Selling yourself...but not in the hooker-ish sort of way.

Note: I have to say that thing about writing blogs during lunch is that I'm usually doing something during lunch. Eating. Or going to meetings. But that's okay. I'm doing this entry now, suffering the corporate environment for a few more minutes cause I know that once I go home I will not want to log on and wait for my very slow dial up connection.

And now...on to my main point...
As I'm working my way toward publication of The Silver Spoon (actually RuneStone is doing that, I'm just along for the ride, doing whatever they need me to!) the odd juxtaposition of being an author and being a marketer is taking up more and more of my thought space. It's one of those things that you don't really think about until it happens to you. Marketing, selling your book, I mean. Sure, everyone imagines those packed signings full of people dying to ask questions about your books. But most small and medium-sized presses don't have the money for large publicity campaigns for an unknown author. Heck, even the big companies won't give decent publicity money to an unknown, even though they made the decision to buy the book in the first place, until he or she has proved themselves in sales! Hence you have to sell books before they'll give you money to...well, help sell books.

So, unless you're a pretty big name author or a midlist author with a publicity firm, the author is usually the one calling up people, asking to do signings, readings, etc. And that, my friends, is a very humbling realization. To know that you will have to call up these places and pitch your book and yourself. To go to these places without the reassurance that someone actually wants you to be there. To volunteer to participate on panels without knowing for sure that anyone out there is interested in what you have to say. Eeek!

This also goes for bookstores. They're not going to carry a book by an unknown author from a small or medium-sized press unless there's a reason to. And you have to give them those reasons.

Most people don't know all this and consequently, it's hard to explain how much time and effort go into making a good marketing plan and getting the book out there into people's consciousness. It's frustrating occasionally to talk with those who think that I must now have loads of free time, now that my book is finished. Well, the writing's finished, but there's still a ton of work to be done.

And I'm one of the lucky ones. My publisher and I will be working together on publicity, which is awesome.

And while the whole publicity/marketing/putting yourself out there thing is scary, it's also exciting. It's fun talking about my book. I'm proud of my story and the people (and aliens) in it. In fact, it's so much fun, it's kind of alarming -- do I need therapy or what? : )

After spending so much time focusing on the book, getting it finished, getting it finished right (a big distinction) and getting it published, it's very tempting to sit back and think only about the marketing. To think, whew, I'm done with that one, now all I have to do is get people to know about it. To imagine all the cool ways you're going to get people to notice it and buy it. But that in and of itself is scary. I've heard writing described as being like exercising a muscle. You have to do it every day. So, if you're concentrating on marketing your existing book, it seems to me that there's a good chance you're neglecting writing the next one. But in order for there to be a next book, you have to do a good job of selling the first one.

So, right now, I'm trying to finish up my marketing plan, while trying not to get so excited about it that I neglect my current project (which I can't name at this point because to talk about it destroys the urge to work on it...see previous blogs on quirks!) All the while, worrying about what it will be like sitting in a bookstore, hoping that people will come and that they'll be interested in something I say. Though, as anyone who knows me well will testify, I'll talk about anything to pretty much anyone, even if I'm nervous or scared (I'll just talk that much faster!) I can't stand conversation voids : )

But even with all this going on, this is so worth it. I love it. Even the scary, overwhelming moments. This is right for me. I only wish I had more time to devote myself to it. But like I said yesterday, doing this to pay the mortgage might make it significantly less enjoyable for me. I do well under pressure--I just don't like it.

So, that's it for now. I could promise a new blog for tomorrow, but I'm not sure that I'll actually get up enough oomph to pull the stupid long phone cord out at home. So, I'll say this...

Talk to you on Monday. (Or maybe sooner...)