Cover Art by Jason Pedersen
We’re getting into another round of book hyping, which will revolve around the upcoming release of Legends of Windemere: Charms of the Feykin. First, I feel like I have a confession to make. Not that one or . . . I’ve never been to Texas, so I know you’re thinking of someone else. This is about the challenge and, quiet honestly, headache that comes from promoting a series. Maybe I talked about this last time, but I still need to say this:
Promoting later books of a series is hard!
This will be volume #11 of Legends of Windemere and it continues from what happened to Delvin and Sari in the last book (linked to the cover at the end). Oh dear, even saying that could pose a problem. Come to think of it, simply having another book reveals information about the last one. Not to mention things I casually mention in the blurbs. That title can be rather telling as well. Oh no, what have I done? Have I ruined everything?
See where I’m going with this? It’s been a struggle to keep some information off the blog, but things slip out. Maybe I really want to talk about the concept and get an opinion, so I try it in a roundabout way. Yet, eagle-eyed readers who are up on the series will figure it out. Those who don’t want even the risk of a spoiler will steer clear, which hurts my promotional attempts. You also have people mentioning big events in comments, which is something I have no control over. Sure, I can delete or alter those comments after writing a ‘I need to do this for this reason’. Yet, that feels like a bastard move. It really pushes me into a terrible corner that is tough to get out of without causing some type of damage.
A big obstacle here is that a long series has readers at different volumes at the same time, so you have a scattered audience. A person who read Tribe of the Snow Tiger will have no problem with information that a person on The Compass Key will freak out. Don’t even get me started on choosing teasers at this point. I try my best to dance around those hoops, but slips happen. In fact, they’re really inevitable and it drives me nuts. I don’t want to upset readers with saying too much or talking about the books with such vagueness that my words are empty. Nothing I can do here since this is the nature of the beast that I’ve decided to wrestle for 15 volumes. Heck, there are people who have messaged me to say they won’t touch my series or continue it until all of the books are published. I fully understand this and have done it myself since there are authors who will disappear for years in the middle of a series.
So, I’m going to be trying my best with the hyping. The volume-specific information will be there and I’ll try to avoid spoilers. The tough thing is that I need to make these posts last throughout September. I will really have to depend on humor and whatever else I can do that reveals just enough information to make people curious. Fingers crossed on all of this and I hope people enjoy what’s coming.
Cover Art by Jason Pedersen
Legends of Windemere 
All you can do is what you’ve done–remind people of spoilers ahead. I admire the fact that you try really hard to keep them to a minimum. It’s hard to avoid them when you’re talking about volume 11!
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I keep hoping it works. Some people miss the spoiler warning or they get annoyed at something I didn’t realize was a spoiler. Like revealing that a character is alive.
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That’s sad. There’s only so much you can do if someone misreads or ignores the warning. I can’t help thinking of people who are just now getting into a series that many others have read years ago. It’s hard to avoid spoilers. Sometimes the cover itself is a spoiler. But that can’t be avoided!
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I agree. That’s the risk one takes with series though. How many of us read ‘The Hobbit’ and had an idea of what was going to happen? Sometimes a spoiler is better in context though.
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Don’t know what to say other than keep on.
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Thanks. In the end, that’s all I can do.
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🙂
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I’ve read about your issue with this before, and I admire your respect for your readers. If it were me (and it’s not) I might pick a mark, like book five, and start talking about the events in those to drive interest in the books beyond.
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Do you mean having it that a certain amount of time passing allows for spoiler reveals? That does make sense. I should consider that for the future.
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I think after some time passes, you may have to choose between silence and stronger promotion for the new titles.
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It’s really only the excerpts that suffer for this. I can touch on topics that show up in the stories, but it gets tricky when I try to hide twists. One in particular gets in the way since it’s a new power for a character.
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It has to be tough. I get to avoid that issue, but you never know. Maybe some day one of mine will take off, and I’ll feel compelled to continue the stories.
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Sounds like this calls for you to be even more creative!
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At least on the editing and censoring.
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Good luck. I can see where this requires a lot of tough decisions and balancing acts on your part.
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Thanks. I will admit that taking a month off from doing Teaser Tuesday helped a bit. Took the edge off at least.
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