Reporting in From the Trenches
Hey New Kids! It’s
been a month since my debut release. The Bull Rider’s Brother is available at
all fine digital sales outlets, like Amazon, Sony, iTunes, Barnes and Noble and
Amazon UK
(that one made me giggle.) I’ve never
been out of the country, but my characters are jet setting all over.
So what have I learned?
Promotion is hard work.
I still have a list of places I need to send my postcard. Guest blogs to
write. Changes that I need to make to my
Amazon Author page as well as my website and Facebook Fan page.
I get one thing done, and think of ten other things I need
to do.
Most of these activities are one time projects. My website is will be fine until I start making
good enough money to buy one by a professional.
I like the ability to go in and change things at a moments notice. My
Facebook Fan page will always be there.
But all of these promotion activities take some love and some time.
And there’s no way of knowing if what you’re doing is
affecting sales. Except for your Amazon ranking. So I began stalking Amazon. I’d check often, and if the number was
rising, I’d be depressed. Then I’d check
again. I spent hours looking at my
ranking versus my Crimson Romance sisters books.
Time that should have been spent writing.
I let June be about promotion. And November/December will probably be the
same as A Member of the Council (paranormal
novella) and The Bull Rider’s Manager
the second bull rider book will release a week later.
But I also have a second paranormal manuscript to write. I
have a cozy I want to finish this year.
And my bull rider wants to tell his story, he’s tired of living the
bachelor life. (Or will be by the time I
get through with him.) Hanging out at Facebook and chatting on twitter, just
wasn’t getting the job done.
I wrote myself a stickie note. WRITE FIRST.
Apparently I’m not great at taking my own advice. But I’m
back on a roll. I’m committing to 30
minute writing sprints. On Tuesday’s, my
fabulous lala group is meeting in a chat room they started during Camp NANO
If I stay on track, I’ll have a pretty solid first draft by
mid July. And a more polished manuscript
to my editor by August 1st.
Then, the revise/edit/promote process will start all over.
So that’s my report.
I’m back on the wagon. And hope, for my next releases in November, I’ll
be more prepared for the process.
Your turn, dear readers.
What do you want to know? And
what pearls of wisdom can you share to make our New Kids process into publish
author less scary?
16 comments:
Hi Lynn~
Yes, promo is so hard and time consuming! I've had one novella out since May and after finding author central, I've watched it slowly climb higher. : (
Good luck!
teresa,
Yay on the increase. My husband told me to stop checking Amazon all the time today. I guess he's noticed my obsession.
Breathe, relax, and write more. Right?
You know, I have a degree in Public Relations - not that I've done anything with it since LAST CENTURY - but the thought of marketing scares the pants off me. Literally. I'll be in the grocery store and POOF! There they go! I'm getting tired of explaining myself to the police.
You are so right, Lynn. I think we all tend to forget that WRITING is #1 on the list. If we don't write, we become stale, and that's depressing. For me, writing is #1, reading is #2 (I write MUCH better when I read) and everything else follows.
Great post!
Abigail - For me, it was setting up a plan and running with it. (Thanks for the blog hosting btw!) - my issue now is when to say when...
Maybe you should wear shorts under your pants at all times just in case...
Lynn
Elle - you are so right - reading is so important.
I'm planning a week off of writing/editing as soon as this latest book is done and sent off to my Lyrical editor. All I'm going to do is read.
(my luck my edits will show up that week. LOL)
hey lynn,
yup promotion is a major time-suck for me. not that i do much of it, i just spend too much time worrying that i'm not doing enough. and really your best promotion is to keep writing. then if readers like one book,there are more for them to read...
An authors job doesn't stop when the final edits are handed in! There's just so much to do. It's so hard to find a balance between marketing and writing new words. I think your 30 minute sprints are a great idea! Good luck!! I think I might take your advice and do a 30 minute sprint myself before taking the kids to the pool!
Promo has sucked the life out of my creativity...and I can't seem to find it. Ugh!
Nora - that's the problem, you worry you're doing too much, you worry you're doing too little. I swear if I wasn't so obsessive, I'd never look at the rankings again.
But of course, I will.
Thanks for stopping in.
Heather - I've been on a major learning curve since March when I got my first offer. I was one of those authors who thought, cool, I sold. Check.
Not.
Thanks for stopping in and let me know how the 30 minutes work for you. My CP and I say we can do anything for 30 minutes. LOL
D'Ann - you will. I feel the same way. And you have two books out.
I sat down to write a blog the other day and didn't think I had any words left.
Promo sounds like so much work, Lynn. I can see why it eats into writing time. Glad you're back on target with your writing. Good luck!
Interesting post! Thank you. Have you looked into hiring a company to book a blog tour for you? Also, what kind of marketing do you think has paid off the most and which will you not do the next time around? Sorry if that's too many questions!
Hi Barb - I think the biggest part of was the prep work. Of course - great blog hosts like you made it easy for me. (Thanks for guesting BRB.)
But I'm happy to be back in story mode, at least 75 percent of the time.
DeeDee - No - questions are good. Have I thought about hiring? Yes and the answer right now is no.
One, I don't think I'm making that kind of money to make it worth while. (I don't know, but I'm guessing.)
And two, I'm the kind of gal that can't delegate something I don't understand. So I need to do at least some of this work to see what works, and what doesn't.
What paid off? Who the heck knows. I know which blogs got more traffic. I've definately seen a decrease in my numbers since I've stopped blogging almost daily.
I liked my 31 days of rodeo on twitter. But I think it just made me more twitter smart. LOL
And I'm just starting to get promo through the local papers and doing some in person stuff. So we'll see.
Good questions.
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