Publicity: Shards of Heaven Tuesdays

In 14 weeks, my debut novel The Shards of Heaven will hit bookstores. Set against the rise of the Roman Empire and launching into the space between the real and the fantastic, Shards reveals the ruthless quest of the sons of Caesar to find and control the Shards of Heaven, legendary artifacts said to possess the very power of the gods — or of the one God. This epic saga is the culmination of a lot of work and dreaming. I want it to do well.

Plus, folks tell me it is a great book. As Bernard Cornwell says, I’ve “spiced real history with a compelling dose of fantasy,” and the result is (now this is me talking) pretty awesome. I think you’ll agree when you read it.

The trick, of course, is getting you to read it. And not just you, but also that woman over there, and that man you talked to this morning, and that funny kid down the street who is always reading a book while he waits for the bus.

Aside from having a good book, there are many variables that can affect this equation of grabbing a new reader. One, for instance, is the book having good blurbs from trusted sources — which is obviously why above I name-dropped an international bestselling author who also says he “can’t wait for the sequel” (see? just did it again). It’s also smashingly useful to get good reviews, both from big review outlets and from the average reader contributing their ratings on a website.

But the single most essential variable in getting readers is awareness.

Because no matter how good it is, no matter how beautiful it is, no matter how many very awesome people have said You. Must. Read. This. Book. Now. … the truth is that a reader first needs to know that the thing exists.

So that means publicity. And that means, in this case, Shards of Heaven Tuesdays.

From now until a few weeks after the release of the novel, every Tuesday I will be posting a new Shards-centric article on my website — echoed and linked across my relevant feeds on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads. There will likely be a few bonus posts, too, in addition to other social media status updates that revolve around some aspect of the novel. I’m not trying to litter your media streams, but in lieu of hijacking Google’s homepage (anyone? anyone?), spreading the word through social media is simply the easiest way for me to let people know about this book … and thus get more readers, which will in turn allow me to publish more books.

Plus, I think you might be really interested in the research and other aspects of writing that went into the creation of the unifying mythology that is The Shards of Heaven.

So I hope you’ll join me. I hope you’ll be interested enough to be the book. And if you like it I hope you’ll give it a good review and share the good news with a friend or two.

Order-Boost-Review: The Shards of Heaven. Tor Books. November 2015.