Bit Flip Available for Pre-Order
Order Bit Flip today from Amazon or your local independent bookstore.
As I shared by email a couple weeks ago (subscribe if you aren’t already), I’m thrilled to announce that my debut novel, Bit Flip, is now available for pre-order! Although the publication date of August 16, 2022 is still more than six months away, this is an exciting milestone—simultaneously marking the home stretch of the long publishing process, and the beginning stages of promotion.
When I launched my author site in August 2019, I naively thought my book would surely be out within a year. Then, of course, COVID happened, which set back the timeframe and even caused me to fret at one point that the pandemic could scuttle the book. But the main reason for the delay was all the hard work a first-time author underestimates—revising the manuscript, submitting to agents and publishers, designing the cover and interior, copyediting, proofreading, and the million other steps of publishing a book.
Now I turn my full attention to publicity and promotion, and that’s where you come in!
The only way to make a book a literary and commercial success (the latter being particularly rare these days!) is through a community of enthusiastic supporters. You are the heart of that community! I’ve been so incredibly grateful for the outpouring of support from friends, family, and followers at every step of this endeavor. So if you’ve read this blog, visited this site, clicked on links, tolerated my self-promotional social media posts, opened my emails, and still haven’t yet clicked the unsubscribe button, I consider you a fan! And the bigger this fan club becomes, the more successful the book will be.
I’ve been a marketer most of my career, but novels are weird things to promote. Nobody needs a novel. Unlike nonfiction genres, like self-help, business management, or academic texts, that can claim to educate and inform their readers, novels don’t really solve a problem. There is no pain point. In the analogy of aspirin vs vitamin, novels are ketchup packets—cherished when the moment is right, but abundant, easily forgotten, infrequently consumed, and too-often stashed in the bottom drawer.
For novels, a.k.a. Adult Fiction, there were about 174 million print books sold in 2021 and another 100 million or so ebooks. The good news is that’s the highest unit sales in over a decade (thanks COVID!). The bad news, for authors at least, is there are literally millions of novels published every year. I’m not a mathematician, but I was not surprised to read that 98 percent of books publishers released in 2020 sold fewer than 5,000 copies and the average book sells fewer than 1,000 copies over its lifetime.
With such depressing supply and demand dynamics, there’s really only one formula for success:
A first group of brave early-adopters (hopefully, you!) buy the book, then actually read the book.
Those readers like the book enough to tell other people about the book—through ratings, reviews, posts, word-of-mouth, BookToks, or whatever.
Having heard about a great new book, more readers decide to buy the book as one of precious few 12 books (on average) they’ll read this year.
And the cycle continues. If I was marketing a tech product, I’d call that a viral coefficient—the number of additional readers each new reader generates.
So . . . my job as a reticent self-promoter is to propel you through the escalating stages of fandom to get this snowball rolling. So here we go:
Stage 1: Buy the Book
Huge thanks to so many of you who have already pre-ordered Bit Flip! (PS—Be sure to let me know. I’m cooking up a special thank you!)
As conscientious buyers, many of you have asked, “Where should I buy the book?” The short answer is: “Anywhere that’s convenient for you!”
As an independent author with an independent publisher, I like supporting independent book stores. Mine is Kepler’s in Menlo Park, CA. But the book is available at a wide variety of indy stores or on Bookshop.org. So try those first. That said, I’m not one of those authors who boycotts Amazon. In fact, momentum on Amazon is critical to overall sales, so if you like the convenience of your Prime membership, by all means, buy it there—or Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart, or another big retailer. It also doesn’t matter if you buy it in print or ebook (or, hopefully soon, audiobook). If that’s your jam, download it from Apple, Kindle, or Google Play.
These pre-sales really make a big difference. Remember, it only has to sell a few hundred copies to be in the top 5% of book sales. So take a flyer and invest the $17.95 (or just $9.95 for the ebook) and buy it today.
Stage 2: Read the Book!
When the book ships in August, I hope you’ll read it right away—even if you borrow a friend’s copy, hijack your nephew’s Kindle version, or buy it used on eBay to do so. Believe it or not, you reading the book is far more important to me than you buying it. Why? Because the more precious commodity than money is time. I’m trying to get you to spend 8-10 hours of your life reading this book. That’s worth way more than the $17.95 you spent or the roughly $3-4 per copy I earn on book sales. So, while I want you to buy it, I really want you to read it.
If you’ve already pre-ordered and can’t wait until August to read it, send me an email or contact form, and I’ll get you a galley copy of the book earlier.
Stage 3: Spread the Word
Once you have bought it, read it, and, hopefully, loved it, it’s time to let others know. The brilliant thing about books and authors is there are many, many ways you can do this. Here are some suggestions:
Subscribe to my newsletter if you aren’t already.
Follow me on all the socials—including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Post the image above along with an endorsement, @mention, link to the Amazon page, etc. to your followers on the aforementioned socials.
Follow my author page on Amazon and give a rating and review.
Follow my author page on Goodreads and give a rating and review.
While you’re on Goodreads, add Bit Flip to your “Want to Read” list, add/vote for it on book lists like this, and submit a question or discussion topic.
Recommend Bit Flip to friends, family, work colleagues, book groups, and anyone else you think might read it.
A big thank you to all of you for your help and support. Thank you to my publisher, SparkPress. Brooke Warner, Shannon Green, and the whole team there have been so helpful and patient throughout this process. And thank you to my publicity team, Crystal Patriarche, Tabitha Bailey, and Hanna Lindsley at BookSparks.