The last time I took a class on being a publisher (which, if you're an indie writer, is another of your job titles, by necessity), was 4 years ago, which is forever in the world of book publishing these days. Changes are crashing down around our ears at a prodigious rate as the publishing industry struggles to find its feet in this new era.
But back to my point. Or rant. Whatever.
At that time, the writer/publisher -- a very successful one, by the way -- advised that one not go crazy trying to promote oneself, and certainly don't pay money to someone else to do it. One's book would find its readers, given time. Just get it out there, put a notice out on your website, on your media sites, and then let it go. Write the next book. Etc.
Skip ahead to the next marketing class I took, just a few weeks ago. Holy crap! Things have changed. How does anyone find the time to write anymore? Twitter? Facebook? Google Plus? Tumblr? LinkedIn? 2 dozen recommended blog sites to be read and commented on at least twice a week? And at the same time you have to post your own blogs, send out your own tweets, FB posts, and all your writer group sites, plus respond to all group e-mails and check the news on Publishers Lunch, Publishers Weekly, SFWA, Locus, or whatever forums your genre uses, and a dozen other writing-oriented news sources, all while re-connecting with your various writer buddies and contributing to your writers' groups e-mail chains. Plus check out your ratings on Amazon, Smashwords, and anywhere else you publish, play with your Author's page, track your sales, and experiment with your key words, count-down sales, give-aways, and anything else you can think of to elicit interest in the reading public.
I'm genuinely curious as to how others manage it, as they apparently do. I have 2 jobs -- 3 if you count writing -- plus my marriage, friends, family, etc., and the day-to-day minutia of life that simply has to get done (I can only live for so long with dust bunnies the size of rhinoceroses (rhinoceri?) in the corners and under furniture.
Still, in this highly competitive world, I guess the only way to tell if you're not doing enough is if you're not getting results. You're doing too much if you lose your job because of sleep deprivation and your relationships fall apart. So fitting it all in means staying somewhere in the middle, and hoping for the best. Time management is something most of us have trouble with; I know I do. So the question is, what do you give up in order to get more writing/marketing time, and how do you divide the time you scrape together?
But back to my point. Or rant. Whatever.
At that time, the writer/publisher -- a very successful one, by the way -- advised that one not go crazy trying to promote oneself, and certainly don't pay money to someone else to do it. One's book would find its readers, given time. Just get it out there, put a notice out on your website, on your media sites, and then let it go. Write the next book. Etc.
Skip ahead to the next marketing class I took, just a few weeks ago. Holy crap! Things have changed. How does anyone find the time to write anymore? Twitter? Facebook? Google Plus? Tumblr? LinkedIn? 2 dozen recommended blog sites to be read and commented on at least twice a week? And at the same time you have to post your own blogs, send out your own tweets, FB posts, and all your writer group sites, plus respond to all group e-mails and check the news on Publishers Lunch, Publishers Weekly, SFWA, Locus, or whatever forums your genre uses, and a dozen other writing-oriented news sources, all while re-connecting with your various writer buddies and contributing to your writers' groups e-mail chains. Plus check out your ratings on Amazon, Smashwords, and anywhere else you publish, play with your Author's page, track your sales, and experiment with your key words, count-down sales, give-aways, and anything else you can think of to elicit interest in the reading public.
I'm genuinely curious as to how others manage it, as they apparently do. I have 2 jobs -- 3 if you count writing -- plus my marriage, friends, family, etc., and the day-to-day minutia of life that simply has to get done (I can only live for so long with dust bunnies the size of rhinoceroses (rhinoceri?) in the corners and under furniture.
Still, in this highly competitive world, I guess the only way to tell if you're not doing enough is if you're not getting results. You're doing too much if you lose your job because of sleep deprivation and your relationships fall apart. So fitting it all in means staying somewhere in the middle, and hoping for the best. Time management is something most of us have trouble with; I know I do. So the question is, what do you give up in order to get more writing/marketing time, and how do you divide the time you scrape together?
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