The Hard Part

I've waded through the pool of creating a story that would hopefully be both entertaining as well as possessing a certain redemptive quality that would set it apart from other books in the contemporary fiction genre.

I've been picked up by a publisher, made mistakes; signed with another, made more mistakes and decided to do this all on my own.  I lost alot of money in selecting the wrong people to provide services of which they couldn't deliver...and through it all, I still remain standing.  Barely.

The hard part about this industry is not knowing where to go or who to trust to get things done besides yourself.  Negotiating the waters of the creative world is one riddled with dues-paying, and more dues-paying.

When I started blogging about my journey into becoming a successful author, I promised that I wouldn't leave out any details although sometimes, I'm tempted to edit out the not so good parts.  Sometimes it just feels easier that way.

But today, I have to admit, I'm feeling the pinch.  I stll believe that I'm blessed, but it seems like everything that I've gone through so far was easy compared to what I have ahead of me.

Marketing has always been challenging...well, that is, if you don't have the expertise of a marketing team behind you.  I took on a publicist...a good one.  One that I thought would get me the signings and in-store placements that I desired.  I'm realizing now that even the best of publicist can't do his/her job efficiently if they don't have all of the resources that they need to do it.  But even more importantly, you as an author or publisher have to have a marketing plan in place, and it's not up to your publicist to create one...at least not completely.

For starters, your book should be available in some type of major distribution database in addition to your own website.  Websites like Amazon and Barnes and Nobel are great, but that alone will not get you the attention that you deserve.  The major distribution database should have some type of marketing team for you, but before you begin to utilize those services, know who you're writing for.  Know your genre.  Your marketing team should be able to map out what stores specialize in your genre and come up with a plan that will help pick up your sales.

Know your market.  Ebooks are on the rise.  People are picking up Nooks, E-Readers and Kindles quickly, and even though it will not replace the hard back or paper back book, you have to remain competitive.  That means converting your book into a PDF or EPUB format so that it can be downloaded onto one of these devices.

Make connections.  Use the social media to your advantage.  Talk to anyone and everyone in the industry because there is no such thing as useless information.  It's all in what you do with the information you obtain.  Research!  Research!  Research!

But back to marketing...it's not as easy as it sounds, and it can be very expensive.  Watch out for companies that will charge you a few thousand dollars for services that you can easily do yourself.  Creating your own blog and "tweeting" your information to your followers is great...a service that you can do by simply conducting a little research. Creating a Twitter, Facebook and Blog are free. Making it work in this field isn't easy.  It's frustrating and thankless at times.

This is what I'm learning.  But you know what?  I'm still writing!