Taking the book marketing plunge: Post 1

Until recently I was scared of self-promotion, but I didn’t know that. I was scared someone would tell me I was doing it wrong, or that maybe it was shameful to promote my own work. I never said it out loud, it was so deep-seated in my brain that I didn’t even know I felt that way. But recently I saw an author’s post that broke through. 

She had just joined Story Origin and posted her Reader Magnet right away. (If you’re not familiar with either of those, I’ll talk about that in the next post). She was on the SO FB page looking for people to join her swap. A light came on. 

I’d found Story Origin months ago, but I had not taken any action. I was waiting for the perfect moment when my prequel was finished (that was already taking months longer than planned). But this author wasn’t waiting for perfection, she jumped in and made a swap for samples (no full prequel needed), in other words, she created a way to promote what she has right now. She was just like me, with one important difference. She wasn’t afraid to promote her work. 

And so, like naming Rumplestiltskin, the mere act of examining the feeling made it go away. Poof. 

It made me ask myself, why am I holding back? When I asked the question I realized there was no good answer, just plain old fear, and what’s the point of that? And so, like naming Rumplestiltskin, the mere act of examining the feeling made it go away. Poof. 

So, I dove in. I joined that author’s swap and a group promo the next day. 

Once I named that I was scared to promote my own work and examined it (and determined there was nothing real there) I was able to move on. Of course, there is still the very real struggle of working a full-time job and trying to market my upcoming book, but before I could actually start I had to get over that block. 

Now the hard work of actually managing a marketing plan feels like something I can accomplish. In the next post I will describe my tech stack *pushes up glasses* and why I’m using those things and which ones might make it for the long haul. But importantly, now the idea of getting my work out into the world is giving me energy instead of leaving me with an unnamed dread. (Bonus tip: name your dreads!).

So, what have I done with this newfound power? In the last week I’ve tried out Later, Trello, Buffer, and Canva, and now I’m getting somewhere. I’ll give you break down of what will likely make the final cut in the next post, but first, if you are anything like me, the main thing standing in your way of marketing your book, record, tour, whatever could very well be no lack of shiny apps, but instead an unconscious (and unreasonable) fear/dread of self-promotion. 

So… in the spirit of self-promotion, I invite you to head over to my contact page and sign up for my newsletter so you’ll be the first to get the prequel Behind the Red Door when that comes out later this summer. You’ll also get to learn about other awesome books I’m promoting from emerging authors. Some of them are free downloads and others are coming out soon.