How to Beg with Dignity

Leslie Esdaile Banks has recently done a blog about self-publishing over at Black Enterprise.com.  As I am also in the throes of promoting my own self-published book, I thought I'd look at each one of these steps and see how I compare to someone obviously more financially successful than I am.

I actually thought a bit this marketing even before I began writing my novel.  I didn't come up with a blasted thing as far as comprehensive strategies go, but I wonder a whole lot about how I was going to get people to buy my stuff.   My biggest problem was, and often still is, how to describe what I do to other people.  Back in the day, I'd just show somebody my work, say "check it out; see what you think" and let it go at that.  When you need a few thousand strangers to shell out good money for your stuff to make it worth your while, I'm not sure saying "Look, I don't even know what I just wrote but you should check it out anyway" is a sound marketing strategy.

All I'd really done was tell people back on my blog back on the late great MySpace that I was writing a novel and posting up chapters of the rough draft for a select few people to read and let it go at that.  This is when I learn a harsh, but valuable, lesson about putting up free reading material:  making something free to reading isn't often a guarantee that people can always afford it.  If you write lengthy material (and if any of you read my old blog, you'd know I can get serious long-winded), people may not just have the TIME.  And I've already gone on record as saying that my Latrina Emerson story is looking to be a long one.

So I haven't come up with a marketing strategy as much as adapted to the one that evolved around me.  I tried to stay in contact with people on a regular basis.  I comment on their pages whenever I can come with something remotely worthwhile to say.  I try to make my promos as interesting and frequent as possible and hope I don't annoy too many potential readers.  And I try to make sure my books are worth people's time and money.  I've also been fortunate enough to have friends help me with various aspects of getting my book in shape and getting the word out there.  I suppose that's the best I can do.

That and work on the next book.