Marketing

The last few weeks I’ve been obsessed about e-pub vs. print and self publish vs. traditional houses. Over at Bark I blogged about how I learned that the term “self-published” is too filled with negativity, so the hip new term is “indie author.” I also wrote about how a writer friend emailed me Jim C. Hall’s very funny cartoon to get me to shut up about the whole thing. Well, I’m happy to report that I’m not longer obsessing. The Rose City Spring Intensive has renewed my enthusiasm for writing, given me new hope about getting published, and shown me—yet …

I’m at another conference this weekend. My second visit to the Emerald City Writers Conference (ECWC) is turning out to be even more fun than when I first visited it two years ago. Tomorrow I’m pitching to two editors and two agents and tonight I’ve fine tuned my pitch until the wee hours of the morning. Here’s my final version. Would you read this book? Twenty-six year old freelance forensic artist Molly Nyland doesn’t want anybody to know that the reason she draws such great composite sketches is because she can tell when what people say doesn’t match what they …

As if it’s not enough stress to carve out enough time in the day for writing, aspiring authors also have to research marketing opportunities and start to establish themselves in the webby-facebooky-myspacey-bloggosphere. I know what you’re thinking; shouldn’t you have a book published before you start working on your marketing plan? And yes, I should, but it isn’t just the books you’re marketing, it’s also yourself, your image, your presence, etc. Look at how many authors are on Facebook and/or have webpages and/or blogs. Why does Malcolm Gladwell publish a bunch of essay in the New Yorker right before one …