Marketing is WAY Harder Than Writing

It's funny.  You figure, Wow! my book is done.  The hard part is over!  Not so fast, kemosabe.  Now that the book is done, revised, edited and ready to go, the fun really starts.

My first book was a collection of short stories called DARK GLASSES and Other Tales.  No, it has nothing to do with Ray-Bans.  DG consists of 7 short stories (technically, it's 4 short stories, 2 novelettes, and a novella, but for simplicity's sake, we'll call them all short stories).  The first 6 are horror stories,while #7 is a humorous (well, I think so, anyway) story about a bus trip I took in 1980 from Providence, RI to Barbourville, KY.  Actually, it's not about the whole trip, just the segment between Washington, DC and Buttcrack, VA, but I digress.

I finished the book (on CreateSpace, since I couldn't afford any of the packages from 2 or 3 vanity publishers I checked out.  They don't call them "vanity publishers" anymore, do they?  Now they're "self-publishing" companies; same thing, different name.)  Anyway, I couldn't afford packages, so I used CS, which is pretty cool except for the fact that they don't do hardcover.  No, that's not right.  If I remember correctly, you can do a hardcover, but it's pretty pricey.  So I finish my book, revise it, edit it (all myself, since I couldn't afford to pay someone for that, either) and order a copy.  So now I'm sitting at my kitchen table, book in hand thinking "Now what?".  The simple, one-word answer:  Marketing.

I started reading stuff on line, I borrowed a couple of books from the library and, Guess what?  Marketing costs a lot of money, too.  Now I'm sure there are cheap ways to market and I'm still looking.  My first idea was to go to Vistaprint and make up a post card to send to all the public libraries in Rhode Island.  There are over 70!  By the way, I live in RI; I didn't just choose it randomly.  But, you probably already guessed that, didn't you?  Anyway, I buy the postcards (on sale for $12.50 or so), find a listing of all the library branches online and print up a set of labels, and buy stamps (about $22).  So I'm into this thing for about $35.  I mail my postcards and, lo and behold, I sold 2 right away to my in-town library.  WooHoo!  This is easy, I thought.  Um, no it's not.  I sold a grand total of 2 more.  My royalties?  $1.16.  So, at the moment, I'm at NEGATIVE $33 and change, plus what I paid for proof copies and a final copy.

So now I'm reading some more marketing books and trying to figure out my next move.  All in all, by degree of difficulty, I'd say the actual writing of the book is down on the list after editing, revising, and marketing.  Of course it is.  Writing is the fun part....Until next time......