I find myself in that void between publishing your work and
seeing a response. It is a strange place, kind of like I imagine the doldrums to
be. The initial excitement of my book entering the big bad world was maintained
by the good friends and supportive family members who bought a copy of course,
wonderful people each and every one of them, but that is not enough.
Every author knows that the goodwill and best intentions of
family and friends is crucial to seeing a project through but not enough to
give you a degree of commercial success. Even the copies bought and read by
strangers, as thrilling as it is in its own right, is not enough.
The word has to get around somehow.
Don’t get me wrong, when I write ‘commercial success’ I am
not dreaming of a mansion and a garage full of Italian supercars, it is something
much more down to earth than that. I am thinking of earning enough to cover my
current salary. This is because working full time and being a husband and
father really does not leave much time left for pursuing the dream of being an
author as well. Whatever free time I do get I try to squeeze as much out of it
as possible – but there is so much to do!!!
Each day I keep having new ideas for new stories with new
characters! Why did this not happen to me when I was a teenager with no
commitments and no job? Not that I am complaining, I love thinking things
through and developing new ideas in my head gets me through my boring day job,
if only I had the time and energy on an evening to sit down and put everything
that is that overfilled cranium onto a page or two.
If I could earn enough to uphold my side of the domestic
budget then my wife would have no objection to me giving up work and staying at
home to write books and do the cooking and a bit of cleaning. That is my
dream...although if I could stretch to an Aston Martin DB9 I would not complain
either!
Book promotion is the name of the next game. It is a
flumuxing world for a novice like myself. There are of course lots and lots of
websites out there that offer all kinds of seductive treats for the desperate
indie-author looking to flog their latest work to the world. There are many big
bad wolves just salivating over every new little red riding hoods that go
wandering by.
A good rule of thumb – if it is too good to be true then it
probably is!
A rule of thumb that is sometimes true but not always – if you
have to pay then it is not a good idea!
This is because some of the better promotion sites ask for a
reasonable one off only payment. They also usually offer a number of different
packages with a sliding scale of costs that even at the higher end are still
reasonable. Good Kindles (http://www.goodkindles.net/)
is one such site and Independent Author Network (http://www.independentauthornetwork.com/)
is another. I do not advocate one over the other, just take a look yourself and
see which you prefer or even if you like both.
Another rule of thumb that is always true – if you have to
pay more than a reasonable cost then walk away!
Anyone who offers you instant success but then starts
talking about you forwarding money to them before they start to do anything for
you, and usually large amounts too, is probably looking to milk you dry!
There is no doubt that unless you get some big shot literary
agent behind you or if you already have a large stash of money to call upon
then you are only going to get what you are willing to put into this marketing game.
It is worth it though. There are some good people out there looking for an
interesting read, they just need to know that you have written the sort of
thing that they might be looking for.
To begin with I started cheap and cheerful, or ‘free’ as we
call it in Yorkshire. I used Facebook and Twiter to begin with. Join groups
with the former, retweet other authors works with the latter. This leads to
some encouraging reciprocation. Blogging is also free, fun and rewarding.
Goodreads is another great place to be if you are a writer
as it is full of readers! Yes, lots of lovely, charming, delightful readers!
Get into the Goodreads Author Program, it is free and comes with more benefits
than most of your friends!
Of course there is a limit with everything and when you
reach it then is the time to start thinking about investing some money in
promoting your book. This need not be the money-pit of nightmares. The key is to
establish a budget that you can afford and stick to it. If anyone starts
suggesting that you can stretch to a little bit more, adopt a John Wayne voice
and tell them in no uncertain terms that you are the boss and you will do what
you jolly well think is best, which should not include spending next month’s
mortgage payment.
Its a long road to success but like all journeys it has to
start with the first step, as sure as fish and chips is the food of the gods no
one ever got anywhere by standing still, well except those who consider the
earth rotating an approximate 800mph is a means of getting somewhere. And do
not forget the fun! There is fun to be had in marketing your work because it
involves meeting new people, even virtually over the internet, and every new
person you meet, even virtually, is virtually a new reader of your work –
enough with the repetition!
I’m off to flog my wares now, anyone want to read a good
book?
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