The ONE THOUSAND SPELLS Campaign! 🌈🧝🏻♂️🤠
Discover more from Jubilantly Jason June!
The ONE THOUSAND SPELLS Campaign! 🌈🧝🏻♂️🤠
In which we discuss how Virgo a Virgo can get, and how you can help my next book!
It’s Virgo season, so of course this is the opportune time to show you just how Virgo I am. Each week, I take a look at the New York Times best-selling young adult hardcovers and their sales numbers thanks to BookScan (for those interested, Publishers Marketplace offers a $25 a month subscription where you can look up 5 books and their sales numbers). Here is an observation that blew my mind: most weeks (not all, but a vast majority of them) there is at least one book on the list that sold just under one thousand copies. Many weeks, multiple books hit that sell around those numbers. In a time where we’re seeing BookTok headlines of books selling tens of thousands a week, this surprised me and gave me a little bit of hope.
This is not to say that selling one thousand copies during a book’s launch week is easy. It’s definitely not. For context, RILEY WEAVER NEEDS A DATE TO THE GAYBUTANTE BALL sold 587 copies (THANK YOU SO MUCH!) as reported to BookScan it’s first week (it’s widely noted that not all retailers report their sales numbers to BookScan, but industry belief is that the BS numbers—not that BS…you know what I mean—encompass 80-85% of sales). That was even with a donation drive and what I considered some of the cutest preorder swag ever. I mean just look at these hats!
But this is to say that when I tell folks that one thousand copies sold lets a book stand a fighting chance of hitting a best-seller list, they light up! They feel energized! One thousand is a number that’s easy for people to imagine. While nothing is ever a guarantee, I’m hoping I might be able to galvanize this energy and start the One Thousand SPELLS campaign.
What is the One Thousand SPELLS campaign you ask? This is a call to see if we can get one thousand copies of THE SPELLS WE CAST preordered or purchased in the first week it’s released (TSWC comes out on the holiest of holy days, October 3rd; IYKYK). All it takes is preordering/buying one copy. That’s it. Every copy adds up, and the more folks who get one copy, the closer we get to 1K! Here’s the wild thing: if everyone who subscribed to this newsletter (thank you, thank you, thank you!) preordered just one copy, we’d already have 229 copies! If you ordered one for you and a friend, we’d be nearly half way there! But no pressure!
A vulnerable moment: Why all this focus on best-seller lists? As so many of us writers know, books can have a long, healthy life and never make best-seller status. But this is an industry that looks at the numbers of your last books, and publishers decide if they’re willing to publish more of your novels based on those numbers. To be honest, my most recent release, RILEY WEAVER NEEDS A DATE TO THE GAYBUTANTE BALL (which I adore and has received my best trade reviews yet and I’m outrageously proud of) has not been selling well. Outside of those debut week sales, RILEY hasn’t really sold much at all. Like, single digits a week when it wasn’t even two months old. That’s not good. I’m worried. Hitting a list gives a book a better chance of having a steady life. Art is a fickle business, and while I’ll still do it for as long as publishers let me, so much is outside of my control, and one way to make sure authors keep getting to write books is to buy their books or support them in all the free ways you can. Which leads us to…
I know money is tight, so if buying a copy for you or a friend or to donate to your local LGBTQ center or queer ally library isn’t in the cards right now, I still feel the love and I’m so thankful for all your support! If you can share this or any of my social media posts, that helps get the word out! That helps the reach of my book and makes it more likely someone will be intrigued by my gay elf cowboy, rivals to lovers, magic competition contemporary fantasy where our rivals can’t have both love and their magic. They’ve got to choose! It’s romantasy all the way!
So…will you be one of the thousand?
Here are some nifty links where you can buy the book:
Signed & Personalized Copies from BookPeople (Put in the order comments who to make the book out to ❤️)
You can also go here after you preorder to sign up for some THE SPELLS WE CAST swag!
For more about the book, here’s the description:
From New York Times best-selling author Jason June, a story of spell-slinging, lasso-swinging, and star-crossed love perfect for fans of Cemetery Boys and Carry On.
“The most magical and swoony page-turner I've read in ages.”
—Adam Silvera, #1 New York Times best-selling author of They Both Die at the End
Nigel Barrett has spent his whole life preparing for the Culling, a spell-casting competition that determines which of the world’s teenage magicians will be stripped of their powers to preserve magical balance. But nothing could have prepared him to face Ori Olson, a broody rival whose caustic wit cloaks a painful past.
From the moment Nigel and Ori meet, sparks fly. Their powers are stronger, more thrilling, the closer they get—not that they can risk becoming attached. Because as the field narrows and the Culling grows more dangerous, Nigel and Ori realize there’s more at stake than just their powers. The greatest threat to magic, their future, and all of humanity might be the connection growing between them. . . .
I can’t thank y’all enough for all your love and support! I don’t take it for granted and it means the world to me to get to write books for you. That’s what feels truly magical!
Jubilantly,
Jason June