How to Get Your Book Published in 7000 Easy Steps – A Practical Guide. Step 3: BEGIN TO CREATE BUZZ FOR YOUR BOOK

The next thing your publisher may or may not forward to you is a webinar or some other such thing about “buzzing” your book. (This seems relatively innocent, but it is actually your gateway into hell, otherwise known as marketing and promoting, so be alert!)

In my case, this thing sat in my inbox for several weeks before I gathered enough courage and carafes of coffee to sit down and watch it. It turns out that my apprehension was completely justified, as the webinar began to lay out just what would be necessary for my book to have even a speck of attention beyond that of my mom, a few of my siblings and a smattering of friends.

Included were uncomfortable concepts like:

Build a social platform with a website, a blog, an author FB page, an Amazon and Goodreads author page, as well as twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram accounts. (Oh, good. Nothing too hard, then.)
Look for readers, not writers, by promoting your other interests. It’s not all about the book, you know. (But does driving my kids to their after-school activities or exhaustedly plopping down in front of a BBC period drama each night with a glass of wine really count as genuine interests?)
Surf for websites, groups, forums or blogs that might review your book or promote you in some way. Look for ways you can exhibit your expertise in a certain area or be helpful to them. (Like…?)
Begin a relationship with local libraries and independent book stores. (By…?)
Form a “street crew” to go out and promote your book; crews in multiple cities preferred. (An actual group of people that wander about the streets talking about your book? Really? Why have I never witnessed such a thing?)

Plus 159 more.

It should be slowly dawning on you, darlings, that it is not enough for you to write a brilliant book. Oh, no. That hardly matters these days. It’s all about the marketing, you see, which no one mentioned when I sat down to write a book and which would have, in truth, given me pause.

Whether you are publishing with a hybrid, the big 5 or self-pubbing, the marketing hat is one you must regrettably put on. No use groaning about it to whoever might be listening or was kind enough to ask “How’s the book going?” (This might be a good place to add – right here in the beginning – that no one actually wants to hear you groan about anything related to getting your book published because, in their eyes, you’ve already reached the pinnacle, you’ve made it! Remember, they haven’t read Step 1. All complaining at this juncture will only be seen as so much sour grapes. Learn to suffer in silence. That’s what this guide is for. It’s our secret place to vent and have a nervous break-down.) So swallow your current, and possibly permanent, distaste for marketing, and let’s get on with it. Because – believe me – if I can do it, you can.

But if it turns out that you’re already somehow a pro at self-promotion and already have a stellar social media platform built, you can skip on ahead to Step 2,478 of this Guide. The rest of us will catch up with you there.

The post How to Get Your Book Published in 7000 Easy Steps – A Practical Guide.

Step 3: BEGIN TO CREATE BUZZ FOR YOUR BOOK appeared first on Michelle Cox.