When I'm busy elsewhere it seems like I just can't wait to get to work on my latest novel (Dying to Be Slim), but when I sit at the computer, there I go to Twitter, Facebook, my emails, my book sales.........anything but the manuscript!
How much time needs to go into marketing and social media these days to be successful? Well, although I have a degree in marketing, so much has changed in the last ten years with regard to selling books I sometimes feel like I have no idea anymore.
Publishers still use book wholesalers, book tours and good-old-fashioned TV/Radio/print marketing to drive sales, but publishers are increasingly more reluctant to take on new authors. That's understandable, and fortunately it's easier to publish your own work these days, so there are options for those of use who are inclined to self publish.
In my case, if I actually finish the novel I'm working on (maybe by the end of the next month) I won't be heartbroken if I can't find a publisher. I've got the same self-publishing avenues as other authors, and I've got a small back-list of previous books too.
The two previous publishers I used for Stealing from Bandits and Nevada's Golden Age of Gambling were sold and then subsequently went out of business. Certainly my modest sales couldn't keep the publishers in business. So be it.
On the plus side, the books reverted back to me and I've reissuing them on Create Space and Amazon Kindle - where I'll get a monthly deposit straight to my checking account without doing anything else. That's not too bad, except for ignoring my present manuscript to push the old works on Facebook, and Twitter, and on Goodreads, and .......wait, don't go away, I've got more!...........
Thanks for reading - Al W Moe
How much time needs to go into marketing and social media these days to be successful? Well, although I have a degree in marketing, so much has changed in the last ten years with regard to selling books I sometimes feel like I have no idea anymore.
Publishers still use book wholesalers, book tours and good-old-fashioned TV/Radio/print marketing to drive sales, but publishers are increasingly more reluctant to take on new authors. That's understandable, and fortunately it's easier to publish your own work these days, so there are options for those of use who are inclined to self publish.
In my case, if I actually finish the novel I'm working on (maybe by the end of the next month) I won't be heartbroken if I can't find a publisher. I've got the same self-publishing avenues as other authors, and I've got a small back-list of previous books too.
The two previous publishers I used for Stealing from Bandits and Nevada's Golden Age of Gambling were sold and then subsequently went out of business. Certainly my modest sales couldn't keep the publishers in business. So be it.
On the plus side, the books reverted back to me and I've reissuing them on Create Space and Amazon Kindle - where I'll get a monthly deposit straight to my checking account without doing anything else. That's not too bad, except for ignoring my present manuscript to push the old works on Facebook, and Twitter, and on Goodreads, and .......wait, don't go away, I've got more!...........
Thanks for reading - Al W Moe
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