A few days ago, I put the finishing touches on my latest book and then hit the amazon ‘publish’ button. Always a fun step in the ‘author’ game.
But, here’s the bigger question … now what?
This is my sixth book and I realize from experience once you finish writing, that’s when the real fun – I mean real work – starts. This part of the process has a name. It’s not a nice name but I’ll share it with you anyway. Ready? OK, it’s called …
Marketing!
How do you ‘market’ your book?
Great question. And here’s my answer …
I’m still learning.
You see, my marketing skills ride low to the ground … knuckle dragging low. I’m not very good at it.
But, that’s OK, for two reasons. First, I enjoy writing. I enjoy writing my books my way. I enjoy the process and I enjoy knowing I’ve written a book that I feel needs to be written. And, if it’s not a best sellers; no awards; no accolades, that’s fine. I wanted to write it; I wrote it. No regrets.
Next – and this is good news for anyone not thrilled about marketing – there’s a lot of ‘help’ out there. There’s a lot of folks sharing insights on how to market your book, companies dedicated to the craft. I plan to use these resources more diligently than I have in the past. Why? Because I know – from experience – that marketing your book is work; specialized work; work that requires … well, a lot of work. And, because I prefer writing over marketing, I’m looking for smarter and better ways to get the marketing work done; hence hire it out.
My old marketing strategy went something like this, ‘My books will sell themselves.’ I used to think, ‘Folks will want to read my books, all I need to do is advertise on amazon and away we go.’ Not so fast. It doesn’t work that way. There are so many books available, without marketing how are folks supposed to know about my books? They won’t. Without marketing, it ain’t going to happen. That’s a lesson I’ve learned and now it’s time to act on this experienced based knowledge. This time, I will seek assistance in the marketing game.
So, my new marketing plan is to ‘hire it out.’ I’ll write about my success or non-success as I undertake the marketing process. I’ll share the information so you can learn from my experience.
My latest book, ‘The Adventures of an Air Force Medic‘ is available now on amazon in kindle format.
