Marketing

For the past week I have been trying to build up the Hobart Books' mailing list. It's not easy. Probably two thousand messages sent has resulted in about three hundred subscribers, well short of the numbers needed. Along the way, I am starting to follow people on Goodreads too.

It made me wonder how writers publicised their books in the days before the internet. Of course, there were far fewer writers and it was down to the publishers to spread the word but when you think about it, books were never really advertised on TV and rarely in papers or magazines.

I suppose readers went to book shops and just picked out something they liked.

Once you had established yourself as a writer, it was just a case of continuing to write good books, or, in the case of Margaret Mitchell who wrote 'Gone With The Wind', rest on your laurels and enjoy your wealth.