Guest blogger TD Jones asks, "Do you ever want to just give up on promoting?"
As I sat here and try and think up other ways to promote my books, I let out a loud sigh. I love the writing world and hope to do it for a very long time but promoting is one of the least favorite things I like to do. Now don’t me wrong, I love hearing from readers and doing the whole meet and greet, but there comes a time I wonder when will I just get to write my stories and not think about promoting one or all of them.
I wondered what past writers did before the internet was around. How did they promote? I get the feeling that promoting wasn’t so much on their mind as creating a great story was. There was no Facebook, Twitter or blogging or even Pinterest. Their books sold by word of mouth. If someone liked a book then they told someone else and so forth. There was no ordering on line, you had to actually get up and go to a bookstore and picked up your favorite author’s books. And is it just me or did authors back then have a better chance at being a full time writer than we do now days. I find it funny with all the social networking advantages we have, we really aren’t getting to live the dream of a writer’s life like the authors before us.
I’m trying to find that balance between working full time, writing in the evening and promoting, but I just feel like something is getting short changed. I think back to two years ago when I first got that e-mail about my book Hot Days being contracted and how I felt. At that moment all I wanted to do was write. Now five books later that is still my dream…just to write. So that’s what I will do. I will promote when I can, but writing stories has always been my dream and it will always stay my dream.
Never let your dream become second best. Without the dream you have nothing to promote!
Check out this author’s latest novel, Wrangled Hearts. Learn more about her at this website or her blog.
I'm pretty sure we all write because that is the thing we want to do most of all. But then we want our work to have an audience. I completely understand how you feel and admit that sometimes the promotional side of things gets me down - especially when there is often little to show for all the effort.
ReplyDeleteWhen it gets like that I regroup to what matters most - writing. The act of creating something new reminds what it's all about. The finished works are out there for people to find and they'll still be there whether I promote them or not. Writing a new piece reinvigorates my sense of purpose and gets the juices flowing again.
I'm in the same quandary. I've got involved with so many groups that I have left myself with virtually no time for writing at all.
ReplyDeleteI'm in the same quandary. I've got involved with so many groups, I have left myself with virtually no time to write at all.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post:) I feel off-late authors are lucky, when compared to earlier people:) As you said, it was only the ‘word of mouth’ was the promoting strategy. I cant imagine World without internet.
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