Just to get you in the mood:

A clattering sound drew Julius’s attention back to the tower in time to see the tribune hastening down the metal ladder. He waited for Constantine to join them before asking nonchalantly, “So, Tribune, sir, how did reason fare over violence and anger?”

The tribune grimaced. “We’ll just have to reinforce the lesson with a bit of old-fashioned corporal punishment.” A thousand-throat scream of fury and belligerence interrupted him.

He ran back to grab the discarded speaking trumpet. This time he addressed the defenders. “Ready, boys—remember your training! Keep your thrusts short and cover your brothers. Repeaters, I want as much fire as you can place on those rebels. Aim for the leaders if you can!”

The guttural screams rose in pitch. “Here they come!”

The rush to publish is on! Here’s a quick update of the comings and goings during the last few days.

1.) The edited files are being read through as we speak (3/4 of the way through now, making notes to return it to the editor!)

2.) Illustrations are in progress (Saw the first one – looks awesome!) The readers will definitely be in for a treat!

3.) Super top secret awesomeness for the Kickstart Supporters (and later the newsletter sign-uppers) is completely finished! I’ll post the very first draft of it on here to give you a baby clue as to what it may look like.

4.) Finished the book series website, but holding off on publishing it until the book is almost ready.

5.) Upgraded my wordpress to change Modern Papyrus to danielottalini.com – This is now more my blog and author site, rather than the review and thoughts blog it was originally!
Wow, so much done, and yet still so much to do! It’s early April now, and my goal was to have the book published by June, so now that is a very reasonable goal (in my mind at least). Still have an array of things to do before then though. I’ve taken some time to sit down and set up a plan to promote my book.

Promotion Plan:

1. Talk to friends, family, etc. (Short and sweet – they’ll probably get sick of me)

2. Build an online presence on Goodreads (Add me as a friend!) Twitter,  Facebook (Coming soon!), and my blog. This is in progress now! For example, the folks over at Indie Book Collective had some great promotional things going down. I’d want to join in on that!

3. Set up and finalize book-website with cross-linking between it and here.

4. Set up a newsletter service through Mail Chimp or Adweber.

5. Get bookmarks, stamps, and business cards through Zazzle so that I can do low-level promoting (leaving bookmarks in books at library, business cards when paying tabs at restaurants, shamelessly self promoting myself in all areas 🙂

6. Set up giveaways on Goodreads and send books to be reviewed by several self-publishing blogs/steampunk blogs. One I’ll definitely be contacting is IndieBookSpot for their author interviews and reviews.

I’m sure I’ll think of more in the meantime, but that’s it for right now. Anything else I missed that should be included!?

Ciao!

– Daniel