My Writing Journey Continues …

Taking a detour this week from my normal theme about helping teens become confident and independent adults. (I’m sure some of you are relieved!) Thought I would share some insight about my personal writing journey since I last blogged on this topic in March. Basically, I can sum it all up with this one sentence … “Marketing a book is harder than writing one!”

You would think that a retired marketing teacher would love the marketing side of being an author. You would think that nothing would get my juices flowing like the process of selling and the challenge of tackling new promotional opportunities. Well … the juices are more like sour grapes that keep splashing up at me saying, “Get your butt in gear and unlock some more doors!” It is so hard to know where to put efforts as venues that I thought would be good selling opportunities have disappointed me and others have surprised me. Today I read an article saying an author had success selling books at a Farmer’s Market–who would of thought? And don’t get me started on how much time social media takes each week! The bottom line is that authors need to do it all and try to narrow the focus through success.

Having confessed the above, I will say that I have thoroughly enjoyed all the wonderful people I have met and talked to about L.I.F.E..  They are what keeps me going. At the Lavender Festival in Roswell, I met a delightful lady whose son had the same major and went to the same collegeLav Fest Sue & I as my son (attending at the same time) and who is now working at the same company as my daughter works. (Small world and she bought a book!) So even though it was 96 degrees that day and I thought I may regret the decision to be an outside vendor, memories were made and books were sold (not as many as I would have liked as minimum wage is rough to live on-lol). However, I learned and therefore want to share the fact that a newbie author has to try even the long shot opportunities. An outdoor festival with a focus on lavender could be a great networking opportunity. I did give out multiple business cards to teachers promising to share with their administrators 🙂 — time will tell if that pays off.

Making those “cold calls” can pay off too. This week I was a guest on Atl & Co. (a local morning TV show airing from 111 alive1 – 12:30 pm daily). So exciting! Again, the people made it more awesome … from the executive producer to the camera crew to the hostess. All so welcoming that I forgot it was live television. And the viewer emails afterward were especially enlightening and supportive. Don’t know if the appearance will generate any book sales, but I had another great experience and it started from a cold call email.

My next adventure to try will be a three week workshop series at the public library (Milton branch of the Atlanta-Fulton system – July 6th, 13th & 20th). Did you know you can schedule free use of conference rooms in many of your community libraries? Plus, my experience has been that the library staff will help authors plan and promote events that entail more than a book signing. (How cool is that?)

My journey of marketing may be harder than I thought, but it is a quest I will continue.

Make the most of your day!

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