Martin Hospitality Turns 1 :')

My firstborn little book baby is one today! *sniff* Cue all the reminiscing, Q+A, giveaway, sneak peeks, and just about everything else!

WHAT PEOPLE HAVE TO SAY:

I swear I'm not doing this to be vain xD Those of you who are published will understand just how lovely it is to hear people love your book (especially people whose opinion you value), and I am being choosy and sharing only a few tearjerkers, I promise. ;)

You know, the Martins are my newest favorite fictional family :D ~ Lisa on page 200

How can a person switch favorite characters so many times in a single book?! ~ Kaitlyn K on page 365

 There is something so wonderful about this book. I can't even put my finger on it- it's just so pleasing and peaceful. I loved it! ~ Rachel's Bookish World

Miss Abigayle’s writing style has an old-fashioned feel to it that absolutely sucks you into the story while giving you the warm fuzzies. ... This is the kind of story that you want to curl up with and forget life’s problems for a few hours. ~ Ivy Rose

This book is so happy. I just felt bright and uplifted after finishing it. ~ Olivia Rollins 

I'm so thankful for all of my readers and reviewers *sniff*

Have you reviewed Martin Hospitality yet? I'm just going to remind you that some of you who "reviewed" on Goodreads have actually only gotten as far as "review to come once published." Which is totally fine! Just a little reminder there ;) I'm also going to throw out there that Amazon is the place to post reviews. As in it helps me a LOT. Even more than Goodreads. So if all of you would copy and past your Goodreads reviews, I would get +30 reviews before the day is over. What are you waiting for?!

THE AWARDS:

Again, I'm not vain ... just insanely proud of this accomplishment! Mainly because I know for a fact there is no. freaking. way my book would have ever done this one its own. Nope. Not even with my help. Soak it in, my friends. You're looking at a supernatural act of God.

On the note of awards, I've been considering putting the award on the cover of my book. There's space, the color is decent, and I feel like it might help catch people's eye?? But I want your thoughts on this! Vote in the poll for me? Pretty please???

THE STATS:

In case you've forgotten I'm a statistics fanatic queen B)

Goodreads:

How many copies printed: 159

(I'm guessing I easily sold 100 if not more of these)

How many Amazon copies sold: 51

Grand total copies in existence: 210

Gracious, that feels like a lot to me. It'll be a while before I can put "Over 1 million copies in print" on the front but that's okay. Maybe my goal for its second birthday? (Kidding, I kid.) xD

I'm pretty sure I remember telling my brother that I'd be really happy if I sold 100 copies in its first year, and I definitely surpassed that thanks to promoting family and friends and some successful book signings. ^.^

The Martin Hospitality e-book will be FREE for the first time ONLY tomorrow Sunday, February 4 in celebration. Spread the word and grab a copy while you can!!

Sign up for my newsletter in the sidebar before the afternoon of Sunday, February 4 to get an exclusive sneak peek at Martin Crossroads (the sequel)! Hint: it involves Farris's siblings ;)

If you enjoy baking, check out this Pumpkin Chiffon Pie recipe and see if yours can be as yummy as Ginger Martin's. ;)

3 GIVEAWAYS:

#1 - signed paperback + 4 signed bookmarks + 3-pack of my favorite pens

#2 - e-book + 4 signed bookmarks

#3 - 4 signed bookmarks

The giveaway goes through Saturday, February 17.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Okay, so I tried to do a spoiler warning for those who haven't read Martin Hospitality, but if you stop listening when I say to you won't be able to hear me end the spoiler warning haha xD SO. Maybe skip around when I say spoiler warning if you're really that concerned? Sorry xP

These questions were so good. SO GOOD! Think I'm exaggerating?

I hope you all enjoyed that! I still don't know how to edit a video so ... yeah. Instead of a blooper reel at the end you get it sprinkled all throughout lest I bore you with perfection xP Thanks again for the terrific questions; I hope my answers met the challenge.

MERCHANDISE:

To say I'm obsessed with the idea of bookish merchandise would be an ... understatement. To say the least. I'm still greatly brainstorming quality, inexpensive things I can offer, so I'd love to hear what you would like to buy. But for now, I can promise you these:

12 different cardstock bookmark - available NOW on my Etsy shop (why yes I did design all of this week ... o__o)

Themed candle - coming summer 2018, courtesy of BookBurn Candles

Magnetic bookmarks - coming ASAP  (I've ordered the supplies for these and just have to make sure my plan to make them actually works)

What else? As I said, ideas are welcome! T-shirts, frameable quotes, mugs, decks of cards ...

SEQUEL TIMELINE:

Initially, my hope was this spring. Due to the amount of planning this novel is taking and the fact that I've devoted some of my time to other writing endeavors ... that's obviously not happening. While I would love to have Martin Crossroads out in 2018, I'm not sure how feasible that is ... I probably won't know until I attempt to draft it yet again (which will be soon). At all costs I would absolutely like it to be out by spring 2019 -- 2 years after Martin Hospitality. I'll keep you all posted! And as I said above, you can get an additional sneak peek if you sign up for my newsletter before tomorrow afternoon!

And now for the parting photo:

Thank you all so much!!! I know this is how I end almost every post and video, but I have no words to express how much you all mean to me. If Martin Hospitality could talk, I'm sure he'd agree ;)

Q: Okay, so how much time do you think I spent preparing this blog post? o.o You'll find my estimate next week.