If you are a new author, there is plenty of advice available on: how to get published, how to ePublish, how to write letters to agents…the most overlooked piece is the number one problem for new authors…”how to hang on.”
So you’ve written your first book (ebook, hardcover, paperback…a book is a book) and now you have published, by whatever means available to you. Your book is out there and you’ve sold 1 copy…2 copies…10 copies…and then nothing. What happened? What is the next step? You think hard…you tweet it. Surely your “followers” will want your book. You blog it. You put it on your facebook page…and still nothing.
Take a breath. Look at your strategy. Who is your target audience? Do they even know you wrote a book? Have you reached out to them? If it didn’t work, what has to change? If you believe in your work, do NOT let go of your dream. Letting go is the easiest way out of the market and it is the quickest way to insure that you will have a hard time breaking back into the market.
Look at your strategy, something might have to change there, but throwing in the towel will not help you be a successful author. Do not sabotage your potential success. It is difficult to “hang on.” You are out there, exposed, people can see the numbers, they know…and so what. Every author started with one sale…and a hunger for more. Rome was not built in a day and neither is your audience. One person, one sale, one spark will light the flame. Be patient, not complacent, make changes when necessary, most importantly – don’t give up…hang on…it will be worth it.
Writing a book is a lot easier (and it’s not easy!) than the extraordinary amount of time, energy and money you MUST consistently and strategically invest to make sure readers find you and tell others about you.
My second non-fiction book is out in three weeks from Portfolio and the very day I turned in the manuscript, I started working on events, promotion, speaking engagements. I’ve been blogging for more than two years and also promote it on FB and LinkedIn.
Every single day — literally — I look for a place, on-line and in my own set of real-world communities — to find someone else who might get as excited about it as I am and help me to spread the word. Yesterday, for example, I asked the owner of our local coffee shop if I could hold an event there — she immediately said yes and will spread the word to her 1,000 FB fans. Cha-ching! I cold-called a local school catering to foreign students learning English and they are also interested. I went to my local frame shop, left them a copy of the book and a pile of postcards for it. They’re psyched to see a faithful customer and local author succeed.
Your book is competing with 1,000s of others every single day for limited attention. If you don’t work your hardest for it, who will?
http://malledthebook.com/
I agree. I recently read in a book about self publishing that in order to be succesful, you may have to contact as many as 600 websites/radio stations/newspapers/etc in order to generate even a modest level of sales. Hang in there.
Thanks for the encouragement! I just finished my first book and will be looking to publish soon. I know the hard part is in front of me, and I have to embrace it!