I’ve had people ask what a release day for a new book is like. Do I drink champagne? Run around like crazy doing promo? Pretend it’s not happening? Track sales?

How an author approaches a release is very individual. Some of us are super organized and have all our ducks in a row. Some of us… aren’t.

I mean, I have a checklist.

I’ve done some of it in the last 8 hours. (Today being the release day for Found by Jasper, the 7th book in my Necromancer series, where we follow two side characters, and their almost-familiars including a very curious raccoon, on a journey to hope and their own HEA.)

A well-organized author has their newsletter teed up and ready to go first thing in the AM. I’m superstitious enough (or burned by Amazon enough) to wait and make sure the book goes live, before digging in and getting that done. (Hopefully, if you’re on my list, you now have the newsletter with links.)

We tend to hop around to pages and groups on social media, although, for the many of us introverted authors, waving the “Hey, look, I made another book; please buy it” flag is one of our least favorite activities. Some folks have a detailed plan of what to post where, some (looks in the mirror) do it more at random. Social media can also be one of the most fun parts of release day, though, as we sometimes come across people who are thrilled that the book is out. (There’s nothing more affirming than someone saying they’ve been waiting since the day the preorder went up to get their hands on my book.)

I like to also do a little writing or editing on my next project— in this case Magic Burning which is a stand-alone in the Necromancer universe, sixty years later, and ties into the Carnival of Mysteries shared universe. I’m super excited for this one, with many of my favorite authors involved in the series. Moving to the next book helps remind me that my worth as an author doesn’t depend on any one book, and however Jasper does, there’ll be another story to have fun with.

And I personally don’t check sales and I try to ignore rankings. (Amazon is making that easier by lagging the rank updates by hours to days, so they’re probably wrong anyway.)

I’d love for my book to do well. (Realistically, of course, this is a book 7— it’s mainly going to appeal to the folks who have read 1-6. Quite a few of you asked for Jasper’s story, so here it is, and it was a lot of fun to write, with the Professor chiming in, of course.)

With luck, a few new folks will also be curious enough to pick up the free book 1 in the series— Marked by Death— and enjoy meeting my characters.

So in the end, release days for me come with a helping of satisfaction (Hey, that worked) and gratitude (It takes a village to release a book— I have some great peeps helping me out) and relief (It didn’t end up in Amazon’s dungeon) and a burst of enthusiasm to go back to writing something new.

Most of all, I hope people who have loved my characters, and supported this series, end up entertained, and satisfied, by this new story.

And then, I get to move on to the new voices shouting in my head. No, the unruly dog has to wait…

Thanks to everyone who shared this release day with me in some way, including reading this post. I wouldn’t keep doing this without your enthusiasm.

– Kaje Harper

June 2023