Still putting the polish on my book – awaiting feedback from my minions, endless rounds of proofreading, line-by-line edits, etc – trying to see how much I can do “on my own” — book production-wise — and coming up against limits where I least expect them.

For those paying attention, this isn’t my first SP experience, but I’m determined to make it my best.

Meantime, because I can’t just reread the damn thing twenty-four hours a day, I’ve been working on building pre-publication buzz. Definitely decided to go the NetGalley route – probably though a “co-op” that won’t lock me in and offers affordability. Still not sure about blog tours, but there’s a company I’ve been looking at that might work. Any other suggests?

I got myself a twitter and facebook account under the VM Gautier moniker. So far I’ve got over 100 friends on facebook. It started with an earnest beta-reader – a stranger who became a total fangirl. Yay, I have a fan! I built mostly from her friend list – which included book bloggers and avid readers. I know they were avid readers because they had names like: “Luvs2Read” and “Slut4books.” But now it turns out a lot of them are actually … wait for it … authors trying to plug their own books, and some of them are … wait for it … people trying to sell services to authors – covers, editing, proofreading etc. Even the authentic book bloggers – who don’t run paid reviews – are overwhelmed with authors looking for reviews, and while they may have started reviewing for love they are now trying to sell advertising on their sites, blog tours,and/or other services.

So how is this going to work for my buzz? Sure people want to friend me. But is that because they read “about” me and can’t wait to read my post-modern Marie Duplessis, vampyre book? (Seriously, if you are new here, I have really written a pomo vamp book about Marie Duplessis – in Williamsburg, no less.) Most of my new “community” seems to be romance and erotica writers. While Blood Diva might squeeze onto the erotica shelf, and there is a bit of romance, it’s not your typical vampire-romance-erotica (or do they all say that?).

The point is, I was hoping to find people who were just waiting around to read my book, and instead yet again I’m talking at a bunch of people who are all trying to sell me something. I’m “liking” book pages because I was asked to and because I’m hoping they’ll like mine. (By the way, if you click the facebook icon on the top right, you can like my page.) Such is the brave new world of indie-publishing.

Meantime, I’m still a fail when it comes to the first test of marketing 101. That is, I’m not sure I can answer the question – “Who was this novel written for?” Fans of smart vamp fiction of the Buffy variety? (The really smart ones will see how the Season 1, Episode 1 opening influenced my prologue). Young women who laughed at Fifty Shades, and want to see a woman taking charge of her destiny (sort of)? People who actually know who Marie Duplessis was and think the concept is a hoot? High-brow readers who’ve been waiting for a Skype-sex scene set to opera? Fans of the HBO version of anything who think writers should just throw in random orgies every time things get slow? All of the above? None of the above? Other?

(If you’ve stumbled to this site and have read “about the book” and checked out the excerpt as well as the above post, feel free to comment on who you think my market might be and please throw in your random or expert advice about anything. We’re all amateurs.)