Wednesday 5 October 2011

What authors have to do today

Enjoyed a searching discussion with Sarah Dale today about how to create interest and sales in self published books.  Thank goodness we're not as reliant on mainstream publishers these days for allowing our work to find a wider audience.  There are so many options and so many avenues to go down that might bring you the right kind of readers.

What concerns us though is the sheer effort needed to create successful social media campaigns.  I salute Sarah for her determination for the way she's tackled it and for the network she's steadily building.  But as with all activities it seems to her one step forward, several back.  In the thick of it she doesn't have the distance to observe just how much she's achieved since last year when she and I first sat together and talked about her beginning to write the book.

What's important as well is that she's now starting to think about the second, and maybe third books.  At times she doubts her ability, well don't we all.  But the experience of going out to promote the book has created conversations with individuals that she'd only dreamed of in the past.

All the tactics do work and the difference between success and failure is not initial talent but the determination to keep going.  And as I pointed out to her, she's now exactly the kind of author a mainstream publisher will like.  Effective, proactive and committed.

For more about Sarah's book Keeping Your Spirits Up, check out her website http://www.creatingfocus.org/

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