This is our book, this is the book that is causing a lot of strife and controversy amongst authors and indie authors a like. We have been trying to learn all the ways of marketing and promoting by following others and seeing if what they are doing will work for us. Some ideas I haven't taken to becuase it just didn't feel right. Now this latest venture I had done due to a book titled, "How to increase Sales without flooding networks!" Well, heck, I thought, why not try it! obviosly me being all over the facebook, twitter, blogspot and Wordpress amongst others hasn't done much of anything for us. I decided to give this a try. One plan in particular seemed promising. Some seemed far fetched and frankly not a very good idea. But I figured, "hey even a broken clock is right twice a day" So I gave it a shot. Now all this controversy of whether it was against the rules of Amazon or not. Whether its considered "tacky" or not. On and on and on!
I have sort of complained about this before, we are supposed to be indie authors and publish how works best for us. Well as of yet, I haven't figured out the secret to that golden ticket of author stardom. We are trying the best we can with what we have. This week has been especially trying in the book sales and trying to just keep up with everything and some of the hardships we are going through. I am getting stubborn and bull headed about this and will find a way to make all this work. I know I don't have a formal education in it or even much of a practical one yet. But I am working on it. I am learning what to do and what not to do. Some lessons are going to be hard, I accept that. But don't burn me due to an honest mistake.
I have helped a lot of people on my journey just as a lot of people have helped me too. Some don't understand why I help out so many for nothing in return. I have done author interviews and they couldn't understand why I did it for nothing. Because I am also trying to get our name out there too! silly! So anyway, that is our plan. Not much of one a this point. We keep getting told to put our books out where our customers will see it. well, yeah, but where is that exactly? what sites? Does it cost money? Can I do it for free? Am I going to get into trouble for posting our book on that site or that blog or that tweet? I have tried gorrilla marketing, nothing, I have tried getting us in the local paper, nothing, I have tried doing interviews with other authors, nothing, I have tried us doing interviews with bloggers and radio show hosts. again and still nothing. I have helped others with their marketing to other facebook sites and tweets. I have gone to Amazon and liked, shared, tweeted and downloaded books. I have written reviews. Mostly without a mention of our book, only the last few a mention of our book. still nothing. We are pretty steady at 4 to 6 a month. People say word of mouth, well, I am running my mouth about our book, and others. I have mentioned to friends of mine about people's books on facebook that I think they would like. V.A.M.P.S Atl, is one example. Raymond Frazee's book is another example. I have helped in ways I never thought I would be helping others out. But still, not there yet.
We were told by the brick and mortar places that our story wasn't to their type or fit. One agent told us it was due to having werewolves, zombies and dragons in the story, plus being unknowns on top of it. Is this blog a gripe? Yes, I am tired and I am weary of struggling and trying. There is so much, so much stuff, I'm just tired I guess. I will close this rant for now. But still not happy with being shoved at the brick and mortar ways when they rejected us flat out. I just want to do whats right and make my son proud of our accomplishments. Of what we did together. Is there a positive to this? I don't know yet, unless its keep moving, keep working at it. Don't give up.
Wendy,
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain. As unknown authors it is extremely difficult to get the word out and it does seem to take forever. My wish for all of us is that it will be easier. I wrote my blog this morning about roots growing deeper during a drought and maybe that's what we're doing now...growing deep roots. I don't know but I know that essentially we're all just doing the best that we can...trying to get the word out...one book at a time.