MY GOODNESS, WHERE DOES THE TIME GO?
Priorities, right? There are only so many hours in a day, and when that day runs out, some things fall by the wayside. I’m afraid blogging is one of those things.
If someone can solve the “time” problem I’m all ears.
Today we’re going to talk about promoting your writing career….if you have one, of course.
But first, the quote of the day.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Without promotion, something terrible happens… nothing!” P. T. Barnum
LESSON OF THE DAY
Writing is an introverted activity/pursuit.
Promotion is an extroverted activity/pursuit.
Therein lies the problem for a great many, dare I say majority, of writers.
Myself included.
I hate to promote myself. In a perfect world I could sit in my writing studio and crank out words until the cows come home and never once face the buying public, and while doing my imitation of an ostrich my books would sell like proverbial hotcakes.
Sigh! Now back to reality.
I hate it, but if I have any visions of ever being more than house-bound recluse with books no one has ever read, then I must promote
Here is my five-step promotion formula. Use it if you find it helpful.
- Plan……if you don’t have a sound marketing plan, there is no better time than now to write one up. If you don’t know how to write a business plan, now is the time to do some research on that matter.
- Start local….forget about going national if you are an indie writer. You’ll have your hands full just handling your local scene with local newspapers, local magazines, bookstores, libraries, book clubs, etc.
- Build a buzz about your product…..blogging, social media, books clubs, etc.
- Widen your reach….from local to regional to national. The only limits you have are the ones you set on yourself.
- Be consistent…..for every three hours you set aside to write, one hour should be devoted to promotion. Set a schedule for promotion as well as writing and stick to it.
I’ll talk more about all of this next week. In the meantime…..
Get busy!
WHAT AM I DOING LATELY?
I’m glad you asked. I’m at the 20,000 word mark on my new Shadow novel, “Shadows Over A Hangman’s Noose.” It’s going well. I hate to predict a completion date because so much can affect that date, but I see no reason why I can’t finish by November…..heck, maybe I’ll get energetic and publish it on my birthday in October, a gift for myself.
Or not!
A COUPLE SITES TO CONSIDER
While we’re on the topic of promotion, check out the following:
Eventbrite.com……use this site to send customer e-mail invitations and a promotional event like a book signing.
Zvents.com…..list your event and it will be distributed across the site’s media network.
Meetup.com….a great place to find special interest groups by location and topic….for future speaking engagements.
Speakerfile.com….also a great place for authors and topic experts to promote.
A QUICK SHARE
Let me share the opening two lines from a poem called “Breathing Lessons” by one of my favorite poets, Audrey Howitt….
“The dead must breathe sometimes,
inhale their memories”
MORE NEXT WEEK
I just think that is brilliant writing. How about you?
I wish for you a very successful week of writing. I wish the same for me.
Bill
“Helping writers to spread their wings and fly.” #greatestunknownauthor
Billybuc
Artistry With Words 
Aw, wish you a wonderful and successful week of writing. We are trying to enjoy the last week of summer vacation as my girls go back to school next week. So writing will be on minimum for a few days to enjoy the licks here, but had to stop by still and again wish you a great rest of this day now!! 😉
I appreciate you taking the time to stop by, Janine. Enjoy that time with your girls.
Writing has been substituted with child minding these past few weeks due to school holidays. Not sure which is more difficult but the weather has been gorgeous and so has the sea temperature so a good time has been had by all. Sometimes you just have to forget about productivity:)
Sally, I’m so happy to hear you are having a glorious summer. Carry on, my friend, and thank you for spending some time with me.
The past week was settling in as my kid went back to school. Still settling to the new routine and glad to read the above from you too.
I loved the pointers from you with regards to starting small…point noted 🙂
Although I am also an introvert with regards to showcasing my work et. al. 😦
Have a good week and good to hear from you, Bill
Good to hear from you as well, my friend. We introverts really need to find a way to break out of our jail…..sigh….oh well, we do love to write, don’t we, so there is no losing on this journey.
Some excellent advice here. Promotion, promotion, promotion – make it a ritual.
I am more diligent about promoting others, than myself.
Mike, you are great at promoting others. I get it, truly. Sadly, you are an excellent writer, and I want millions to know your name.
So helpful Bill! I am terrible at promotion. But–I am trying to get better at it! So a 1 to 3 ratio??? That sounds like a lot of promotion!
Audrey, it takes a lot of promotion to become known, and with your talent, it would be a shame if you were not known.
Promotion. Heh heh heh. I’m so good at it, I’m a bazillionaire! You just didn’t know it because, BECAUSE…wait…we’re not talking about the introverted aspects of writing and how I could also just do that all day?
I have the business sense of…a donkey. And unless they have some secret power that I have yet to discover, I have a feeling I’ma gonna be hee-hawing til the cows come home.
Good thing I like to write. I may vary the form (article, journaling, research, blog post, hub article, maybe even a book) but it is my DNA.
Hee haw.
Hee haw.
Hee haw.
Lil Sis, you are the queen of introverts. LOL Are you sure we aren’t related somehow? LOL Seriously, you and I are so much alike it’s scary…except you don’t have the self-destructive gene I have…thank goodness.
hugs Lil Sis, and thanks!
Both adopted, both work(ed) in education, both like to write, both like a simple pace of life, both are introverts…
Yeah, I’d say there’s a good reason I call you Big Bro. 🙂
Pretty weird, really, Lil Sis! A nice kind of weird.
Excuse me Bill, but I am coughing and laughing from the comment just before mine. Good one Cynthia! Promotion is a difficult chore, but if we do not want to be lonely, it must be done…and correctly. So have any of you bought one of my books lately? Greg Boudonck on Amazon. And while you are there, buy some of Bill’s too. That’s William Holland on Amazon.
Thanks for the great tips my friend.
You had me laughing at the end, Greg…nice touch, my self-promoting guru! LOL
Good post, Bill. I think I’ll wait until I have something to promote. And before you say another word, I am working on stuff. lol Have a great day.
Zulma, me? I wasn’t going to say a word. Daddy didn’t raise an idiot! LOL
Good lad. 😀
Thank you for yet another great post. I will keep in mind the three hours writing to one promoting. It will force you to set priorities. I can’t believe tomorrow is September. Yes, where does the time go?
Thanks a ton, Dee, for stopping by. Next we’ll start hearing about Christmas. LOL
Bill
‘Workin on it’ It’s not that easy for us ‘extroverts’ either!
I know it isn’t, Lawrence. Carry on my friend, and thanks
Oh wow, Bill, you are really preaching to the choir here. But first can I just say this? Thank you for this site and please don’t ever stop writing here LOL.
I never thought of it that way… writing/introvert, marketing/extrovert. HA! That makes so much sense now… why it’s so hard, why I put it off. Ding ding ding. Shucks, being an introvert is awesome for writing, not so much for putting yourself out there, hey?
“Be consistent…..for every three hours you set aside to write, one hour should be devoted to promotion.” So often, I’ve only put 5-10 minutes aside a week or whatever if there’s time. Thank you for this. It puts a whole new light on this.
Time to do some marketing planning today for the week then!
Meetup.com. Huh… we have that here too I think. I’ve gone on the site once or twice; could be worth checking out a bit more.
Hope you’re having a great weekend my friend! Spring is here and so is end of year stress. But so we march on. At least December holidays are around the corner. Have a great Sunday 🙂
Hey Mel! Thanks for the visit. We introverts have to stick together. Who else is going to understand us? LOL Seriously, marketing is very, very hard for me. I do not like to talk about myself or my work. And then I sit and wonder why my sales are so low. LOL
Happy Sunday my friend!
I love Audrey’s opening lines. They make the reader want to move forward. As you say, grab the reader in the first ten seconds or you’re dead in the water.
Excellent advise regarding promotion, Bill. I know first hand, that lack of promotion/marketing makes for a very broke writer who’s forced back into Work Central.
I’m looking forward to the third in the Shadows series. I own the first two and enjoyed them both.
Thank you so much, Sha! I’ll try not to let you down with the next Shadow novel. I can tell you that there is going to be a very interesting development in this one that you won’t want to miss.
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Thanks for the tip, but I purposely don’t monetize this blog and I like it that way.