Gary Richardson Author Blog

Riddle me this, has anyone see substantial gains by paying for promotion on other IG channels/pages?

It seems that as soon as one of my posts go live I get a few likes, which is nice, but it seems the only comments I get are people telling me to promote my post/book on some account that has a bunch of "followers". Are the followers real or bots, I can't say.

Early on after the release of Book 2 I did opt to promote that book on an IG channel but for the next 48 hours after that promo post went up all I did was respond to people asking me to promote with them through their channel/page. Most were pretty nice when I politely declined but some were rather pushy and I had to get a little rude to prove my point.

John and I have been friends for decades. Our families lived nearby (a relative term when talking about out in the country) so we grew up playing together since before starting school. And even though our lives took us in different paths, sometimes taking John to different states even, we've remained good friends. And for those of you who have never heard John speak, the closest comparison I can offer is James Earl Jones. John's voice is distinctly different than JEJ's but it is equally deep and mesmerizing. It has a sense of drama to it and the deep bass is both riveting and the sound of inevitable doom at the same time.

I've written before about my writing process, inspirations for The Ascension Legacy series, and some of what I've dealt with to bring the first two books in the series to market with the 3rd on the way. But what I've never written about is much of the story itself. True, I do post chapter summaries for the most recent release every Monday for however many weeks there are chapters, usually 15, but nothing too intimate or foretelling about what the other books hold.

The entire series is written already so it isn't like I'm holding back because I don't know how things unfold or because something might change between now and when those books are released. The story is done and I'm happy with how it plays out from start to finish.

Long before ever writing the first word of any books, I was a gamer who, like many others, used the same character names from game to game as a way of carrying over any notoriety or friendships from one game to the next. It was easier to find old friends because character names were familiar. That familiarity came full circle with The Ascension Legacy series and the characters found there. To some readers, some of the names in the books may sound very familiar.

As a young adult, I was given the opportunity to work for Midway Home Entertainment, a video game company that made some of the most iconic games for arcades and home consoles alike. Don't believe me? Look up Midway's production history and I guarantee you will find games that you not only know but likely loved to play at some point (if you are a gamer that is). But I will save some trouble and list a few that a lot people are bound to recognize.

Now, if you are a frequent visitor to my blog then you are already probably familiar with the name Snow Tree Media. This is not the first time that I have mentioned them, but just like with my publisher, Newman Springs, my pleasure in working with them will compel me to mention them, their involvement in my ever-expanding experience, and my appreciation for what they have done for me whenever relevant.

I first came to know Brett and Snow Tree Media through my publisher. The exact nature of the partnership between Snow Tree Media and Newman Springs Publishing is still unknown to me but it is inconsequential to me. Regardless of the connection between these two entities, my publisher connected me with Snow Tree Media as part of a promotional exercise. The terms and condition of that promotion will remain private but understand that I did not seek out Snow Tree Media and they did not solicit me but rather we were put together via my publisher as part of their partnership with Snow Tree Media.

Many, many years ago when the self-publishing arena operated like the Wild West with hardly any standards I tried my hand at my first book. I won't disclose the name because looking back today, the book was trash. I have no regrets about the book but see more clearly through more experienced eyes the number of faults and issues it contained when printed. The concept of editing at any level of optional along with any requirements regarding the book's contents. I wrote everything in MS Word, used only the editor's default grammar and spell checkers, and submitted the work to the self-publisher to be printed along with my selected cover art.

Now, I will be the first to admit that I am not savvy when it comes to social media. I may be an IT guy that is good with computers...