Time to ADVERTISE

I've been holding off on advertising. Well, I've advertised to my family and friends, but not really to the general public as of yet. I felt that I should have both of the novels I just released completely ready to go before I advertised. I thought people would be disappointed if they came to my website and found that one of my books was available in paperback, but not in ebook as of yet. I figured they'd shrug and forget about me and never come back.

Then, as I studied the marketing strategies on smashwords, I discovered I was wrong.

One more thing among many.

Learn from my mistakes!

Smashwords exec, Mark Coker, says if you have already published, and are just now marketing . . . you are behind the power curve. Coker says you should build up pre-launch buzz about your book.

Oops.

Now the challenge is before me. If I don't advertise, I won't sell a single copy of my books.

So, it's time to advertise. It's time to see if anyone likes my books. Is it scary? You bet. My husband says I'm a nutcase. He says I'm moaning one minute about no one buying my books. But, then when someone does purchase a book, all I do is lament, wondering if they'll LIKE my book or not. I can't win. This business of self-publishing is a bit nerve wracking.

Yesterday I published Sierra to smashwords and kindle. I had to peruse my manuscript about five times as I checked to make sure it was correct in all of the different formats. It was tedious work. But, through the process--as I got lost in my manuscript a few more times--I remembered why I was doing all of this. I LOVE my stories. They make me happy. I loved writing them and I love re-reading them.

In the end, that's all that really matters. And I can't lose sight of that.

But it sure would be nice to sell a few copies too!

I am now THAT person!

I am now THAT person. You know the one I'm talking about. The one who is always saying: Buy my book! Buy my book!

I'm pretty sure my friends and family are pretty tired of me right about now. All they hear from me is: Will you read my book? (thankfully, that's the part they enjoyed) Do you like my new cover idea or my old cover idea? Will you follow me on my blog? Will you leave a comment on my blog? Friend me on Facebook? Write a review on Amazon? Write a review on Goodreads? Write a review on Smashwords? Mention me to your friends? Hand out my (super-cute) business card? Will you buy my book? (even though they've already read it!) Will you be my friend on Goodreads? Will you rate my book on Goodreads?

You get the idea. The list goes on and on and on . . .

Thankfully, I have wonderful friends and family members who have supported me every step of the way. I fear they are tired of me. Yet, they respond to my requests with a smiling face, seemingly happy to help out an aspiring author desperately trying to jump start her career.

Thank goodness. I might be THAT person, but they still love me.

So, a special thank you to my friends and family. You know who you are!

You're the best!

Image(s): FreeDigitalPhotos.net

HARD WORK

As I mentioned in my last post, there is a lot to do when you make the decision to self-publish. I was out of my element. I can sit and write a novel all day, but navigating book formatting and website design was entirely foreign.

Luckily, I have a great daughter who has been an avid blogger since the ice age—long before it was as popular as it is now. The next business expense was to fly her and my first grandson (who I hadn’t seen since he was two weeks old) home. During this “horribly rough” week, I tended my adorable seven month old grandson (life is hard) while my daughter worked away on my new website, my book covers, my author photo, and marketing. It was fabulous to work alongside my daughter and draw upon her knowledge. (communications major) I couldn’t have done it without her. She educated me on so much. (Guess all that college debt is paying off!)

Seriously.

My plan was to dump all six of my novels into the public’s lap and see what happened.

Not a good marketing strategy.

So, how did we do it?

More on this next time.

Image: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net