A Whole New World!
Yes, yes, I know. I'm a BAD Blogger—it's been something like 30 days since I updated my blog (uh, maybe longer—I'm afraid to look). But I never realized how incredibly time consuming marketing a book could be! Writing the book was fun. Editing the book was enjoyable. Placing the book was an incredible challenge. But now marketing the book—well, it's a whole new world to me. It is amazing to me that fiction writers, usually the most anti-social of creatures, preferring to spend their time wandering around the realm of their imagination, are suddenly expected to transform into social networking guru's once they publish a book. It's hard to know exactly where to begin. There is a plethora of handbooks, manuals and guidelines out there purporting to tell a newly published author how to network, how to market, how to promote. But what they don't tell you is how much gosh darn time it takes, and how tedious it can become! Further, everybody has differing opinions as to what works best: someone may swear by social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, while someone else may firmly believe that face to face marketing (you know, the good old handshake-and-smile kind) works the best. Another may tout Blog Tours and an e-mail marketing blitz as the best ways to reach potential fans, while still another may swear by book signings and book tours as the only real way to reach the masses. If I followed every bit of advice on the "best" way to market and promote, I would need at least 10 extra hours everyday to get it all done! Most of the time I feel as though I'm tripping over my own efforts to find the best and most efficient way to effectively market my book, and if it wasn't for the guidance and advice of a couple of kind colleagues who have taken pity on me, I may have given up a long time ago. The irony is this: When I wrote the book, I struggled to become a published author; now that I'm a published author, I struggle to find time to write a book!
So, in the end, my Blog has suffered. And my writing. And I am wondering how to find that ever elusive balance between promoting and writing, because without promotion, why bother publishing, and without writing, there'd be nothing to publish. It is truly a whole new world to me, and no there are no Atlases, roadmaps or GPS units that will agree on the best route to take. I suppose it's up to me to once again find my own way in my own time and just hope for the best in the long run.
Now it's time to get ready for my speech to the local rotary club. And then I need to make sure I have enough give-aways for my book signing on Saturday. Then it's off to update my Facebook and Twitter pages and, after that, I need to catch up on the two dozen writers' boards I now belong to. Oh, and I need to map out the list of independent bookstores I will be visiting this month in an effort to set up even more book signings and hopefully get my book on the shelves. Also, I can't forget to mail out the hard copy invitations to my Book Launch...and somewhere in the middle of this, I might actually sit down and write a page or two...after all, when all is said and done, I am still a Writer. Right???
AMB
So, in the end, my Blog has suffered. And my writing. And I am wondering how to find that ever elusive balance between promoting and writing, because without promotion, why bother publishing, and without writing, there'd be nothing to publish. It is truly a whole new world to me, and no there are no Atlases, roadmaps or GPS units that will agree on the best route to take. I suppose it's up to me to once again find my own way in my own time and just hope for the best in the long run.
Now it's time to get ready for my speech to the local rotary club. And then I need to make sure I have enough give-aways for my book signing on Saturday. Then it's off to update my Facebook and Twitter pages and, after that, I need to catch up on the two dozen writers' boards I now belong to. Oh, and I need to map out the list of independent bookstores I will be visiting this month in an effort to set up even more book signings and hopefully get my book on the shelves. Also, I can't forget to mail out the hard copy invitations to my Book Launch...and somewhere in the middle of this, I might actually sit down and write a page or two...after all, when all is said and done, I am still a Writer. Right???
AMB
Posted by A.M. Boyle at 8/5/2009 10:01 AM 
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: Writing promotion time balance marketing
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: Writing promotion time balance marketing
Congratulation on winning my book, "Overcoming Obstacles with SPUNK!"
I will get that in the mail to you by tomorrow!
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