June 1st
Kenneth Bliss
If you haven’t read last month’s newsletter, you should read this one. My latest novelette, Canthany Rising, is coming out June 22nd and I’m excited for many reasons. The homepage for the website has been updated with the new cover and link to the book page. The eBook is available on Amazon for preorders. Advance readers have started to post reviews on BookBub and Goodreads. The real interesting part is the press release and the subsequent reviews and advertisements.
I purchased a press release from a PR company called BrightKey PR for The Accident. There ended up being an error they couldn’t fix, so they gave me a complimentary press release for Canthany Rising. Here’s the release on Religion News Today. The response to the Canthany Rising easily eclipsed The Accident, in both scams, freelancers and legitimate senders.
I have received over two hundred emails about Canthany. Ninety to ninety-five percent of them are scams or unverifiable freelancers. The scams are usually book clubs or radio stations or podcasts looking to have me on their club/show/podcast, but at a cost. They invariably use Gmail addresses which “sound” like they are legitimate. However, when you try to find these people, the details don’t add up. Freelancers looking to help with marketing and/or SEO end up being unverifiable with no website. They just reach out and hope I’ll bite. Unfortunately, they all end up in the trash.
There have been legitimate companies which have contacted me to either be part of a book fair (at a cost in the $1000s), the ComicCon in San Diego (many $1000s), expand on the press release reach, advertise in magazines, or write an article for a magazine. These have been exciting. Now, the book fair and ComicCon were non-starters. The others? Well, look for yourself:
In addition, USA Business Radio requested I write an article for them about how Canthany Rising would fill a void in the book market. I received notification they liked it and have published it here. They have also offered to make me a “Select Contributor”…for a price. It’s a reasonable price to have monthly articles published which connect back to my site. It builds domain authority, which aids in searches.
One company called Religious Product News, approached me about advertising in their magazine. Now, this magazine is sent to pastors of 35,000 Christian churches. I’m not sure if that number is only U.S. or world. Either way, this is the audience I want to reach. Think youth groups. The cost for a quarter-page ad was a bit much (even after a 62% discount), but I thought it was worth it to try once. Here’s the ad which will go out.
As exciting as this is, I do have to keep my expectations at a manageable level…just in case.
What else is going on
I mentioned the homepage had been updated for the new book. However, I didn’t realize until recently that there are other pages which need to be updated. I have character art for Canthany. The eBook will have a page with the seven animal characters in a collage. The individual character arts will be added to the site along with some stats and notations about each character. I hope to have it completed by the time of release. The same character art will be posted on Pinterest
A book trailer and a homemade ad have been posted on Instagram. Check them out, when you get a chance.
You’ll also notice a lot of links in this newsletter. Well, that has to do with SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I’m supposed to have links in my posts to boost my credibility and discoverability. So, there will be more links in future posts.
Writing Progress Report
Psionic Prodigy (tentative title), the second Eric D’Tra’val book, is up to chapter four out of a planned seven. I’m working on chapter five now and hope to have a rough draft completed before the Realm Makers Writers Conference June 24-27 in St. Louis, MO. The goal is to have it published in the Fall, 2026.
My Name is Kenneth Bliss.
I am a Mathematics and Computer Science degree holder from the University of Michigan-Flint...which has nothing to do with writing. I am also a retired insurance professional of thirty-three years...which barely has anything to do with writing.
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