Rick Soper's Blog - Posts Tagged "self-publishing"
Confidence!
Recently a member of Goodreads made a comment about me not being very humble in my review of my book The Bainbridge Killings. My response was basically "If you can't be confident in your own books then how can you convince anyone else to read them". Now some people might look at that comment as a being maybe a little over confident, verging on arrogant, or possible egotistical, and they might be a little right about that. I mean you really have to have an ego to believe that your writing is something that people are going to want to read. And if you want to get your book read as an independent author your going to have to promote the hell out of yourself. There might have been a time when writers could take the JD Salinger rout and hide away from the world while their publisher and critics promoted their works for them, but in todays world where anyone can get out there and self publish their books, and there are literally millions of options for readers, you need to do whatever you can to stand up and out from the crowd.
You need to ask people to read your books!
I've read a lot of information from independent authors about being on Twitter, or Goodreads, or Facebook, and having your own website and all that, but too many of them skip around the simple fact that you need to ask people to read your books. You can say all you want about I like this, I think this, or anything else you want to talk about, but don't miss the fact that you need to say, "I wrote this books and I think It's great and you should read it!". There might be some people who'll call you arrogant for asking, but there are going to be a lot more that simply say, "Sure, I'll check it out". Or at least you hope they do.
In my profession as a Financial Consultant I've had to sit through way too many sales seminars, and the common theme to all of them was one simple idea, make sure you ask your potential client to buy your product. There are too many people that get caught up in the details of the product, talking endlessly about the benefits and wonderful components of a product without ever asking anyone to buy it.
If you didn't believe in your book you never would have published it. You can't just throw it out there and expect people to just find it. You need to step out from behind it, say hi to the world, and scream from the mountaintops, my book is great and you should buy it. Goodreads gives authors the ability to review their own books and you should. You should give it five stars and tell everyone why it's a book they should be reading because you need to show that your confidently behind your own book. It's not lack of humility, or complete arrogance, in a publishing world where thousands of titles are coming out constantly, it's just plain common sense.
You need to ask people to read your books!
I've read a lot of information from independent authors about being on Twitter, or Goodreads, or Facebook, and having your own website and all that, but too many of them skip around the simple fact that you need to ask people to read your books. You can say all you want about I like this, I think this, or anything else you want to talk about, but don't miss the fact that you need to say, "I wrote this books and I think It's great and you should read it!". There might be some people who'll call you arrogant for asking, but there are going to be a lot more that simply say, "Sure, I'll check it out". Or at least you hope they do.
In my profession as a Financial Consultant I've had to sit through way too many sales seminars, and the common theme to all of them was one simple idea, make sure you ask your potential client to buy your product. There are too many people that get caught up in the details of the product, talking endlessly about the benefits and wonderful components of a product without ever asking anyone to buy it.
If you didn't believe in your book you never would have published it. You can't just throw it out there and expect people to just find it. You need to step out from behind it, say hi to the world, and scream from the mountaintops, my book is great and you should buy it. Goodreads gives authors the ability to review their own books and you should. You should give it five stars and tell everyone why it's a book they should be reading because you need to show that your confidently behind your own book. It's not lack of humility, or complete arrogance, in a publishing world where thousands of titles are coming out constantly, it's just plain common sense.
