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Saturday, June 18, 2016

Marketing Yourself

Marketing Yourself is just as important as Marketing your Work.

When I first decided to go public with my work, I was terrified. I was more afraid of no response than negative response….although I wouldn't want people hating me either. I had to fight that lovely little voice in my brain that says: ‘You are not good enough.' ‘You are stupid.' ‘Who wants to read your drivel.' That nasty, picky, negative, self-doubting bastard, that never goes away. So I really wanted to put my work out and not tell anyone.

Makes sense right! Not at all. How are people supposed to know who I am and/or buy my work if they don't know I am writing?

I one day decided that my life was worth more than sitting around and getting wrinkly, and I took the plunge. When I did, I was shocked and elated by the outpouring of support from my friends and family. Most of them didn't even know that I was a writer. Whether they thought my work was top notch or not was beyond the point. Their enthusiasm and joy for me was enough to bolster me into taking a next leap of faith and hit the public eye.

This was the next fearful step. Now I was open to unbiased general public opinions, which we all know can be cruel. However, I have found that the writing community are very supportive of each other. Even if something I write is grammatically incorrect, there were decent people out there that took the time to communicate with me privately and say hey you have a problem. They assisted me in learning and changing. Now I have new friends, an editor, and even a mentor. For those of you that do not know me, I have only been doing the public forum since Jan 2016.

The point is that I have a few followers that read my work regularly, not because I am an awesome author but because they have gotten know me and want to support me, or give advice, or read my next little adventure. I return the favor as well, I started leaving reviews, check out my Google+ page, of all the new authors I have met. I support their work and help advertise it by sharing. So others may purchase their books too. The Indie marketplace is so vast nowadays, how would you know where to begin - this is where!

So Marketing who you are as a real person is very important. Don’t be shy, get out there and meet people and join forces, like they say, “Two heads are better than one.” And I sure do have more than two heads assisting me now. Although I don't have a lot published yet, I send out stories to magazines and contests. I am working on an Anthology with fellow Indies. Which if you want to be a part of, the details are on my Google+ page. My first Novel is in editing, so I am constantly writing and hopefully improving.

Thank you to all my “followers/helpers” without you, even this simple blog would not be.


Happy writing, Theresa.

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