Feeling Rusty
I initially wrote Thunder and Blood in 2007. It took me two years to get the editing and everything else done, but it was published in April 2009. I took it off the shelves again about a year and a half later because I had decided to start a publishing company, and you can’t justify spending time promoting your own work when your job is to promote your authors.
Earlier this year, I had a few health issues, and I’ve had to give up the publishing company. At the same time, my hands–always a chronic pain issues–deteriorated dramatically to the point where I now do my writing and texting via dictation. I’ve discovered that my tablet is a wonderful tool that requires much less of my hands than a keyboard and mouse, so I’m slowly starting to move my daily work and writing over there.
This weekend, I finally reintroduced Thunder and Blood, starting with my own local market. The first day was super hard. I’m not used to promoting myself. In fact, it makes me feel distinctly uncomfortable. I had no issue convincing people to vote on a new cover for Thunder and Blood, but I seemed to get stuck before actually convincing anyone to buy the book. Yes, on Saturday I sold a single copy of my book.
It was incredibly discouraging. I went home, had a glass of wine, went to watch the Parade of Lights with my husband and son, took a bath and went to bed. I knew that I should have been looking at my approach and finding a better way of selling books, but I was too discouraged to even think about it.
The next morning, I kicked myself into gear and went on a search for my file of book reviews for Thunder and Blood. It took me over an hour to find the file, tucked behind a whole bunch of old tax documents. I know where all of the materials are for my authors, but myself? Nope.
However, despite the fact that I was mostly looking for the review in the Chronicle Journal, titled Good Book, Bad Cover, I found all of them. Looking through them reminded me of why people liked my book, and that people really had loved my book. I took a mental step back and looked at the situation. It was kind of foolish for me to take T&B off the shelves altogether. Any momentum it had gained fell away and it became an out-of-site, out-of-mind sort of situation. I couldn’t show up at a Gift Fair and expect people to jump all over a book that hadn’t been talked about for five years.
I’m still rusty at promoting myself, but I’m trying and I must be getting better, because I quadrupled my sales the next day–not anywhere near what I’d been hoping for the event, but anything was better than the day before. The highlight of my day came right after the doors opened and an older woman came over to me and told me how much she loved my book. She had purchased it when it was first released. It happened again later on, and a woman who had been given my book recently by a co-worker came over to tell me how much she enjoyed it.
It gave me a small taste of what that old momentum felt like. Maybe I’m not starting from the ground floor after all. Maybe I’m halfway up to the first floor. There are many floors ahead of me and I’m so excited for the journey.
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