Updated and reposted March 2009. Originally posted in Jan. 2007.
So you’re an author, wannabe or self-publisher and you think I might have some valuable information you can use to market your book(s). I hope that is true because I have learned a lot in 9 years of being the (self) publisher of my husband’s bestselling and popular novels (http://www.jrobertwhittle.com) and as time allows, I would love to share it with you.
As I have now changed the title of this entry and added more suggestions — I should explain — no, self-publishing is not complicated but it is VERY time consuming. Yes, I am shouting this out so you get the message. You will learn from this blog and our website just how we do our (successful) marketing and any self-published, or otherwise, author can do it … I don’t want to appear crass but you get in their face and promote, promote, promote. If you’re not prepared to do that, don’t expect that allowing your book to sit on a shelf in a bookstore is going to sell it for you. And when this promo thing gets so tiring for you that you begin to hate your job, it’s probably time to quit! No, I haven’t reached that point yet, but after 10 years in the business (and at my age!), trying all kinds of promotion imaginable (some successful, some not), I can tell you I love to take a break a little more often!!!
To clarify that bit about why it’s called self-publishing and don’t listen to those negative people who might say to you, ‘you couldn’t find a publisher so you decided to do it yourself?,’ … if a couple fund and publish their own book, it’s called self-publishing. Even if a wife publishes her husband’s book and it becomes a bestseller, yup … it’s still classed as self-publishing by all those high and mighty people (read publishers who want an exclusive on the term) who want to give out awards only to their ‘class’. Why? because they are still in the dark ages and figure a wife is dependent financially on her husband. I know I could do a post about this subject but enough said … google it … it frustates me too death to think about it because we’re told we sell more books than most Canadian published authors and fans tell us our books are the best!! That’s good enough for us.
I figure I started the year on the right foot by working on my webpages … do you have one yet? That’s a must to start with and one way to start is with a website from Author’s Den. Here you can add your stories, poems, books, blog, newsletter, etc. It has stats so you can see how many people are visiting; you can entice people to request your newsletter. It’s an invaluable site and thousands of people visit it every day. We get up to 100 hits/day for our little site and I look forward to seeing that increase.
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You should also check out my links page which is now on this blog … look in the category list to the right.
You’ll find some invaluable help here if you are just starting out as a writer or thinking about self-publishing.
You’ll find Robert’s site at Author’s Den here: http://www.authorsden.com/visit/author.asp?id=2469
Have a great day!
