Promoting Your Book - Part One
Rather than have you all think I am simply terribly slack and leave it like that, I’d like to explain just why I have been posting at less than my usual frequency (apart from the usual ‘life got in the way’ reasons).
While I would rather leave the subject of author promotions alone – at least for the time being – the reality of publishing a book in today’s world means you are more likely than not going to have to tell a publishing authority (agent, editor, etc) what you plan to personally do to market your book.
Oh, but won’t the publishing company take care of that? Maybe.
You might get your publisher to send out review copies to people, but you will probably need to find those people, which means time. Then again, the publisher may just send the books to you to send out, which means money on top of time. To find people who are going to have a good influence and number of readers, you’ll have to do research, which means work as well as money as well as even more time.
If you are still wondering why your publisher won’t simply do this all for you, then you need to realize that even after you are taken on as an author, you’re still not quite as special as you think in their eyes.
Unless you become a bestseller, but that comes after promotion.
When you are looking around for agents and publishers, what you are willing to do to promote your book. You might say, “Well, anything! I’ll do anything to get the word out about my book.”
That’s all fine and well in theory, but you need to think about what you actually have the time, money and patience to do.
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