Tag Archives: marketing

A small drop in a big bucket

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For anyone who has self-published a book, you will most likely agree the marketing is the hardest part of the process. Writing, for me, is a natural routine. I can spend hours in a fugue-like state typing words that form cohesive sentences, but when I am faced with the daunting task of putting myself out there, the wheels fall off the bus and I struggle to put together a simple string of words that do my stories justice.

Thankfully, I have learned a very valuable lesson along the way. Talk to people about your book. Talk to anyone who will listen and who shows interest in your story. I am blessed to work in the hospitality industry, so I encounter a myriad number of people who stay at the lodge each season. I know them all by name, I know all their children by name, but I am not afforded the luxury of knowing what they do for a living, nor do I know the broad scope of contacts they may have in their lives.

Last summer, in a random conversation, I talked about my first book with a woman who knew I was trying to find an agent, and she knew about my desire to become traditionally published. Unbeknownst to me, the table behind me was listening intently to that conversation and was soon asking questions about the story and expressing a desire to read the book. They both read it and my life as an author had new life breathed into it.

Neil has since become my mentor, and the reason I now have three books for sale on Amazon. My stepdaughter, Abby, boarded the train of my crusade and used her contacts to get my book into the Chapters/Indigo store in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Knowing my book was now live in that system, yet another guest at the lodge used her contact to get my first book into the Chapters/Indigo store at huge location in Toronto. Having overheard the conversations about my books during her stay at the lodge during the same week, a copy of my first book was purchased and is now in the hands of the marketing manager at Penguin Random House in Toronto. And, that same fateful week in August brought me together with a professional graphic designer who is going to update my website and bring my SEO to a level that will increase hits to my website.

I can’t stress this enough. Talk to people about your book. Talk to anyone who will listen and who shows interest in your story. I now have a small army of people using their gifts to help me sell mine. And having six copies of my first book in two separate locations of a large chain of bookstores is truly a small drop in a big bucket, but I am that small drop in that big bucket, and that is a feeling I will cherish.

The hard work has just begun

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If you had told me six months ago, I would be where I am in my life right now, I would have said you were extremely optimistic, misguided but optimistic. But here I am, four weeks after self-publishing my first novel, The Waking Hours, and my life could not be further off the track I thought I was on.

At the beginning of the year, I wrote this post about the signs I had been seeing everywhere, especially the number 111. Since One Eleven is the title of my second book, due to be published on May 2nd, I was very encouraged each time that number popped up in whatever way it chose to present itself.

Before I sent my first book into the world, I had done some investigating to find out what to expect in terms of book sales. The information was discouraging. Research shows the average self-published book sells 250 copies a year, and potentially up to 1,000 copies in its lifetime. I am thrilled by the fact I have already sold more than 250 copies in the first month, but now the real work begins. Don’t get me wrong, writing a book is no easy feat, but being responsible for my own marketing and PR is the new mountain I have to climb, and I am now looking for the proper equipment to start at the bottom and work my way to the top.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have some big boots to fill. Wish me luck!

PS: since I am responsible for marketing myself, please head over to Amazon and purchase a copy of The Waking Hours – available in Kindle or paperback format.