Dear Friend,

July 2026 is coming to an end and I couldn't help reflect on my journey as an author since May of 2024. That's when I met a certain gentlemen with whom I've met virtually every Friday, more or less, since.  While he has been fairly stationary, I move around a lot for both work and pleasure. Yet we've managed to stay consistent over the past two plus years. Thank you, sir, for jump starting my intention. 

The result of our talks has been the completion of The Price of Water, a steep learning curve on how author's market their works and the practical aspects of self-publishing. I then spent a fair amount of money learning about digital marketing, learning how easy it is to get scammed all while completing The Siberian Question. I took over my own digital marketing and mark 2026 as the year I began the transition professionally from law to the business of publishing. 

At the New Year,. I stated to my community that I was committing to spending a significant amount of my time on the publishing business with the remainder of my professional time devoted to the law practice in. 2026. This has turned out to be a larger commitment than I supposed it would be. But I have been persistent and consistent preparing and executing on marketing plans in support of a soft launch of The Siberian Question in February, then for a wine tasting/signing in April to continue the vibe, and the whole time posting nearly every day on multiple social media platforms working with my marketing experts, Chat and Claude. 

Since the last signing party in April, I've been focused on trying to build a presence and a following on social media, and in particular, the platforms where potential readers reside. The list is long so there's only been time for a few of them. I'm down from 12 posts a day to 4 to 6. Sometimes none. A break from posting once in a while makes sense to me. Now I'm moving the efforts more towards actual sales, the business of publishing. We'll see what happens there, but for me, that's the ultimate measure of success. At the moment, that success is at a trickle.

Meanwhile, The Iranian Promise is moving along but more slowly than I'd like. I think it's going be good. At least I hope so. It's far from finished. I hope to edit to final by the end of August. Wish me luck!

The rest of 2026 looks like a continuation of the same. Practicing law, traveling and working on the publishing business part time. Would like sales to increase, but still not a priority. I'll keep you all posted.. 

Sincerely,

Ross

p.s. love the graphic Chat created for TSQ