I’m a Newbie, and I screwed up

I had my newest Jazzi ALMOST ready to go. My critique partner wasn’t happy with my big final conflict scene, so I needed to rewrite it and run it past her again. For a while, I couldn’t think of a way to fix it, but bless my little grey cells, because I woke in the morning with a solution. I wrote all day that day, trying to make the last three chapters stronger. Then I sent them to her, but I know she works long hours on Friday and Saturday, and she wouldn’t be able to get to them.

So…I turned my thoughts to marketing. This time, I wanted to do a Goodreads Giveaway. And I wanted to do it BEFORE the book came out. So I decided to do a pre-order. I’ve never set one of those up before. My publisher did it for me. But other authors do them, so I gave it a try. When I clicked on the link, I thought I was choosing the date the pre-order would start and loaded my book. Instead, I chose when the book would go live, and the book went up before I got my feedback on what I’d tried to fix. So, I screwed up. I meant for the pre-order to go from Nov. 23 to Dec. 5. That’s what the giveaway dates are. Instead, the book’s pre-order went up the minute it was approved, and the book goes live on November 23rd, and it’s locked in so that I can’t change the mistakes my critique partner found.

Mary Lou said there were three easy fixes, so later, I’ll go back and fix them. But I hate sending a book out that I know has a bump in it. Arghh! The thing is, I thought I’d planned for the book’s come out better this time. And I did. But I sure didn’t understand how to do the pre-order the way I wanted to. But I live and learn. I’ll know next time. BUT if anyone out there is like me, just know that when you push pre-order and give a date, the book will go up as soon as Amazon approves it. They approved mine in only a few hours instead of the (sometimes) 3 days. Everything went faster than I expected. And if I’d done it right, I’d be thrilled. As is, the date I put down for what I meant to be the pre-order date was the date the book will go live. BUT, I’m still happy I did it. Hopefully, 50 people will win my Kindle book and maybe leave a review. I’m curious to see how that goes.

I like working with Goodreads. I’ve mostly had wonderful experiences with it. Fingers crossed, I will this time, too. But if I’ve confused you, The Body in the Wheelbarrow is up for pre-order right now. And on November 23rd, it’s live and for sale.