Patrick Swenson

My first official book signing has been arranged. It will happen on the actual publication date of the novel, August 12, at the University Bookstore in Seattle, at 7 p.m. I’d talked to the SF book buyer (and good friend) Duane Wilkins a while back, and in fact he reached out to the publicist assigned to me by Tor. Which was great, considering I’d not been aware who that would be before then. Almost immediately, my publicist contacted me to confirm the date, time and place.

So it begins. A debut novel needs a good start out of the gate, so early promotion is crucial. I’m already at work thinking about what else needs to happen, including, I very much hope, a small tour of the Northwest, and on down into California and some of the better known specialty independent bookstores.

There will be interviews. One such will be coming up with Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Chat (also known as #sffwrtcht because it has traditionally been a live interview on Twitter).  That will happen the day after my pub date, on August 13.

I suspect there will also be some type of “blog tour.” Between myself and publicist, we will find some blogs in the field that might best connect with the book, and hopefully  I can do guest posts.

There’s also talk of a little road trip earlier in the summer to some other bookstores, traveling with a couple other writers in an effort to increase visibility of our respective projects.

And … a release party? I’m sure there will be something along those lines. It’s not every day you release your first novel, so might as well do it up big! And of course there will be business cards, postcards, bookmarks, posters to think about.

Although I won’t be going to Worldcon in London this year, I’ll be at a few other conventions, including World Fantasy in Washington, D.C., although that isn’t until November. Of course, I’ll also be promoting books from my own small press, Fairwood, and I’ll hopefully have a table in the dealer room.

Here we go!