A week ago I had never heard of Pubslush, which is probably not that unusual. There are so many different ways to market writing as an Indie author, and so little time to research them all much less to them really well, that Pubslush had completely escaped my notice!
A week later and I’m running a campaign – seeking your help to get Spirit of Life, the third and final book of my epic fantasy series the Rise of the Fifth Order, published!
STOP RIGHT THERE!
If you were like me, you were just about to hit the ‘X’ button on the tab. Before you disappear on me, take a minute to learn about Pubslush because if you are an Indie author, or have the hopes of being an Indie author, you might want to keep it in mind.
Here’s why:
I would describe Pubslush as a happy meeting of Kickstarter and Wattpad. Yes, it is crowdfunding, but it is designed to feature and promote writing. A successful campaign will transfer over to a book page with links on where your novel is for sale, like Goodreads. Unlike Kickstarter, the people looking over the site know they are shopping for books.
I found out about Pubslush because they stumbled upon me. How often does that happen?! I received a really nice email from their PR rep Nicole saying that my books looked interesting and she though Pubslush might be a good fit. Well gosh darn it, I had to go take a look. Everyone I’ve spoken to at Pubslush has not only been helpful, they’ve been NICE. Seriously nice. And helpful. And the website was so easy (with a great 101 guide that gets you ready for a campaign before you start setting it up!).
I’m doing a Pubslush campaign because I honestly couldn’t find any reason not to give it a try. As crazy simple as that sounds. Spirit of Life is FINISHED!!!!! (I’m so excited about that I want to type it again!) It is with my awesome editor. I’ve purchased the first photo that will be the main background image. Everything is lining up for a May publication. Heck, I’ve even begun my next WIP!
Things are going so smoothly that I outlined my hoped-for release cycle for my new WIP, which I want to make faster then a year from now. Which got me thinking about how I was going to afford the editing. One book a year, I can scrape together… a set of short stories and two novels in the next year and a half… well, unless sales pick WAY up, I’m going to have to cut back on something to save up.
And then Nicole from Pubslush emailed me.
Fate.
So why not? I’m going for the minimum campaign amount of $500 which is more then enough than enough to cover costs for me to pay for the editing and cover and FINALLY get all three books over to CreateSpace. Despite having put pledges into friends’ Kickstarter campaigns, I’ve never done anything like this myself. Working on the campaign page, I realized that it really isn’t about the money. Sure, being able to pay for my editor without planning ahead for six months would be awesome. But to have people believe in my writing enough to want to help fund the last book in my series. Wow. That would be really cool.
So, that is what I’m really hoping to get out of this. Pubslush is a marketing tool and a challenge as much as a means to help alleviate the costs of being a relatively new Indie author. A challenge as I’ve reached out to some other blogs for guest spots and I’ve got to get my promo organized in ways I don’t even usually do for book releases (working on that!). And with all that marketing going on two months before the cross-my-fingers-hoped-for release date in May, this is a great way to get some interest in Spirit of Life. Can’t complain about that!
And that is why you should care. Because, seriously, you should think about doing this too!
Okay, you are free to go. 😉 And if I caught your curiosity, check out Pubslush, and my campaign! Let me know what you think.