When should a ghost story be released? I’ve never really thought about that question before. With every release of Paranormology, it was a matter of ‘Welp, I finished it, it’s ready to go… hit the big red button!’ That was going to be the same for Devon Cove Ghost, the next installment, except I saw something random pop up on Reddit that got me thinking.
In much the same way as there is an optimal time for making posts, or listing an item on eBay, is there a particular time that is more suitable to releasing books and, more specifically, to releasing books of a given genre.
You could ask the same question for just about any kind of story, I guess. The first one that comes to mind is when should a romance be released? St. Valentine’s Day, of course. Makes sense to me. What about a cook-book? International Food Day. Maybe. That’s starting to get a little stretched. What about a Murder / Mystery? The anniversary of Jack the Ripper’s first murder? That’s morbid and unsavoury and all sorts of wrong.
There my mind throws its ethereal hands up and marches off. Nope, chances are there isn’t a ‘right’ day to release a book for a given genre. Then, over breakfast, I started stewing over that once more. I started stewing because today is ‘Grand Final Day’ in Victoria for the AFL. The actual Grand Final is tomorrow, but that’s not the point. The point is that if I were to be writing something Melbournian and related to football in some way then, sure, doing a release on Grand Final Day would make sense.
So maybe I wasn’t thinking about it right. The Romance = St Valentines thing works because the day is popularly known, not some obscure link. So what other days are there? Christmas, Easter, New Year’s Eve. Labor Day, Grand Final Day (as mentioned) and Melbourne Cup Day (when the horses go around the track and the punters dress up to get drunk). That didn’t help me none. I’m no Dick Francis and neither horses nor drunk punters are my thing.
But ghosts, ah! There is a day that kinda makes sense and, although it’s not such a big deal in Victoria, it’s not unheard of and it fits in alright with the general Paranormal theme of the book – Halloween. I’ve done some things in the past that fall into this category – Creepy Eyeball Eggs and the Mummy Egg. Why not do a Victorian Age Ghost-Hunting next in series release? Why not, indeed.
So there you go, I’ve set the goal and the clock starts ticking. I need to get Devon Cove Ghost up and on pre-order, do the final cover, the audiobook and get it out to retailers by October 31st. Reckon I can do it?
