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Sunday 20 January 2013

Promotion AFTER publication


I continue to plod away at the daunting task of marketing and self-promotion. As I go, I am compiling a list of blogs/bloggers and websites that have been supportive and helpful to me along the way, and I plan to share these here on the blog as a resource for other writers when I collect a few more.

My next major venture as part of the promotional journey of Mine to Avenge, is to sift through blogs and bloggers in an attempt to organize a blog tour. In terms of timing with respect to my own book, I am planning this much later than I should have, largely because I’d finished and published my book well before I knew anything about marketing and promotion and things such as blog tours. I was still getting my head around writing my own blog, let alone knowing what a blog tour was. A blog tour is best organized well before your book comes out.

I’m sure I’m not the first author to be in this predicament, and I’m sure I won’t be the last. I was about to say that learning marketing and promotion after the book is published is a bit like shutting the gate after the horse has bolted, but that isn’t really accurate, because if your situation is anything like mine, your ‘horse’ is probably still sitting inside the stable most of the time with the door open, but still needing a significant nudge to get out that door.

Mine to Avenge is occasionally popping out of the stable and showing itself off – I am getting a steady trickle of positive reviews and testimonials, as people are reading it. There are currently two people reading it on Goodreads, and there are some great reviews on that site as well as on Amazon, but it is going to take a lot of hard work and determination to catapult it further into the world.

I don’t believe all is lost if you are a writer in the same situation. I think you can still get your book out there, but it will require persistence and determination on your part, and the help of wonderful supporters like bloggers and avid readers. The challenge is to find them and use them, even if your ‘horse’ is like mine and a bit late out of the starting gate.

I’d love some reader feedback with this post. If you are a blogger keen to help self-pubs, let me know the services you offer in the comments section. If you have some experience with hosting blog tours or doing your own, let me know what kind of ‘stops’ work well. I have a list I’m working on which I will share in the next blog post. If you have a ‘horse’ still in the stable with an open gate, please share any helpful resources you have found.

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