In the second Pets in Space anthology, we hit the USA Today bestseller list one day shortly after it was released.  As of this writing, it has 131 Amazon reviews and a 4 1/2-star rating. And now this honor comes along. Being on a best book list under the auspices of Library Journal is particularly nice.

What an adventure Pets in Space has been! And to a great degree it’s been a remarkably digital adventure.  For one thing, it’s an e-book original.  There is a paperback edition of Embrace the Romance: Pets in Space 2, but at 700 pages and almost $30, it’s a more special edition than what most readers would buy for their home libraries.  On the other hand, at $3.99 the e-book is nicely priced considering how big it is. Containing twelve  novelettes or novellas, with different sexual heat levels and wildly different pets, there’s something for almost everyone in this anthology.

With the other eleven authors, including the two who organized the anthology and the publicist working with us, we talked about the book and the publicity electronically – in a Facebook group.  Which worked great.  The writers (not to mention the publicist, who is Australia-based Narelle Todd of Get My Book Out There) are geographically scattered, But with the FB group we could interact in nearly real time or at anyone’s convenience – even on vacation or when dodging hurricanes.

Before and especially after the book was released October 10, we all revved up our Websites, Twitter, and everything else we had in the way of social media to promote the book.  In the end, that’s why we’ve gotten the accolades we have so far.  Yes, the stories are good and the concept is delightful, but in today’s publishing world, if you don’t manage to make your book known, the vast majority of your likely, appreciative, even adoring readers will never find out about it. I once heard a veteran micro-publisher advise authors, “Don’t forget there are still millions of people who don’t know about your book, so keep promoting it.”

So the digital adventure continues!