I said I was gonna use this page more often and hopefully get some regular readers so here I am once again. When I first started out writing stories I thought the hardest part of that was going to be all the grammar rules I didn’t know at the time and the actual writing of said stories. Now that I’m a few stories in I can tell you that I was horribly mistaken. The hardest part, by far, is the marketing.

It doesn’t help that I don’t enjoy talking about myself or trying to nudge people to buy my books. Its not that I have some insecurity that I have about talking about myself, it just seems very fake and forced. I think my stories are awesome. I’ve read them dozens of times and not just to do edits or revisions. I just never liked the idea of tooting my own horn to make money. It just seems akin to a used car salesman (no offense meant to any actual car salesmen).

All that needs to change though. I was talking to my friend Melinda a few days back and gave me a piece of advice that I had actually given to other people (mostly theater folk) numerous times over the years but didn’t realize I should be taking it myself. She told me that I need to think of marketing as a role. Don’t be me, be that person that smiles and shakes hands and asks if they want a copy signed for a small extra fee. To basically put on a mask and be someone else when it comes to marketing. Of course she was absolutely right I just needed to hear it out loud.

Then today I got followed on Twitter by the president of the SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) a group that I have been a part of for a few years now. The problem is that even though I’ve paid my dues every year I wouldn’t say I’ve been an active member. They provide a lot of services and have tables at a lot of conventions that I could save money on going to if I coordinated through them. Its also a place filled with other writers that all market themselves as well so I’m sure they could be very helpful on ways to go about getting myself out there. So as soon as I finish this piece I’m going to mosey on over to their forum site and write an introduction post putting myself out there to try and interact a bit more.

I said last year that I was going to try and attend more conventions this year but that kind of fell to the wayside, so I think I’ll see if we can put that on the marketing agenda again for next year. I will hopefully be at the Arisia sci fi convention again in January and am looking into getting a table in authors alley. Normally, I just do my panels and that’s that so we’ll see if spending time in authors alley helps any.

That is the extent of my marketing schemes so far. I’m optimistic but it’s not something that’s going to garner overnight results. If anyone else has any suggestions please feel free to leave a comment.

Back to marketing,

Don