I am terrible at naming things in books. I agonize for a long time until I come up with something passable. But this post isn’t about that. It’s about something I’m even worse at than naming things: Marketing/self-promotion.
Seriously. Trying to get myself and my book out there is hard. It takes a lot of time and effort, and it’s often expensive. Even worse–I’m thoroughly awful at it. Imagine diving into a lake to save a drowning puppy but, instead of helping, you accidentally drown the puppy instead. Also, you somehow set the lake on fire.
That’s about how skilled I am at self-promotion, except I can’t even find the lake in the first place. Part of this problem stems from avoidance. I’m a writer, not a marketer (dammit, Jim!), and not only are my feeble attempts bad, but there is a lot out there I just don’t know about. I don’t have a marketing budget, and my employer would really like it if I showed up for work five days a week.
But I’m getting my feet wet. I traditionally move slowly with endeavors like this, but I am dipping my toe in the water, even if there is a grimace on my face. Months ago, I signed up for a Mailchimp account but did nothing with it. I figure, maybe five people would care. However, now, I’m determined to make people care and will, at some point in the near future, start up a mailing list. And, trust me, it’s going to be pretty damned spiffy. Bee’s knees, cat’s pajama’s, giraffe’s…um…bar tab.
That’s the first step. I am making a concerted effort to seek out other avenues and get this thing going. I GUARANTEE THAT I WILL MAKE OPRAH NOTICE MY BOOK!!! 🙂 (Not a guarantee.)
seanrfrazier.com 