I'm gearing up for a Valentine's Day blitz. Morsels is launching on Reedsy Discovery that month; meanwhile, Ancilla is getting massively promoted. I bought some Bookspry newsletter advertising space months ago, and recently signed up with Crave Books and bought some heavily discounted advertising in Pillow Talk Romance, Deluxe Romance Books, and Wild Hearts Romance. I will probably be buying Facebook banner ads and a few other things for February. 

Worth it? Maybe. This promo I did after Christmas (I had top billing in the Pillow Talk newsletter!) got Ancilla downloaded from Amazon three hundred times in one day. 

Here are the readouts from Publishdrive:

Yes, that's how much money I've made. Isn't the life of an indie author grand? Don't quit your day job if you want to eat. 

That's a record for me, though. The downloads were free, but maybe one or two will result in a good review, and reviews are how you rise in the Amazon search algorithms and get suggested to readers. 

Fingers crossed...

Anyway, in preparation for all this, I've been making Instagram ads. 

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This one has a short quote from the "Tiphareth" chapter.

A quote from the "Hod" chapter. 

No quotes here, but this hints at the events of the "Netzach" chapter, just as the autumn leaves hint at the time it takes place (October 31, 1991).

I rather like how this one came out. I use two doves to symbolize "Magister" and "ancilla." Doves mate for life; also, they subtly call back to the dove symbolism used in the movie Stealing Heaven, which was a dramatization of the ill-fated love affair and secret marriage of Abelard and Heloise. "Magister" and "ancilla" have a lot in common with their medieval counterparts. This gets hinted at in the "Chesed" chapter. 

And here we have the burning heart Dante described having for his Beatrice... I didn't have room to work in references to La Vita Nuova when I wrote Ancilla, but I can put them into my art and promos.

"Remain in Light"

I mean, really, it's not just book boyfriends who should know the value of pearls...

I finally found out the name of the painter whose work I've seen all over Pinterest, and sampled into my collages! Ron Hicks. He's a modern impressionist, and he's amazing.