Promotion. Yikes! That dreaded word. Years ago, when I first decided I wanted to write, the word promotion never even crossed my mind. It never occurred to me that I'd have to do more than write books, which is hard enough. Now writers are expected to be glorified publicists too. That's crazy. I thought promotion was solely the publishers job. Once you've signed on the dotted line you quickly find out that unless you're being buzzed as the next big thing, you can count on your publisher to do very little for your book. Most authors just get a review copies mailed to reviewers or maybe, if they're lucky, some promotional postcards. Publishers just kind of throw new authors at the wall to see if they stick. Usually authors have to earn their way to more promo from their publishers by selling well. But how does a book sell well if no one knows about it?
Here I am with a book that's been out for five months and I'm already thinking about promo for book two. It will be interesting to see what my new publisher, Harlequin, will do differently than BET. I've decided to do a small tour that I'm going to call the Tangled Book Tour. Basically, I plan to do signings in major Ohio cities: Columbus, Dayton, Cleveland, Cincinnati. I'm also hoping to attend some book conventions: ALA, Book Expo, NBCC etc, whatever my meager budget will allow. I've hooked up with publicist
Susan Schwartzman again. I've also hired a professional web designer to design a much needed new author website for me. How will this affect my sales? Who knows! But at least a the end of the day I can say I did all I could.
(play for real money backgammon)
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