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| Nodaway-Holt Middle School kids and me |
So you wanna be a writer, huh?
Sit there at your keyboard
and punch those books out like so much bubblewrap.
*slightly psychotic laughter*
Sure. Go on. Write that book. Make it 90 – 95 K words. Perfect it.
Polish it. Find an agent or publisher.
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| Signing books at a trade show |
KaPOW! You have a contract.
You are a published author. Now, you will market the book.
WHAT! Market?
But I’m shy, an introvert, a total geek that
practically wears camo when I go out in public. Me? Give presentations? Sell my
book face to face with the *shiver* public?
What? Are you bloody mad?
*wiping tears off cheeks from maniacal laughter*
Ah, my children, that is exactly what you must do though.
The last thing an introverted creature such as myself wishes to do is stand on
a chair and shout, “Look at me. I have something you want to buy.”
*rolling on the floor*
Marketing. Selling yourself, your book, the premise. Making
it interesting. At this point, you wanna-be writers, think and plan. Because someday, marketing
will consume you. And by all that is Holy, you’ll wonder:
Welcome to the wild ride!
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had fun with those kids. Congratulations on the newspaper article.
I often wonder, in the future, if this ever happens to me, whether a pen name might help. If not being me might help me not be, well, me....
ReplyDeleteThat may have not made sense.
I'm so glad you're doing it anyway. Good for you and keep up the awesome work! And, I must admit I'm jealous of the newspaper article. How in the world did you pull that one off? That is some great marketing!
ReplyDeleteSometimes, I feel lucky because there's no way for me to do class visits (in Egypt) or bookstore/conference signings (ebook only). I spent summers going door-to-door selling knife sets and magazine subscriptions for college. I hated it. Now, thirty years later, there's no way I'd hard sell like that. But I know a lot of people who do. It works for them.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny. The more you do things like that, the easier they get. I just did a presentation in front of a class, and I didn't even stress about it. But it took a long time to get there.
ReplyDeletelook at you!!! so awesome! thanks so much for sharing your ride! you have to be so psyched!!
ReplyDeletei'm so happy for you!!!