For Make Believers – A Testimony
(Note: Because I couldn't get access to Wi-Fi Internet to save my life while I was in Chicago, this blog post was delayed…Better late than never, right?)
"I lift as I climb." - Congresswoman Dianne Watson
Staying true to my goal to share as I learn, I decided to pen a blog post on the eve of my first ever national book tour. (Actually, I wrote this yesterday, but was running around doing last-minute errands, i.e. buying a white blouse from Ross that I probably won't get a chance to wear, because it's so cold back East. In fact, as I type this now, I'm on a Southwest Airlines flight somewhere over Arizona, heading to Chicago. )
Anyway…What was I saying?
On the eve of my tour, I decided to pen this blog to offer some words of advice and straight up information to you, my fellow and sister authors who are dreaming of or are working toward one day being a published author.
I haven't taken a poll or anything, but I'm betting if you're anything like me, you're not working with a stockpile of seed money. But keep hope alive, my friends!
This past February, when I set up my account with the Amazon.com owned, publish-on-demand company, CreateSpace, I printed the first proof of Address: House of Corrections with a budget of less than $60 dollars.
Then, a mere 48 hours after I reviewed it, corrected errors on the PDF file and e-mailed it back, I was published and selling to a national and international audience on Amazon.com.
From that point on, I feverishly marketed and promoted my novel on every social networking site I discovered - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Youtube, just to name a few.
At first – thanks to my family and friends – sales were fast and furious. Then, everything screeched to a stop and go trickle. I'm not ashamed to admit – I lost it for a minute. Like an addict, I couldn't stop checking my CreateSpace account for evaporating book sales and my self-esteem was plummeting almost as quickly as my dismal Amazon.com rating.
This just wasn't how it was supposed to happen. My novel was supposed to be flying off the cyber shelves. Instead, it was being buried alive by the hundreds, if not thousands of new books rushing through the Amazon.com pipeline every day.
Crushed, I had no choice but to work my plan. Posting quotes and excerpts on Facebook and Twitter. Hustling for radio and print interviews. Mailing copies I couldn't afford to spare to book reviewers and hoping for the best.
You see, I was on a mission. To sell books. Period. Because I had a plan: To go on a national book tour.
Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, D.C. and New York were the first cities to come to mind – for no other reason than I had family and friends in those places that I could stay with for free. I reached out to all of them and told them of my plan. And whenever they would ask me how I was going to do it, I would calmly answer, "I have no idea."
Because I didn't.
All I knew was that I wasn't going to become a New York Times best-selling author and Oprah's Book Club Choice by hiding behind my computer. I had to get out there. Face to face. Hand to hand. With the people.
Don't get me wrong – I love social networking. An introverted person by nature, I wouldn't have gotten as far with Address: House of Corrections as I have without it. But the real deal, fam? Despite all of this "communicating" that we do online every second and hour of the day, I've learned that folks will respond best to good old human contact.
But how do you make contact with people, Monice, when you have no money?
You go to them. Wheresomeever they might be.
I'm serious. I've done readings/signings at beauty parlors, restaurants and friends' homes – basically just about any place people would let me. And without fail, whenever I'm in front of folks reading my novel, they buy a book or books from me.
Why? Well, it could be my fantastic delivery. But I believe it's what I now know to be true – Humans are social creatures and we, for the most part, like to help each other. Especially if it means we can be a part of something special and unique.
That got my artistpreneur wheels turning. What if I built a book tour up from scratch this way? In essence – for my filmmaking brothers and sisters reading – how could I fourwall my book across the country with other entrepreneurs in brick and mortar book stores, art galleries, boutiques, restaurants and homes?
Intrigued and quite frankly, ignorant about how much work it would take to pull it off, I devised a plan that I'm more than happy to share with you…in my next blog. My computer is about to run out of battery power. LOL!
Hope this helps and stay tuned!
living by my pen,
monice
* For individual coaching, click below – http://addresshouseofcorrections.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/living_by_my_pen_ad.jpg
