Showing posts with label self publishing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label self publishing. Show all posts
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The Great Trampoline Act


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It occurred to me that being an indie writer is a lot like jumping on a trampoline. The highs are amazingly, but the lows are really low. Last week I was #71 in Kindle's Blog Section. It was a very random honor. My heroine Maddie is a part-time blogger, but the book isn't about blogging, but it was an honor none the less.  I was on a high. I was going places. But as of today, Tethered  and my great space opera masterpiece, The Specter of War, have not sold one copy in one in five whole days and the depression has begun to set in. I think I fell prey to the idea that I didn't need to do any real marketing, that the books would sell themselves, that they were such great reads that word of mouth would carry it all the way to the #1 spot on Kindle's best seller's list.

I love to watch We's Cupcake Girls because its about two women building their brand and their business and I realize that I have been doing neither. Yesterday, the girls did a "soft sale" on their new mancakes, a bacon cupcake that sounded like heaven to me, but the customers and staff didn't agree. One of the Cupcake Girls thought the problem was the "soft sale", that you had to go big or go home. I laughed because I realized that I was doing a no sale. You have to market to get your book to sale, it's just that simple, but my problem is that marketing isn't my favorite thing to do. No matter, it's a necessary evil and I'm going to do it. So, I decided to start with social media. My goal is raise the amount of friends that I have on Facebook and Twitter and to grow my email mailing list to start a buzz about my work and I want to start with everybody who visits my blogs.  So, please....

Visit my Under the Hill Blog here
Join my Facebookpage here
Join Under the Hill's Facebook here
Join me on Twitter here
Join my mailing list





For Email Marketing you can trust
See you in cyberspace!


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The Promise Land


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Robb Long/Associated Press
 I'm sure that most of you have heard by now the story of Amanda Hocking, self-publishing wunderkind who made 2 million dollars off her indie fantasy books.

It's every indie publisher's dream come true, finding fame and fortune on your own terms. But as exciting as Amanda's story is, we all need to calm down. Amanda is like one of those oil barons who stuck her drill in the ground and found black gold while others just managed to pick up dirt. In other words, she is the exception, not the norm.

When I first read the story my jaw dropped. I have always fantasized about walking into a book store and seeing my books on the shelves and have fought self-publishing, trying to no avail to go the mainstream route fueled by the thought that, "if your stuff was really any good a publishing house would buy it! " I was slow to warm up to self-publishing and it's benefits but there is no denying that with the slow death of book stores, ebook are the future.

 What I really think is important to take from Amanda's story is that writers write and find a way to share their stories. There are no more excuses for why you can't get your stuff out there. Sure, not every book is going to be a success, hell some won't even be as good as others, but what is important is that if you have that thing inside you, that fire that compels you to sit at the computer and tell the story that plays out in your head that you need to tell it and share it with others. If you keep writing some story will connect with people. You just have to keep at it. But it won't be easy. The fact that Amanda sold her new book series to St. Martin Press shows that even the most successful of e-book publishers feel overwhelmed by it. But she did it and changed her life and helped change the publishing industry as a whole. Now it's our turn.


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