May 2017 Blog
This is the Fifth month in a row I'm posting
my blog on time. It's almost a habit.
Must Promote!
Writing outside in the wind and the sun today. A
welcome change after yesterday's all day rain. No, I didn't write outside in
it. Sadly, I didn't write at all yesterday. But now, the sun is shining and the
wind is easy. I sit and contemplate the volunteer sunflower growing where it
shouldn't and I write.
Must Promote! A Haiku
I would shine my light
For all to see, but I fear
It is not worthy.
I'm actually still on
track with my mantra for the year:
Must Write! Must Edit! Must Publish! Must Promote!
And this month's post is "Must
Promote!"
The above Haiku should be
entitled "Hesitation", but I hesitate to do that since the previous
month's titles reflected the theme of the month's blog.
This month's blog is not
an easy one to write. I know little about promotion, except for the
advertisements I am constantly bombarded with across all media. I know even
less about self-promotion, except that I was discouraged as a child from
bragging or boasting about my accomplishments as if doing so were a mortal sin.
Unfortunately, that
attitude has stuck with me to the point where I have hesitated even to acknowledge
a compliment over the years.
If I am to have any kind of
financial success as a writer, that must change. I need to accept the
inevitable necessity and learn to promote myself and my body of work.
Actually, I believe I've
written some pretty impressive, if not entertaining stuff, but I also have a
problem with judgment (which doesn't help either) so I hesitate putting myself
out there for criticism. But, what the heck, at my age I should be able to take
it on the chin and blow my own horn. (Some clichés are just too handy to pass
up.)
I know there are many
outlets available for promotion. Some are free, some cost a little, and some
cost a lot. Being a 'starving artist', I'm all for the first option:
"FREE"!
I run across so many
writers' sites and Twitter accounts that offer such varied platforms, that I
have become overwhelmed by them. Even my publishing outlets have resources
available that I have not taken full advantage of.
I need to take some time
to sort it all out, because as sure as "Publish or Perish" is true,
so is "If you put your candle under a bushel basket, no one will see
it." (or something like that)
Amazon and http://createspace.com/ seem to have some of the most comprehensive
promotion ideas available, but a lot of them insist you be exclusive to Amazon
and its outlets. I prefer to spread my wares around, but most of my royalties
do seem to come from them, so I guess I do owe them some loyalty, if not
exclusivity.
http://smashwords.com/ has promotion material available also and
they are my co-favorite publishing site (along with the aforementioned Amazon
and its http://createspace.com/)
There are also Twitter
accounts for authors that offer free promotion in exchange for promoting other
authors. I've run into several of those. I will be checking into them in the next
few months.
I know I said I would do some promoting during
April, but you remember those taxes I also mentioned? Well, I put it all off until
the last minute and filed my extension just prior to the deadline.
I have got to be the
world's worst – or best – procrastinator, depending on how you look at it.
So now, here I am, the
beginning of the fifth month of the year that's one-third over already. I still
need to write, edit, publish AND promote.
Taking a deep breath, I'm
plunging into the deep end. I'm going to do them all in May. If I'm breathing
again by June 1st, I'll tell you how it all went.
And I'm still thinking
about throwing in at least one audiobook at www.audible.com project, so I'll have
that to talk about, too. It's all very ambitious, I know, but stringing it out
hasn't worked in the past and my far future is getting closer and closer to its
final resolution.
In the meantime, over
this month, if you have any ideas or thoughts about what has or hasn't worked
for you, please let me know. I want to explore all the options I can.
It's wonderful, really,
to have so many options available to us in this media driven age. I keep telling
myself that over and over even as I am overwhelmed by my daily Twitter
activities.
Okay, smiling now. I need
to get back to my Tweeps and see how they are doing. Wish me luck this month,
as I will need all I can get to not drown in the media sea I need to make
better use of.
(Sorry about the
preposition at the end, but…)
If you have any questions
or comments on any promotion platforms or options, please leave a comment and I
will get back to you. I love to hear from my readers.
