Each time a new month’s name shows up in my current calendar I get really excited.  That many fewer months to wait for the publication of my book.  So many of you have been really kind in sharing my excitement, asking about publishing progress, and saying you’ll buy a copy when it comes out. Thank you!

PUBLICITY CHALLENGE

First steps in self promotion

The challenge is in “prepping the market” for publication next June.  Yes, it’s still eleven months (which feels like an eternity), but in that time, it’s important for me to let as many people know as possible that this is coming, and to have the bravado that says “this is a book you’ll love to read.”

According to my publisher, here are some things an author can do to promote their book:

• Create and have a business card printed – done.  Yes, authors are responsible for this.  I have a little background in graphics, so that wasn’t too difficult to do.
• Launch a website – done. Thank you, Word Press, and all of the organizations that help people like me get a start.  I do not know HTML, JavaScript, CSS or Confuse-your-brains out with the abundance of other tech languages and tools. The open source organizations like WordPress, Blogger, Drupal, and Joomla  should receive some sort of United Nations commendation for empowering artisans and small business people to compete in a world of massive corporations.
• Attend Writers’ Conferences – Hello Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers — see you in September.  I would love to go to more conferences as this is such a win-win for me, but time and dollars are both short.  We’ll see …
• Stay in touch with your supporters as much as possible.  Do you like having this Monday to Friday posting?  I hope so.
• Get famous author or celebrities to review and put a blurb out that you can quote from.  I think this is called celebrity endorsement. Hmm … I live in Littleton, Colorado. I work in a small software community.  I ballroom dance, but not with any Hollywood Stars. I voted for the president, but somehow he’s missed my house in his visits to Colorado recently. Do you know any famous authors or celebrities I can claim as friends?  I’ll have to keep working on this one.
• Set up interviews with local newspaper columnists.  Okay. This is an idea that works. Now how?  I saw that Dacia Johnson, the YourHub community manager for my area of metropolitan Denver is at Starbucks, Aspen Grove each Wednesday.  All I have to do is go there, walk up to her and say … what? Guess “elevator speech” needs to be added to the list.

There are a bunch more ideas from the publisher, all fun, but all challenging.  Bottom line is, as an author for a smaller publisher these days, you need to be prepared to be part-marketer, part celebrity, and all enthusiastic to make a success of your book.  AND you need friends, lots of them, to help get the word out.

YOU WANT TO HELP?

I’m not sure exactly what a “successful author” has in terms of launch sales for a book.  I only have a vague notion of what a launch sale is, for goodness sake. But I realize that the success of Faith On The Rocks will have a lot to do with who knows about it, and buys it in the first month of sales (kind of like the “box office” numbers thrown out for first weeks of movies in theaters). You want to help?

Here are a couple ideas, in case you’re interested:

• Have friends who like cozy mysteries?  Please tell them about this blog.  The more people I get coming here, the better chance of having “enough” people know about the book when it comes out and pre-order order before actual publication date.
• Are you a blogger? If you like a post of mine, please link back to it from your posts.
• Have a book club in the Denver area?  I’d love to come and talk to your group about Daisy Arthur, first experiences in publishing or general writing topics.  Please contact me using my contact page on this website.
• Share your own thoughts and ideas with me.  Even after subscribing to Writer’s Digest for more than 30 years, and in spite of have a bookcase full of “how-to” books for writers, I feel like a newbie.  Anything you can share will be appreciated.

Meanwhile, it’s back to reality for me.  A writer writes, and I need to go do that.

Hoping you have a wonderful weekend of words.