Moving right along! Finished another chapter yesterday.
I'm suffering a little bit because I finally went back to the gym yesterday. I know a couple of weeks ago I said I was going to get back on track, but I failed to do so at that time. So now, 2 weeks later, I went back and even after just two weeks I have that oh-not-so-in-shape-feeling. The only way to get beyond this is to keep on going. I know because I've been here too many times before, sad to say. But hey, I accidentally confided in my gym-mate that I was going to start working on those 10 - 15 pounds on September 1st. She guilted me into starting today. I don't know how that happened.
So, I got my promotional cards that I ordered in the mail yesterday. I've learned from the first time around. Instead of bookmarks and large postcards, what I found to be the most effective was little promotional cards the size of business cards. These are great to hand out on the street, at meetings, or wherever. They're also great for slipping in between book and magazines pages at bookstores, drugstores, and libraries (did I say that?!). I've already started a list of promotional activities with dates. This list consists of downtown lunch runs (selecting various locations to introduce myself and pass out cards at lunch hot spots), mall lunch runs, bookstores and other stores, free newspapers, ladies restrooms around town, and anyone I happen to cross paths with at anytime. I'm also planning on doing mailings.
As a new and unknown writer, you gotta do what you gotta do to make people aware that you and your book exist. It's a lot of work, but hey, somebody's got to do it (and that somebody is you.) ;-)
3 comments:
Ladies rooms, LOL Cherlyn, you're a promotor extradorinaire!!! I remember going to an event where Terry "Personal Touch" Williams said she was leaving press material for her books everywhere in the backs of cabs, ladies rooms etc. I think I need to take a self-hypnosis class to tap into my inner promoter--I know she is somewhere deep down inside. I carried around fliers for about a month, then stopped (sigh)
Leah,
Giiirrrrllll!!!! Yes, you HAVE to promote. Because as a new writer, nobody knows who you are unless maybe you've won some big writer prize or award or the book you've written ties into the lastest scandal and basically promotes itself. LOL The rest of us have to work at promotion like it's a full time job. It's not that hard to figure out how, but doing it is just a lot of work. But like I said, if you don't, then unless you have enough money to hire a promoter, then it won't get done. Yes, like Terry, I leave stuff EVERYWHERE and give it to every book lover I cross paths with. Just sit back and think, if I were a book lover, where would I go? And you promote there. Book lovers will pick up your material, non book lovers will leave it there for the book lovers. LOL
Book lovers are at malls, they go out for lunch, they go to Starbucks for coffee, they go to the restroom, they ride buses and trains, they leave their cars on lots at take public transportation, they read other books and magazines, etc. All of these are promotional opportunities for you.
Oh, and especially nice are the book lovers who are screaming "promote your book to me!" These are the ones sitting out in public reading somebody else's book. :-)
I know. I know. I've got to start promoting again. I've GOT to. I just wrote "PB" on my calender everyday for the next month, to remind myself to do at least ONE thing every day to promote my book.
thanks for the reminder.
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