Increasing my audience

Having got a few copies of Footprints through the post the other day I posted an image on my personal Facebook page and suddenly had a few enquiries if they could buy a copy from me. It’s quite interesting as I had just relied on the fact that the Internet was the be all and end all of this world. Perhaps I’m just used to the”digital age” and I have forgotten that there is an audience out there that I have completely overlooked.

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/171916-footprints-on-the-other-side

Being inspired by the local town (Kimberley, Nottingham) I have overlooked the chance to engage with the local audience who may not necessarily grace Facebook and other social media. So I am taking some advertising to a smaller level. Thankfully I have family that own a quite well renowned local store and they have kindly agreed to host a poster and sell copies from the shop. Already I have people waiting for copies and even if it’s only adding another handful of readers I see it that everyone knows someone and they can spread the word.

Of course my GoodReads Giveaway is still running until the end of the month so there are three other potential audience members who get to taste my imagination (and hopefully like it) – you can enter the Giveaway HERE. It may be slow going but it is going none the less. It’s easy to automatically feel disheartened that your book isn’t propelling itself off the shelves but in the end why should it? Who am I? Nobody really knows who I am and so the work of writing the book may have been hard, getting it to be realised, recognised and appreciated is a whole different game entirely.

On the plus side no matter what this whole enterprise has encouraged me to restart my writing. As I alluded to in an earlier post I have once again begun writing at length and the next episode in the Jack James stories is well under way but still requires a helluva lot of work to say the least.

My trusted kit for the gym – my guide book, my workout diary and me!

This morning (at ridiculously early 0520 before my shift at work) I was throwing the dumbbells around the gym when I realised that my book publishing is like my fitness. Most of the time it is just me that can appreciate exactly how much hard work and graft I put into it but that hasn’t stopped me from going and working like hell for the last four years. Writing is the same, over time people have realised how hard I do work and often ask me for advice. The book is the same – a handful of people are interested and that in itself is motivation enough to be there, to do what I do and share what I have achieved.

I suppose it’s a check in post that reminds me to keep doing what I do. So far nobody has sad “you really are being ridiculous” and hopefully they never will!