What price credibility, part II

Well, I have officially contracted with Smith Publicity to be my publicists for a four-week campaign for The Valkyrie and The Goddess Denied. They've been nothing but pleasurably professional so far, and I'm looking forward to working with them. However, sending them their payment and starting it off. . . it's a scary proposition. I *know* I'll have a lot of followup to do on my own behalf after the campaign's done; they'll just be giving me a toe in the door with their industry contacts. Quite a lot of the work in this is on *me*, and I'm perfectly fine with that. You never get anywhere in life without being willing to do the work, after all. The optimist in me thinks that this is my best shot at getting more exposure for the books, more sales (and I need at least 3k in sales to register with the Science Fiction Writers of America, for example, the good folks who run the Nebula awards), more reviews, more everything. The pessimist in me reminds me that professional critics may not like the series or my writing, and that this hail mary pass might be for nothing at all. I'm trying pretty hard to listen to my optimist self. The pessimist part of my brain is *far* too depressing. :P