Note: Contest 1 closes midnight March 9th. Contest 2 closes on March 17th. Scroll down for more details.
Many writers don't enjoy the marketing and promoting side of the business of being an author. Myself, included.
Those first steps in the overall process - the writing - creating characters - coming up with a plot - finding the perfect setting - and then ending up with a finished novel - are the most satisfying. As Neil Gaiman, who writes the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book says, “Tomorrow may be hell, but today was a good writing day, and on the good writing days nothing else matters.”
Still, we have to promote if we want our books to rise in the rankings at Amazon - the giant retailer that controls so much when it comes to book sales and a force in the business that we can't ignore. There are millions and millions of books listed on Amazon and where does ours land in that mix? Unless an author is with a big publisher who does a ton of advertising and marketing while we happily write our next story, where we land is largely up to us.
Like some of my friends, that promotional part of the business of writing is my least favorite thing to do, and that becomes even harder when world events slam into my emotions. Every time something tragic happens, like 9/11, the Sandy Hook School Shooting, horrific weather events, it's like that awful news freezes me, unless I want to write about it and my reactions like I did for so many years when I was a newspaper columnist. I have a hard time writing anything else, let alone doing the marketing and promoting so necessary to keep a few shekels rolling in now and then in royalties.
This current situation with the war in Ukraine is no exception. The day the war started was the same day a contest I was sponsoring also started.
Even though my heart wasn't in it, I needed to share that everywhere on social media.
Even though I sat numbly looking at a blank computer screen, I needed to post information about it on my blog.
But I didn't want to do either one. How could I write a Tweet, a Facebook mention, or a blog post and ignore the elephant in the room? A Tweet from one of my Twitter friends asked a similar question, “How can I hawk my books while Ukraine is under attack?”
That was a telling question, as well as a tough one. Do we all put our lives and businesses on hold when something awful happens? Another friend responded, “No. If we all freeze in fear and dismay, Putin wins.”
So, the Monday after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, I roused from my sadness and dismay to let my life resume in a something close to normal fashion. First, I had lunch with a friend, something that had been put on hold for two years as we all dealt with COVID, and I started promoting a contest I've sponsored with 30 other authors of literary, historical, and women's novels.
The contest was organized by BookSweeps - a great site for promoting by the way - and runs until midnight March 9. Two lucky folks can win books, a copy from each of the authors sponsoring the contest; and the first place winner also gets a new Kindle Fire.
You can win my novel, Evelyn Evolving: A Story of Real Life, plus books from authors like Susan Slater and Nicole Evelina. All you have to do is follow the authors on Bookbub to be entered in the random drawing to win. Click here to enter.
The top two winners can receive either a signed paperback of my book, if they live in the U.S., or an e-book. Evelyn Evolving is available in paper, audio, and as an e-book and has been translated into French. Details can be found on the book page on my website.
Participation in that contest had been set up long before Putin made his cowardly move, as was the following one at The Kindle Book Review, so not promoting either contest would have been a waste of my advertising dollars.
Among the stories in the collection is "Maybe Someday" in which Samson wonders what is down the road that draws people. Maybe he should follow them someday. It won the Page Edwards Short Story Award. This book, too, is available in many formats, and has Spanish editions in paper, electronic and audio.
Writers, how do you balance the two sides of the business? Do you also struggle with writing and promoting when the world seems to be falling apart? What do you do to cope? Please do share in the comments. And let us all take a moment or two to remember what is happening in Ukraine, and, if we are folks who pray, send up one for all the people who are suffering.
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| Award-winning author Maryann Miller has numerous credits as a columnist, novelist, screenwriter, and playwright, and she also has an extensive background in editing. You can find out more about Maryann, her books, and her editing services on her Website and her Amazon Author Page read her Blog, and follow her on Facebook and Twitter. |
Sorry to be so slow in reading and responding, but now it's time to play catch-up. You ask a challenging question, Maryann. After the initial shock at the horror of what is going on, I usually tuck away something from whatever is happening to share some way in a story as a tribute to those who suffered, who endured, who lost their lives.
ReplyDeleteI'm guilty of missing this post, but I've been on a birthday week away. I'm back to reading older posts, and the one I'm posting goes along with yours. In fact, I'm answering your question.
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