I just got back from another short vacation to North Carolina. I got to see family at our annual reunion, relax, and even get some writing in. During that time I even managed to sell some books. That got me thinking about the difficulty in overcoming the fear of self-promotion as I just had to grapple with that, so here we are.
Drawing from the Well
As I mentioned above, I got some writing done this weekend, almost finishing this round on another arc. This brings us to:
Page 111/276
56,952/144,390 Words
Filling the Well
This week, I polished off two books which were both good. Where the Drowned Girls Go is the latest audiobook I could find in Seanan McGuire’s no long-running Wayward Children series. As with all the entries before it, it is exquisite. This was one of my more favorite books in this series because it followed on earlier books rather than branching into a different world. Then there was Under the Never Sky. This is a book that has been on my TBR for a very long time. It was good with unique world-building, so I’m listening to the sequel now. With those two, I’m ahead of the curve and almost halfway to the goal for the year!
49/105 for #ProjectBookworm2023
Well Chat
Self-promotion has a tendency to cripple authors. This includes Yours, Truly. It feels like shilling to ask people to buy your book. We authors all want people to buy them, we just tend to lack the confidence to ask. We’re used to sitting in the quiet of our writing caves and creating. Coming out into the light (hiss!) and asking people to buy what we created feels like begging. We’d rather crawl back into the cave.
There are some ways to push through that fear, though.
I don’t know them all, but I can tell you of a few ways I’ve seen success. The first of these was my book signing tour. It was only three signings, but it brought me almost all of my in-person sales which comprise about half of my total sales. Readers love to meet authors, even if they haven’t read their work before. People get excited for a signed book at an in-person event, especially after Covid quarantine. Engaging in online promotion and social media hype for these signings can help them be successful.
The other round of success I found happened this weekend. I have heard all over the internet of the effectiveness of giveaways. This weekend, I tried one. I put a book into a raffle. The proceeds went to continuing our annual family reunion, so I got no direct benefit from this. Mine was also the only book. The raffle went well and someone won my book.
Here’s the knock-on effect.
People physically saw my book. I was immediately asked if I had other copies, which, of course, I did. When I was signing that copy, someone else saw it and asked if it was for them. My answer, “No, but I can get you one.” Then I started asking people if they had seen my book. People got excited and wanted to dive in. That was NOT the reaction I expected. Once I felt the excitement, I leaned into it. It was a great experience.
There are definitely other ways to overcome the crippling fear of self-promotion, but these are two I’ve done and found success. What are you doing to overcome your fears and find success?
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG