Please click the link below to enjoy Margo’s blog post about rebranding and retitling books along with the article I wrote.
https://editor-911.com/blog/f/retitling-and-rebranding-a-book-series-how-do-you-do-it
The author’s copies of “Fetch,” the second book in the Hope and Horses series, will arrive in a week. I should be thrilled, but instead, I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed about the need to promote my books. I searched “self-promotion for middle-grade horse novels,” and now I’m even more stressed out! There are so many great ideas, but honestly, I’m not comfortable with most of them. Despite that, I’ve been brainstorming to come up with a list of goals:
This all takes a lot of courage, and I’m still working on gathering it. I’ll keep you posted on how it’s going! If you have any tips for a shy introvert like me to market independently published books, I’d love to hear them. Thanks for listening!
The Kindle Edition listing is up on Amazon now, and it will be available for purchase June 18th! Release date for the print book is pending. I told you it was getting close. I can’t wait to hold this book!!
Like the cover for Shuffle, I created the cover art for Fetch using cut-paper sculpture and then photographed it until I got the shadow effect I liked. Normally, I like a stronger shadow with my cut-paper art but his piece had more detail. The strong shadows were confusing, so I decided to soften them.
How do you think it turned out?
Book 1, SHUFFLE (previously titled Only My Horses Know and available now), is about how Kylie learns to accept her mom’s mental illness after struggling to keep it a secret from everyone, even her best friend, Joey. Spending time with her horses is the only time she can get away from the worry, exhaustion, and stress that a twelve-year-old shouldn’t have to endure alone. She has an idea of using their horses to help with everyone’s healing, but it is such a big dream that she will somehow need to reach out for help. But that will require sharing her secret.
In book 2, FETCH (available soon), Frankie’s anxiety has gotten even worse since the horrifying day that turned everyone against her and took away the one thing she loved – baseball pitching. Even here in Montana, she’s most comfortable hiding inside. When her family convinces her to venture outside, a mystery horse in the woods fetches her baseball! She can’t believe it happened and is sure no one else will either. Surprisingly, she makes friends with Kylie and Joey, who unlike everyone else, never treats her like she’s different. She really likes Joey and doubts he will ever like her back, especially if he hears about what happened at her last baseball game.
Book 3, GALLOP (written and will be edited soon, availability TBD), introduces Eli. Eli is angry. His parents are getting a divorce. His best friend, Sam, now has his dad, and his mom’s best friend, Sam’s mom, now also has his dad. That’s messed up enough to make any teen angry and sad. Add to that his mom moved them to a rural town where he has no friends and no plans to make any. Kylie, Joey, and Frankie are determined to change that. Eli discovers that riding crazy fast on a horse is the only thing that gives him a break from the anger and sadness. Even that could change if the horse he connected with gets sold. He must come up with a way to keep that from happening and find a way to forgive the people who turned his life upside down.
Thank you for letting me share my excitement. Yippee!!!
Kidsillio 