To Market, To market. . .

Marketing is not my profession nor preference. In the good old days, I sent a manuscript to the publisher who had given me a contractor, and basically they did everything else. (Course they didn’t always sell a lot of books!)

Things have changed.  The fun stage of writing and editing (yes I enjoy that part) , and seeing the proofed copy on line are over.  Now I’m in the difficult stage — between writing and selling. It’s called marketing, and in this day, the author carries a lot of that responsibility.

So for the last few weeks I’ve been trying to figure out a marketing plan that would produce results right away!  Since Daughters of Deliverance will come out on December 1, just in time for  Christmas  shopping, it’s the ideal season. The problem is that there are just too many options–many options– which require knowledge and experience using social media. Here’s what I mean:

Launch party–for real, with snacks and door prizes

• Facebook launch party–online, no snacks 🙂 but free books
• Blog
• Book blog tour
• Online book club
• Email
• Getting Reviews
• Flyers produced and printed for handouts
• Bookstore connections
• Video interviews
• Twitter
• Goodreads
• and more!

What’s most important — and what’s least productive? For your good advice,  I’ll send you a free copy of my biographical  fiction based on the life of Katharine Bushnell, MD,  advocate for women caught in white slavery in the 19th century.  Watch for Daughters of Deliverance coming out December 1.

Hope you like my creative formatting. The list was supposed to be in a straight line after dots, but I rather fancy WordPress’s design.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Password denied again!

Tonight I’m just warming up my blog with “writers’ bloc.”  Can you believe it took me forty-three minutes to think of a password complicated enough for WordPress to let me in? (They wouldn’t accept the one I designed last week.) Once I finished reading three websites on how to do it, all the ideas of writing about writing have left my mind.  Did you know that computers can roll through thousands of combinations of words and letters in the blink of an eye to figure out my secrets?  So why don’t I just use a password like Ilovelucy?

I’ve promised myself that I’ll write at least one blog a week– about anything that fancies my mind at ten fifteen at night.  Hopefully there’ll be more content — hopefully I won’t have been writing pages of password ideas first.

But I do still have one sharp, concise bit of information. My eleventh book, first historical novel and the product of almost ten years of serious research (I can write about serious things) will be coming out within six months. Can you wait that long? (I can’t!)

You’ll love this woman I’ve written about– a medical doctor, a writer, an advocate for women, courageous and persistent– investigating and exposing ‘trafficking’ in the 19th century.  Her name is Katharine Bushnell — Katie to me.

See you next week!