Book Launch, Celtic Con 2018 and Promotions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few weeks out from the launch of The Bog Road at Celtic Con 2018 and I’ve had time to write my thoughts down. It has been a long time since I attended a convention and it was a real treat getting back. The fact I never had any new book to sell was the main reason for my absence. In the meantime I had been watching a lot of the Irish Creators online doing their thing and it felt good to get back and mix with them. I picked up a bunch of Irish Indie books from different creators and more importantly just got to meet them all face to face. Getting to know people who’re passionate about the same thing gave me a real boost and sends you home with a fire in your belly. Probably another great aspect of the Con was talking to people who had seen The Bog Road online and came to buy it. Just knowing that people came to pick it up after looking at the preview gave me hope that The Bog Road won’t do too badly.

“If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.”
— Warren Buffett

As far as selling books at the con I done pretty well but when I compare my efforts in one day to a comic book store that is fully backing the book there was a big difference. SubCity right now are around the clock selling and dealing with online sales of the book. Last time I checked they had sold 9 times more than me which gives me peace of mind that I made the right decision to go with Atomic Diner who are the SubCity owners. The Warren Buffet quote above sums up what I wanted to get from the shop. When I’m out enjoying a sunny weekend or working my day job I know that the book is being sold.  This means time spend selling and fulfilling orders is freed up to create more stories. I may not be making what Warren Buffet is making but I feel I have emulated his quote in a fashion. The book is available to buy online now at this link

On the run up to the convention I tried my best to market and promote as much as possible. I found my facebook page done really well as I was trying to push the Laois/Portarlington angle. A lot of people and media got behind it from the Laois Nationalist, Leinster Express, Laois County Council and some local Portarlington Facebook pages like POP and LovePort. Also I got an opportunity to get onto Midlands 103 Radio and talk to Claire O’Brien, conversation starts 22 minutes into the link below. I feel like you could spend forever promoting and at times you can get fatigued. There are times when you find some shared content worked better than you had thought and others fall a little flat. I guess one piece of advice is to constantly try and create new angles and not come across too repetitive in the process.

 

After the main buzz of launching I find I am still trying to find ways of getting content out there. Sharing my experience of creating Indie Books with people is something I really enjoy so I decided to launch a Youtube Channel and feature a mix of commentary, thoughts on process, and possibly reviewing other books. How often this gets updated is not a major priority but rather a spot to hold some added content. I would also like to review Irish Comics on the channel if I can but it’s something I would need to talk to the creators about. Below is a link to the first video I filmed which is a commentary of the opening scene from the Bog Road. When I shared this on reddit’s r/ireland subreddit within a day I had generated 15 new online sales which was a good return for little work in filming a video. These videos are more a tool to share and interact with but if they’re going to drive some sales as well then that’s all the better. Keep an eye out for more and thanks for reading.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top