Happy 1st Birthday to When The Trees All Burned 🎂
Wasn’t it just yesterday that I was announcing the launch of this project? I don’t understand time. It feels like a blink, but it also feels like this story has always been a part of me.
It also feels like my work is only just getting started. Like in the flash of a year I’ve accomplished nothing. And I know that’s not true, but I don’t know if I really know it, you know?
So I thought I’d do a little investigation to see what kind of investment I gave to this book over the last 365 days…
147 social media posts specific to this book (I actually went back through my Instagram and counted.)
8 blog posts
6 bookstore signings
5 author readings/author talks
4 newspaper articles featuring the book
3 full page ads in magazines
3 book fairs
1 two-page mock interview about Pocket Rochelle, the band in the book, in a Canadian magazine
1 article published - Beyond the Page: Unconventional Marketing for Fiction Authors (maybe I’ll revisit this and post it as a blog)
1 networking event
And I also need to take into account the investment I’ve made in book 2 over the last year, which not only included a research trip to Montreal, two solo writing retreats, and two 12-hour intensives, but an almost daily practice of writing that’s resulted in expanding the series from three books to four and a nearly 100K manuscript that is now in the hands of beta readers.
It was only yesterday when I realized the anniversary approached and I struggled to find a fun way to share that on social media. I landed on the idea of building a number one out of matches on the cover (of a damaged copy) and lighting it on fire, which would result in a 1 being burned into the front. Of course, intention doesn’t guarantee results, and while I was able to start the bottom of the 1, the book caught fire before the number could be complete. It’s fine though. I think I made my point.
The truth is, I don’t know how to keep posting new content about the same thing. The demand to continue showing up feels overwhelming, but I know it matters. And I’ll keep doing it. Because the hard fact is, When The Trees All Burned has not found its audience yet.
The self-defeating nature of a series is that it’s a series. People want follow-through. Any many are going to wait until it is fully complete before they agree to invest their time and money in something I’m trying to convince them is worth it.
And I get it. Even though it hurts my feelings, I get it.
But also… RUDE!
So there is this sense of urgency that’s lighting a fire under me. And now that I’ve unlocked the necessity of an additional book, I feel like the path before me is so much clearer. Longer, but clearer.
In the indie publishing world, there are no big advances to keep our heads above water, no PR team to carry the burden of our marketing, no assistant handling the adiminstration so we can just focus on our story. It’s a balls-to-the-wall, don’t-stop-believing act of faith that keeps me coming back to the keyboard and pouring out this story in the brief and quiet moments between running my own business and running my household and remembering to be a human who just likes to curl up in bed with a chocolate bar an an episode of Gilmore Girls while I shoot lady-you-be-stupid daggers at Lorelai.
I thought I accomplished nothing over the last year. I’m glad that’s not true. And of course I knew it wasn’t true, but that little gremlin who keeps asking if this is all worth it never takes a day off. If I could, I’d duct tape him to the wall of Taylor Doose’s Market and see how quickly he shrivels into a crumbling leaf that Dean can obliterate under a workboot. (Hmmm… perhaps I need to take a break from my GG rewatch…?)
Anyway. Here we are. One year from launch. Feeling fresh as a daisy you buy at Michaels because it will never die, staring down the barrel of another year in which I anticiapte more launches, more bookstore appearances, more author talks, more writing retreats, more, more, more.
So wish me luck. And if you haven’t read When The Trees All Burned because you’re waiting for the full series, would you think about reconsidering? Every purchase, whether paperback or digital, is a few pennies in the funding pot that allows me to continue pursuing the story of the end of the world.
Happy Birthday, When The Trees All Burned. We have a long life ahead of us, no matter how quickly time seems to fly by.
🌲🔥
