all three books.  That makes sense, she even wants to package them into a “box set”.  I know authors like the concept but right now the prospect of getting all that done by end of March is daunting.

After agreeing on a triple strike launch I was asked to give a demographic of my readers.  I have a fairly good idea and gave Kira an outline.  Based on my readers profile she suggested we change the size of the font, the space between lines and the space between paragraphs.  I completely misunderstood the purpose of her question.  However, in reflecting on the interior design of the books he question was obvious and to the point.
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The next step will be to receive sample interior pages to review and sample book covers.  I don’t pretend to have any basis to make an informed decision on these things.  I do like that I am being asked for my viewpoint but I don’t expect or intend to make the final decision on such things.
Every time I talk with or email Kira Henschel I learn something new and I deeply appreciate her professional guidance.