Writing a book, it’s one of the hardest things to do, at least in my humble opinion. Finding the time to put one’s thoughts on paper, to express an idea or develop a story, takes time and dedication. Especially in an era where social media plays a major role in our daily life activities. Let alone the regular, everyday responsibilities we all bring to the figurative table, i.e. work, family, and maintaining our households.
Yet this is one the FIRST of many steps in building upon a hopefully successful publishing experience.
A concept that’s sometimes unconsciously assumed is that writing the book = immediate success. I’m sorry, I’m going to disagree with this. There’s all the other “work” that needs to be accomplished too.
My thoughts: Are you already a published writer? Fantastic! So how are you reaching out and finding new readers? Are you making a concerted effort to be active on social media? How about print, radio and TV media outlets? Assume that you need to contact these entities yourself, or at least hire someone to do it. It’s not going to be cheap, but the time/quality investment can pay off.
Yes, I know you have friends who can help out- that’s always a good thing. But your friends aren’t going to be the ones benefitting from the sales of your book. You are.
Yes, I know that you have a blog with a large readership, yet another positive thing already getting accomplished. What about finding new followers, how are you doing this? And how will you inspire those followers to buy your book?
The one thing to avoid doing is sitting on the sidelines, and assuming that just because you wrote a book, which was eventually published, that the readers will “come.” At all costs avoid thinking that “if you write it, they will come.” Unless you’re already a NY Times bestselling author or A List celebrity, this isn’t the best approach to ensuring that thousands of copies of your book will be sold.
I assume you’d like to write another book? The best way to ensure that this opportunity will present itself is to sell thousands upon thousands of books. How to do it? By stepping as far away from the “if you write it, they will come” thinking – and investing as much time as possible in promoting your work of writing love.
Remember all the elbow grease you used writing a book, to maybe find an agent, and to navigate the waters of publishing? It didn’t happen overnight. It took time. It took YOU taking the time to do all that hard work with or without an agent and/or friends.
Writing the book = AWESOME
Seeing it get published = BEYOND AWESOME
Promoting the hell of your book, and investing the time to build even more “buzz” = SUPERB (& MANDATORY)
