It’s that time again, a time to reflect on how my
goals for the Five Year Project are working out. Thanks goes out to Meisha Gericke
for hosting this. If you’d like to have your own five year goals, you can sign
up here, and I highly recommend you do; this is a great group of very
supportive people.
My
goal: To have the Newstead Books be the next great American novels.
For me the writing has always been great; I live
and breathe it. If I’m not doing it at the moment, I’m thinking about when I
get to do it again. That’s how it’s been for me for the last almost four years.
I’m truly in-love with my characters and their stories, and I can’t wait to see
what happens to them. It’s almost like reading a book you can’t put down, only
the book hasn’t been written yet. That’s what the writing is for me.
The marketing, not so much.I’m not shy, I actually like being around people, but the idea of “pitching” something so very dear to me, so personal, is the opposite of what I described with the writing. I loathe it. I didn’t and don’t write for that. I hope people read my books and love them, and in fact (almost) nothing makes me happier than to find out someone has done just that, but for me, the marketing part of it seems like begging, and I don’t feel like begging. I want people on their own to pick up my books, read them, and love them, and in a world of millions of books, guess how often that’s happened?
So that pretty much sums up how I’ve been doing.
The writing is great; I’ve got four books out, am about ¾ of the way through
the first draft of Erron, ½ of the way through Bloodbrothers, and am about to
start Camp NaNo next month, so I hope that will give me the drive to get both
of those done. But the sales—they could be better.
How about you? How are your goals going? Hate
marketing as much as me?
Despite the fact I'm a speaker, I'm actually shy around people. I thought book signings would scare me. But once I began, something really kicked in and I came alive. People could be inspired by what I wrote. (Indeed, "Get inspired to achieve your dreams" was the slogan of my series.) The books could uplift and help them. When I looked at it that way, it was easier. I wasn't begging - I was sharing something positive.
ReplyDeleteI like marketing, which is good, because marketing is part of my day-job. The fact that most places available to market are no flooded with "BUY MY BOOK! IT'S SPECIAL." I don't like.
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time pitching my books, which is why I rarely mention them. Still haven't figured out what makes sales spike.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you! I'm horrible with marketing. But after pounding the pavement with my first book, I've come to realize it's all about building relationships. Introduce yourself to your local bookstores and librarians and, beyond that, don't worry about the other stuff. I worried FAR too much about holding events and getting into schools and, even when I did and the turnout was good, it maybe sold a few books if I was lucky. I did send my bookmarks to all the local libraries and schools in the hopes that maybe they'd hand them out...but did it really impact sales? I don't know. I just know walking into bookstores and pitching my book didn't seem to get me far!
ReplyDeleteYou took the words right out of my mouth....I think that's a Meatloaf song. But I'm in the same boat as you. Marketing sucks.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to turn this around: I hate people who market their books at me. What I do like, as a reader, is people who point out the sort of book I might enjoy and give me a quick 'hook' to spark some interest. And I like people who can talk in an engaging way about their book, including the parts they enjoyed writing and the difficult parts as well. Anyway, GOOD LUCK with your five year goal! and keep writing...
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