Happy book birthday to Defy, Book One of the Firstborn trilogy!

While Defy is my fourth book and fifth published work in the Estilorian series, this is the first real “book birthday” celebration I’ve ever had. It’s exciting beyond words!
Nine months ago, the Daughters of Saraqael trilogy was released in its entirety. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I had less than a hundred Twitter followers, about ten Facebook friends, and no other social media platform. My only blog posts related directly to my books because I didn’t know what else to write. In short, I published the books with optimism and hope that somehow readers would discover them.
Knowing what I do now, I cringe over my naivete. Seriously…what was I thinking?? All I can say is that ignorance is bliss. Because I had no real knowledge of the statistics regarding the success and failure rates of indie-pubbed books, I had no huge expectations. As I tend to do, I held the belief that I was taking the right path and that everything would work itself out.
Boy, am I glad that it did!
Once I learned more about how book sales and marketing works, I buckled down and did what I could to expand my social media presence. My Twitter following is now more than 5,000 and I’m nearing 400 Facebook friends. I’ve joined three truly awesome writing tribes on Triberr (much love to the RAWR Kitties, Writer Warriors, and Power Writers!).  My Pinterest and Google+ accounts are growing, as well. And in the end, I surpassed my goal of 10,000 book sales by the end of last year, which made for a very happy new year.
Today, I’m delighted to usher in the next Estilorian trilogy, anticipated for months by my fans. Helping me welcome Tate and Zachariah to the “family” are a number of amazing book bloggers. Some bloggers joined on through the amazing blog tour coordinators, YA Bound, and some are bloggers I contacted directly. Across the board, each of them earns my most heartfelt thanks:
A Book-a-licious Story (4/30), A Diary of a Book Addict (4/30), A Pocket Full of Books (5/1), Always YA at Heart (5/9), Artsy Musings of a Bibliophile (5/6), Beesley Buzz (4/30), Behind a Million and One Pages (5/2), Bethany Lopez (5/10), Book Briefs (5/12), Bookmarks & Bookshelves (4/30), Bundle of Books 101 (5/5), Chapter by Chapter (5/9), Dream Reads (4/30), Ed and Em Reviews (5/4), Epilogue Review (5/3), Every Free Chance Book Reviews (5/3), Hey It’s Fishy (4/30), I Heart YA Books (5/5), Indie Writers Review (5/12), Jess’s Book Blog (5/7), Jessy’s Bookends (5/11), JJ iReads (5/12), Journey with Books (5/4), Kate’s Tales of Books and Bands (5/2), Love of Books 409 (4/30), Lover of Paranormal and Indies (5/8), Magnet 4 Books (5/10), Making the Grade (5/10), Margay Leah Justice (4/30), Melody with Words (4/30), Mr. Book Wonder (5/12), Open Book Society (5/3), Proserpine Craving Books (5/12), Rachel’s Book Reviews (5/3), Rai29 Book Read and Review (5/8), Read Between the Lines Book Club (5/10), Reading in Winter (5/11), Sarah’s Books and Life (5/1), Shadow Kisses Book Reviews (5/5), Storybook Escape (5/1), The Bibliophile’s Corner (4/30), The Book Galaxy (5/4), The Book Goddess (5/7), The Book Hookup (5/2), The Reader’s Antidote (5/11), Twimom101 Book Blog (5/8), Unreality (5/1), Winter Haven Books (5/4), YA-Aholic (5/4), and Zoey’s Uncreatively Titled Blog (5/8).
Running from April 30th through May 12th, the Defy blog tour will be filled with insights about the book and fantastic giveaways, including copies of the book, some Estilorian swag, and this gorgeous hair decoration created by Devan Edwards of Nimbi Design, inspired by Defy‘s heroine, Tate:
Please check out the above tour stops and enter for your chance to win. Once again, huge thanks to all of my Estilorian fans…you are awesome!!!
I’ll leave you with the pertinent details: Defy is now available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Smashwords, and will be coming soon to other eBookstores everywhere. I hope you’ll check it out!